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Mac Beauchemin
By Mac Beauchemin
Mac Beauchemin
Mac Beauchemin
Mac Beauchemin is an expert on the weather-driven challenges facing the insurance industry. Currently, he is Director of Global Insurance for the sales team at Tomorrow.io, the world's weather intelligence platform.
Aug 20, 2020· 3 min, 4 sec

How Insurance Companies Save Millions with Proactive Weather Alerts

It’s an unfortunate truth that most people don’t always enjoy interacting with their insurance company.

Usually, customers only engage with insurance during the standard claims process when something has been damaged — whether a home or a vehicle.

That’s exactly where weather intelligence can improve and enhance the customer experience, all while saving insurance companies millions in claims. 

How exactly? 

With preventative weather alerts, insurance companies can help policyholders avoid potentially damaging weather events. And insurance companies can prevent a large number of claims by helping their customers stay safe during storms.

For insurance companies, the impact of proactive weather alerts can prevent millions in claims and become a massive differentiator in driving a delightful and positive customer experience.  

Why do insurance policyholders care about weather?  

Everyone cares about the weather, but insurance companies care about weather that causes damage to property specifically. And there are plenty of storms that can cause massive damage — from hurricanes to flooding to even a windy storm that blows a limb off a tree and onto a car. 

That’s where proactive alerts can be so powerful. Your company can use weather intelligence technology to set up preventative alerts to monitor the specific locations where your customers live. Then, if your policyholders live in the path of an incoming storm, you can send them alerts directly through an app or via email.

For example, if a storm is headed through a specific community, you can send alerts to policyholders to take action now. For example, you can send alerts for:

  • Hail — Tell every policyholder in that zip code to move their cars indoors — before they’re damaged by the hail.
  • High winds — Alert consumers to potentially damaging winds and allow them to secure property that is at risk.
  • Wildfires — Make sure customers are aware of the risks and can create a safe zone around properties.

There are a number of different applications for this type of weather alerts, but each of them can prevent serious property damage and keep consumers safe. 

Increasing customer satisfaction

These alerts are not only useful for keeping people and property safe from storms, consumers also love them. In fact, 90% of those surveyed found value in weather alerts from their insurance company.

Weather alerts can truly delight your customers by keeping them informed about risky weather before it occurs. And if you can increase customer satisfaction and retention by even just a few percentage points, that can lead to millions of dollars in value in the coming years. 

Even more interestingly, weather intelligence could surface potential risks for policyholders and inform opportunities for upselling. For example, if a policyholder lives in an area that is currently at high risk for wildfires, insurance agents could reach out and offer to increase coverage for those customers specifically.

One company already using weather intelligence for proactive weather alerts today is Intact Insurance:

intact insurance weather intelligence

Saving millions in weather-driven insurance claims

While safety and customer experience are important, it all comes down to the bottom line. How much money do proactive weather alerts actually save in insurance claims?

An insurance company found that drivers actually took action after receiving alerts to better protect themselves and their vehicles. And this saved the company an average of $3,000 per hail claim — adding up to millions of dollars each year.

This is a massive reduction in claims simply by warning policyholders about upcoming weather events and encouraging them to take action. Consumers are happy because their vehicle wasn’t damaged, and insurance companies are thrilled because they save money on unnecessary claims. 

So what are you waiting for?

Get weather intelligence for your policyholders today.

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