Satisfying client expectations during the claim handling or case handling process is the key to building PZU’s client relationships. Therefore, processes in this area are subject to continual improvement, in order to shorten the time of claim disbursement and develop positive customer experience.
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Relationship Manager
In these times of process automation and digitalization, the customer expects the approach to be even more personalized. In PZU, a Relationship Manager maintains contact with the injured party for the duration of the claims/benefits handling process.
While handling the claim, the Relationship Manager keeps the customer informed about the progress of the case. Depending on the needs, the Relationship Manager may also provide support to the client, act as their advisor who offers specific solutions in a difficult situation. The Relationship Manager can also efficiently organize and manage all the PZU services offered in claims handling. The Relationship Manager’s task is to walk the customer through the entire process in the easiest manner possible, including by determining their preferences regarding, for instance, channels of communication or the claims handling method.
Relationship Managers acquire competences in the area of various product lines, making them versatile, which allows them to manage many diverse claims handling procedures. This ensures that different cases of the same customer may be handled by the same Relationship Manager, even though the cases may concern different lines of business (separate competences) or even different companies. The new claims handling model based on support from the manager allows the injured party to avoid many formalities related to claims handling. The Relationship Manager’s role is to prepare the best solutions for clients and provide advisory services to select the most optimal choice involving, among others, the method of calculating a claim or the selection of a garage.
Handling serious personal claims
Insurance is more than paying out claims. Insurers should ensure support and give a feeling of safety, stay with the client in difficult situations. That is why the PZU Group is with its clients when they need support the most and helps them return to a functional life. In 2022, PZU launched a series of initiatives in claims handling concerning persons seriously injured in accidents. Following the identification of substantial damage or damage from which the person injured may recover through physical rehabilitation, claims are handled with emphasis put on the cooperation with the client.
Solutions suggested are adapted to the specific situation in which the injured person finds themselves, such as physical rehabilitation schemes, assistance in the choice and purchase of prosthetics, assistance in the choice of treatment and place of treatment, or mental support. These types of claims are handled by Relationship Managers with high substantive and interpersonal competences. Claims are handled in a way to minimize the injured person’s engagement, as well as to satisfy their claims as fully as possible at the stage of claims handling.
Handling such a claim does not come to an end with the payment. It is possible to support the injured persons further, e.g., through efforts oriented towards professional activation and labor market re-entry
Best practices of PZU and PZU Życie
Prioritization in claims handling
If an injured party is unable to occupy their residence due to a fire or gas explosion, they require immediate assistance, which is why we have launched a claims handling process for claims requiring priority handling. These are claims arising from events which due to their scale require fast-tracked assistance and comprehensive service as soon after the incident as possible.
The process implemented is based on close cooperation between the claims handling teams, from the consultant accepting the report to potential medical consultant. The Relationship Manager stays in contact with the injured person, informing them about the respective claims handling stages, including the date for the inspection of damaged property and documentation required for such assistance as, e.g., temporary hotel accommodation or psychologist appointment. This model has a positive impact on the relationship with the client who may count on our support and assistance at every claims handling stage, in what is a difficult time for them.
Before-You-Call Service
The PZU Group is deeply convinced that insurers should instill a sense of security and conviction that someone will always be there for the customer should trouble arise. Accordingly, the PZU Group wishes to be there for its clients when they need support the most, often even before they formally report their claim. The Before-You-Call Service is a solution within the framework of which the insurer initiates contact with the customer and offers them actual assistance before the formal notification of the claim, putting both the client and their needs first. The Before-You-Call Service is intended for clients who have experienced an unpleasant random event in which their property was damaged.
After the occurrence of an insured event, such as a fire, gas explosion or tornado, an attempt is made to identify the client based on information obtained from publicly available sources, including the Internet or radio. In cases where the injured person is positively identified as a PZU customer, contact with the client is established to provide actual assistance in the unfortunate situation (for instance, if the policy cover provides for a substitute apartment, it will be offered to the client during the first contact). Registration of the claim may be performed on a different day, at a time convenient for the client.
| Before-You-Call Service | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|
| Events registered | 77 | 30 |
| Events in which PZU clients were injured | 8 | 9 |
| Injured PZU clients | 137 | 269 |
| Persons who managed to made contact with | 137 | 262 |
| Registered assistance cases | 135 | 262 |
The PZU’s procedure describes many mechanisms applied to catastrophic claims. These processes are predominantly focused on how to:
- effectively reach the customer, provide assistance and comprehensive services in the shortest possible time following the occurrence of the damage;
- shorten the claims handling time;
- adjust the claims handling process to client expectations;
- improve the quality of service and customer satisfaction..
