It was about 7 p.m. on a picture perfect evening as I was driving to meet some friends for dinner. The sun was shining in the sky and there was not a cloud in sight. Electric Light Orchestra could very well have been singing about a day like this. Approaching an intersection I glanced up at the traffic light which happened to be situated right in front of the aforementioned sun. Despite wearing sunglasses it was still blindingly bright. By the time my eyes adjusted back to reality the car in front of me had come to a stop, I had not.
Following proper protocol, we pulled into a parking lot to assess the damages and exchange insurance information. A bit rattled I frantically dug through my glove box to find my insurance card. Luckily, no one was injured but somehow I knew I’d be late for dinner.
In theory, I could have had an insurance app on my phone with all my information already set up but since the average consumer installs zero apps a month, I’m guessing I’m not alone in being unprepared. Just out of curiosity I took a look at the app store for my provider’s app. Based on the reviews it may not have helped much anyway. Many users report frequent crashes (of the app – just to be clear) and mixed results when filing claims from their mobile devices. Clearly, an all-in-one insurance app was not the answer either.
Imagine if you will, the same exact scenario but instead, after pulling into the parking lot, I simply texted the word “claim” to my insurance provider. Through automation and integration with their CRM, I received a personalized claim form with all my account information pre-filled and for an added bonus it pulled the time and location of the accident from my phone. Next, with the click of a button, I took few pictures of the damage for the incident report. Finally, a text field where I typed a few notes about what happened, then clicked submit. If there were any further questions, an agent could’ve joined in the same messaging channel where I could have responded at my convenience.
Not to toot our own horn here but if my insurance provider utilized the Chatbox messaging platform, specifically Instant Apps, all that time in the parking lot (plus the additional time to log event details in the days to come) could have taken just a few minutes. Unfortunately, they did not and as a result I was beyond fashionably late for dinner.