Last year, ISO ClaimSearch members submitted 69,000,000 claims ― more than 264,000 claims a day. If you could use data from ISO ClaimSearch and other sources to cut first notice of loss (FNOL) processing by a mere 30 seconds, the U.S. property/casualty industry would save more than 36 work hours every day. That translates to 1,197 full-time employee production days per year.
And that’s just the immediate savings.
Pairing faster FNOL handling with optimized routing
New claims tools could cut claim lifecycles further, as the adjusters with the right skill sets would receive appropriate claims sooner ― and with fewer handoffs along the way. Ultimately, claims departments would be able to improve customer service significantly, both through speed and fairness (by sending claims to the adjusters with the right capabilities and experience). At the same time, efficient and effective FNOL claim handling and routing has the potential to reduce loss adjustment expense significantly.
While many insurers have developed innovative solutions to improve speed and accuracy at FNOL ― including a wide range of predictive analytics ― they have not been able to bring industrywide data to bear on those initiatives. The use of internal data does represent a significant step forward for the claims community, but much more opportunity remains. Blending together the data in ISO ClaimSearch with other third-party data sources can provide FNOL adjusters with a richer profile of each claimant. Instead of relying solely on the information provided by the reporting party ― such as the name, policy information, and circumstances of loss ― your customer’s first touchpoint with your organization can gain much more intelligence to maximize the interaction and set the tone for the claimant’s entire experience with your company.
Using industrywide data and analytics at FNOL will make it easier for adjusters to:
- identify claims for fast-tracking, drastically cutting cycle time and increasing customer satisfaction
- use indicators of suspicious activity to refine how claims are routed for further investigation ― or straight to the SIU
- see which claims could be more complex, thus requiring the expertise of a specialty adjuster
- integrate more data sets into existing FNOL triaging analytics
ISO is working on a number of initiatives to help you improve FNOL claims handling and routing. Our most recent, for the workers' compensation claims community, is wcNavigator®, which helps adjusters triage workers' compensation claims faster and more accurately. In particular, that predictive analytics platform helps determine which claims have the potential to become large and difficult to handle at first report of injury (FROI), making it easier for insurers to route them to more experienced adjusters or those with the specific experience needed to manage the process appropriately.
Improved FNOL processes affect every claim that passes through your company, and thus provides a powerful opportunity to manage severity, expense, and service ― the three primary metrics by which claims departments are evaluated. It all starts with saving those first 30 seconds, and the benefits continue to accumulate from there.