The following steps are most frequently taken within the framework of this procedure:
- launch of a mobile office and four mobile mini offices;
- simplification of the processes of claims reporting and handling;
- re-allocation of resources to areas affected by the disaster and to substantive claims handling processes;
- provision of urgent need items to the affected victims, such as tarpaulins, cleaning products, foils, foodstuffs and potable water.
Catastrophic events which occurred in 2022 caused damage of a significant scale. Catastrophic events are seasonal, mostly in summer, but the year 2022 saw catastrophic losses already in January and February (due to a winter storm). In these two months, we received almost 49,000 reports of property and agricultural claims (including vehicle claims). From June to September, approximately 47,000 claims were filed, out of which 16,000 involved damage to agricultural crops.
The efforts and improvements undertaken allowed for these claims to be handled expeditiously. The applied simplifications enabled determination of the number of claims to be paid without the need to draft a detailed cost estimate. The implementation of robots allowed to automatically disburse the advance payment or the claim itself already on the first business day following the date of reporting the claim. A team of experts was appointed, which followed weather reports and media publications on potential hazards.
Claims handling for corporate clients
The comprehensive model of corporate customers’ claims handling, implemented in PZU, is intended for PZU’s largest clients, VIP clients, basing on the amount of written premium in the field of communication damages.
Main reason of the implemented model is to guarantee the damage handling service at the highest level by implementing solutions which was not offered on the motor claims handling market before.
The main pillar of the model is broad cooperation among sales, claims handling and underwriting teams, in order to provide the best quality services for key account clients
In this model, claims handling is based on an in-depth client analysis in terms of the size and structure of their fleet, the loss ratio, and advisory services as regards fleetwide solutions designed to improve the client’s loss ratio. Every client is serviced by their appointed claims handling relationship managers. Managers hold meetings with client representatives. The necessary formalities in contact and communications are determined, and upon prior analysis, PZU suggests solutions to lower the claims ratio of the client.
The above described solutions are founded on a broadly conceived business relationship and shared understanding with the client as regards implementation of solutions that can minimize the client’s loss ratio as well as costs.Proactive claims handling
Proactive claims handling
Proactive claims handling provides quick assistance to a patient who has been the victim of a medical error. Among other things, it involves supporting a specialist or arranging rehabilitation to reverse or minimize the effects of the medical error. It allows quick payment of benefits, without litigation, which is complicated and lengthy in the case of medical events. The benefit for the insured medical facility is to receive full insurance coverage, expert support and objective analysis of possible patient claims.
Modern technologies in claims handling
PZU as a leader of digital transformation constantly works on innovations increasing customer service quality. AI in claims handling is a solution utilizing artificial intelligence, analyzing damage photographs and cost estimates from the car repair shops. PZU handles over 500 thousand motor claims per year. Bulk of them are handled by repair shops. Most claims comprise mass photographic and technical documentation. A lot of it requires additional in-depth analysis. These activities require trained and highly qualified experts. The implemented artificial intelligence solution has improved their daily work. The artificial intelligence algorithms implemented by PZU are able to analyze the photographs documenting a motor loss. They are also able to name a specific part of a vehicle, assess the extent of the damage and classify a part for repair or replacement. Before using artificial intelligence algorithms most cases handled by repair shops had to be analyzed manually.
Thanks to implementation of this solution experts receive for analysis only selected cases while the remaining ones, which do not raise any doubts, are approved automatically or semiautomatically. The implementation translates into significant financial savings and improvement of client satisfaction.
