Assurant links business, marketing and tech to enhance insurance

Digital Insurance spoke with Keith Meier, chief operating officer of Assurant, an insurer that specializes in covering technological devices. Assurant may be the most widely used but least well known, for its size and scope, consumer insurance company. It covers electronic devices under the banners of manufacturers and retailers when they provide insurance for devices as they are sold, or sell additional coverage at the point of sale. All told, Assurant serves about 300 million device protection customers.

What’s your vision for technology at Assurant?

I've talked with clients all over the world and it really comes down to a few key things: digital solutions, delivering a great customer experience and bringing the best talent to bear. That's what inspired me to take on this role. As a company, our vision is to be the leading global business services company, supporting the advancement of the connected world. Insurtech concepts are ingrained at Assurant throughout. I've always thought of us as more of a technology marketing and services company that has the capability to do insurance. In many respects, you could think of Assurant as one of the original insurtechs.

Assurant may be best known for insurance, rather than the other fields it has entered. How has it pivoted to marketing and technology?

We've always worked with the leading brands in the various industries that we serve. We have aligned our company around the mobile industry, the housing industry and the automotive industry. We’re fortunate to be in the mobile space because that market requires you to think about the latest technology, innovation and connectivity. That’s created a great advantage for us in the other industries like auto and housing that don't move at the rapid pace that the mobile industry does.

Clients know Assurant brings the best technology to deliver better services and experiences. Part of our role is protecting the brands of our partners. During all the 24 years I've been at Assurant, technology marketing and services, more so than just the insurance, is how I've always thought about us.

How long has Assurant provided coverage for mobile devices and smartphones?

It's probably been for close to 20 years. Obviously the industry and the technology and everything changes, and we've also been doing it for electronics retailers for even longer. Our DNA at Assurant has been adapting to new technology that consumers purchase. We understand that technology, understand all the risks involved and are able to service and support consumers on any of those technology purchases that they've made. You can imagine with the hundreds of devices or probably thousands of devices that are out there, we know how to service virtually all of it. That's how our premium technical support was born. Your device may not be broken, but we want to make sure you're getting the support. If you're not sure how to utilize a functionality, we have our experts that can maximize the use of that device and maximize the value of that device when you trade it in. We've got all the analytics to know how we can create the greatest value for you on your trade-in.

The retailer or manufacturer typically does the minimum and that's just not the same expertise. You may think they’re providing these services, but many times it's us behind the scenes. That's why a lot of people don't know Assurant, but many are an Assurant client or customer at some level because we stand behind many of the largest retailers, mobile clients, auto manufacturers and dealerships. We're the name behind the big names that you think of.

We launched Vision Tunnel about two years ago. It enables us to process millions of mobile phone devices each year in our repair and refurbishment facilities, where we assess and grade each of the devices based on the physical condition. It's all automated. It grades the devices quickly and identifies the specific device models. This reduces the processing time and increases the accuracy of that inspection. That may not be something you traditionally might think of for a company that does insurance. But in the ecosystem of mobile, auto or home, those are all tied into how we keep consumers connected.

What is most notable about the technology you offer for mobile?

We have the leading mobile diagnostics software that can be used for validating the condition of a device, whether it's for protecting a device or trading in a device. We also have embedded technical support. There are a lot of situations where a customer may have an issue, but they don't need someone coming out for support. They can very easily one-tap click to get to a support agent. They can also turn on video for real-time support. It’s really evolved.

We have 31 million customers on Personal Tech Pro, our mobile technical support service, across seven countries. The feedback's been really strong. I think we have a 4.8 average star rating and I think a 98% resolution rate for customer issues. It's become a really important part of our mobile business.

What do you think is the most important area of technology to be explored for innovation?

It’s how you bring together all the digital capabilities and technologies out there to deliver an innovative and better experience for a consumer. 5G is one of the biggest opportunities. The goal is a seamless, frictionless experience for a consumer or a personalized experience that feels unique.

In our mobile business, we look at dynamic fulfillment that enables us to send a customer a device replacement. We can route them to a store for repair or have someone come to them and fix it. Dynamic fulfillment uses a lot of data analytics and machine learning. Data runs in the background and is a big part of the technology that allows us to deliver the services.

With Assurant’s HOIVerify product, how did homeowner insurance verification become a potent area to apply technology?

That's in our lender-placed housing business, where we track insurance coverage for many of the mobile mortgage servicers across the country. HOIVerify is really a great example of a digital solution. It allows for real-time status updates between us and our partners. It first confirms whether a customer has active insurance and then it enables the insurance details to be verified in seconds. It not only speeds up and brings ease to the process for insurance agents, policyholders, Assurant customers or clients, but it eliminates a ton of paper that could otherwise be required as well. That’s critical for Assurant and our clients in achieving sustainability goals as well. With HOIVerify, what's really cool about it is we may never have to actually bother the customer to verify their homeowner's insurance because we can do it directly through their insurer.

It's really the ultimate frictionless experience because you don't have to do anything. The customer doesn't even know that this electronic process is taking place and they don't have to lift a finger to do anything.

To verify, instead of contacting an insurance company to validate that a customer has coverage, we can do it through APIs. A financial institution needs to make sure its mortgage is covered. Instead of going through long administrative processes, we have unique administrative services that we can bring digital solutions to. It’s a seamless process that we created.

How has Assurant used digitization of self-service for claims to offer more efficient and effective services?

With one of our mobile clients we've seen a 28% increase in utilization of self-serve functionality since January 2021. And at the same time, it resulted in an 11% increase in net promoter scores. No matter what the insurance product is, the more a customer can digitally self-serve for their claims, that's preferred. It enables an even more cost-effective product.

Another example is links from our IVR [interactive voice response] call center that stream you to a web routing capability to go straight to filing an online claim. If you're calling in, instead of waiting on hold, it can ask if you want a link to go to the website. It can then send a link to your phone and you can go to self-service.

We used machine learning and intelligent process automation to accelerate the claims adjudication. The average overall time to approve a claim is now about 35% faster than it was just a couple years ago. That drives higher customer satisfaction.