In 2022, Ailik3 was incorporated into motor claims handling. With this tool, the Relationship Manager can calculate the cost of repair without specialist knowledge in this regard. Even with respect to a simple motor loss, after it is reported, the client may receive a link to a web-app through which they may easily send all the photographs required for fast claims calculation. Artificial intelligence assesses the photograph, locates all visible components and assigns the degree to which they are damaged. After analysis, the system decides whether the component damaged should be repaired, replaced, or merely painted. The AI algorithms used are able to identify and analyze in detail close to 80 vehicle components. The cost estimate for repair works is provided to the relationship manager who may edit and modify it, so that the valuation may be subsequently presented to the client.
The year 2022 also saw the end to tests of AI algorithms in handling claims concerning crops due to the risk of hurricane or torrential rain. These algorithms conduct precise analyses of satellite images of crops in order to determine the area radically damaged. This way, they shorten the time needed to handle agricultural claims, and allow the scale of damage to be precisely and objectively determined.
Robots
Robotics is a tool that allows full automation of tedious and repetitive tasks that do not require any sophisticated specialist knowledge or experience.
Robots enable replacement of cross-system integration and process large volumes of data in a very short time. The use of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technology improves data quality, streamlines process efficiency control and provides an additional reporting conduit. The application of robotics makes it possible to carry out processes that until recently could not be executed by employees due to their high labor intensity or the need to perform complex operations in a short time. The deployment of a robotic process takes less time than implementing a systemic change, and the solution itself generates lower costs than would be required if additional employees were to be hired.
| Implementations in robotics | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|
| Business processes | 18 | 29 |
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12 | 19 |
| Comment: in 2022, robots were also used to search through entities from the list of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration, which allowed identification of entities sanctioned due to the war in Ukraine. | ||
Example applications of robots
This robot handles claims where the client is within PZU’s repair network at the stage of reporting. Within this process, the robot handles the claim from the very start, notifies the repair shop to present documents, sends a letter to the client, and most of all pays out an advance on amounts claimed, and later an additional payment once the invoice is sent. The robotization of the process allowed its significant acceleration – after the cost estimate or invoice is accepted, the robot becomes involved and immediately prepares and approves the decision. The robot’s work accounts for the life cycle of claims and situations in which they should arise in the process as a standard. Thanks to looping, the robot may return to a claim despite a business exception and consider it again in the queue.
Claims handling automation. Claims are handled substantively at another insurance company. PZU receives information about claims reported. It subsequently confirms the guarantee or insurance. After the decision is issued, PZU receives the decision to be uploaded into the system. Within the robotized process, manual steps performed by the Claims Handling Manager have been transferred onto the robot.
In 2022, PZU was the first insurer in Poland to offer its clients innovative tools based on artificial intelligence (AI) to handle motor claims. The AI assistant prepares the initial repair cost estimate based on photos uploaded by the client via the app, which greatly enhances the claim estimation process. Another innovative solution, it is based on advanced artificial intelligence algorithms used by PZU in claims handling.
With respect to selected motor losses, the client may receive a link to a web-app through which they may easily send all the photographs required for fast claims calculation. Artificial intelligence assesses the photograph, locates all visible components and assigns the degree to which they are damaged. After analysis, the system decides whether the component damaged should be repaired, replaced, or painted. The AI algorithms used are able to identify and analyze in detail close the external damage to the bodywork. The solutions provide support mostly for PZU employees. The cost estimate for repair works is provided to the relationship manager who may edit and modify it, and finally accept it individually, so that the valuation may be subsequently presented to the client. The client’s benefit is that their claim may be considered immediately, even in several minutes.
The AiHome system expedites valuation and their preparation. The solution was developed in cooperation with a Swedish start-up. Ai-Home is an application which uses cutting-edge technology to support PZU employees in valuing household movable property, including in particular brown goods and white goods. The solution not only expedites the process of valuing the damaged household property, but also ensures that this process is uniform thanks to day-by-day price updates from leading vendors and provision of the same data to all Relationship Managers. Furthermore, the application searches for and suggests replacement equipment if certain models are not produced, thanks to which the clients are able to get a valuation of equipment not sold. The solution allows non-cash claims handling by organizing replacement equipment. Apart from valuation process optimization, PZU’s solution carries with it several other benefits. Thanks to the platform, PZU employees have all products available in Poland in one place, the simple search engine. Apart from this, the application shows the client where they may buy new models of products which became damaged or replacement products, and delivers a clear and automatically generated valuation report with all the key details for both the client and the insurer.