The insurance industry plays a vital role in safeguarding individuals and businesses from financial risks, and data collection is a critical aspect of this process. Homeowners and auto insurance are two of the most common personal lines of insurance purchased, and insurance coverage details collection is essential to a variety of industries ranging from insurance to lending to on-demand and even hospitality. Lenders, for example, rely on insurance data to verify coverage as part of the loan underwriting process. However, the current methods of collecting insurance data have notoriously been manual and time-consuming, leading to inefficiencies and frustration for both the consumer and the business requesting the data.
Fortunately, there are now technologies and innovative solutions, including consumer-permissioned data, that can streamline the insurance data collection and verification processes, reducing inefficiencies and improving the customer experience.
Who collects insurance data and for what purposes?
Insurance data is collected daily by companies to assess risks, determine pricing, and make underwriting decisions. This information includes consumer details such as name, age, and address, as well as information about the insured property or vehicle, such as its value, location, and condition. Specifically for home and auto insurance, various industries rely on proper collection of this insurance data. Those industries include:
- Insurance companies: Insurers collect consumer data on the claims history of an individual or a property, including previous accidents or damage. By collecting and analyzing this data, they can evaluate the level of risk associated with each policy, determine the appropriate premium, and personalize services for their customers.
- Auto and mortgage lenders: Lenders require insurance data to verify insurance coverage in order to approve and underwrite a loan application. This information is used to determine whether the applicant can obtain financing and to set the terms of the loan.
- On-demand companies that hire gig-workers: Any company that relies on delivery or ride-share drivers need to collect and verify auto insurance coverage to ensure that their contractors are properly insured and that the company is protected in the event of an accident. This information is essential to manage their risk and safeguard their assets.
Traditional insurance data collection methods
Despite advancements in technology, the insurance industry continues to rely on antiquated processes for collecting insurance data. Traditionally, insurance data collection involved paper-based forms, phone calls, and in-person meetings between the customer, their insurance company, and the requesting party (e.g. their employer or their lender).
Limitations and drawbacks of these methods
These methods can be time-consuming, error-prone, and costly, leading to inefficiencies and frustrations for both the customer and the requesting business. Paper-based forms require customers to fill out lengthy applications manually, which can lead to mistakes and omissions. Phone calls and in-person meetings can be time-consuming and inconvenient, especially for customers with busy schedules. Additionally, these methods can be expensive for insurance companies, as they require a significant amount of resources to manage and process. Despite these limitations, many insurance companies continue to rely on these traditional methods for collecting insurance data. However, with the rise of digital technology and automated data collection solutions, insurers can now streamline their processes and improve the customer experience.
Why insurance data collection hasn’t modernized
Finding consumer insurance data online can be challenging due to limitations in available data sources. Unlike data in other industries, such as retail or banking, insurance data is not publicly available or may be restricted by privacy laws. And even when consumer insurance data is available online, it can be scattered across multiple platforms and difficult to access. Insurance companies may need to search through various databases or websites to find the information they need, leading to inefficiencies and delays. Overall, the limitations of finding consumer insurance data online and the reliance on manual methods for data collection have contributed to the difficulty of collecting insurance data.
Additionally, the insurance industry as a whole hasn’t gravitated toward using technology to improve these efforts either. While the financial industry as a whole has embraced the use of technology and automating their processes via API, that advancement has been relatively ignored by the insurance industry. However, with the advent of digital technology, automated data collection solutions, and software as a service (SaaS) companies as an alternative to internally built technology, the insurance industry is beginning to find new and more efficient ways to collect and manage insurance data.
Modern insurance data collection methods
To modernize insurance data collection, the insurance industry is increasingly embracing advancements in technology and automated solutions, particularly API-driven solutions that leverage consumer-permissioned data. By using APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), insurance companies can connect with various data sources in real-time and securely access the information they need to underwrite policies and assess risk. This technology enables the insurance industry to collect and manage vast amounts of data efficiently, accurately, and at a lower cost compared to traditional methods.
Consumer-permissioned data is also playing an essential role in modernizing insurance data collection. With consumer-permissioned data, customers can grant permission to lenders, insurers, and other companies to access their data, such as policy number, coverage start and end dates, and more, to verify insurance and make underwriting decisions. This type of data allows insurers to assess risk more accurately and tailor policies to individual needs. By leveraging consumer-permissioned data, insurance companies can provide a more personalized customer experience and improve customer satisfaction.
The benefits of embracing data collection automation
The benefits of modernizing insurance data collection through API-driven technology and consumer-permissioned data are numerous:
Automation leading to faster decision-making: Immediate, up-to-date secure customer data using an integrated workflow including insurance, and reduced manual load and human error during insurance verification process
Better coverage and advanced scalability: direct-from-consumer or consumer-permissioned data allows companies to easily insurance data directly from their customers’ accounts, without relying on manual downloads, back-and-forth phone calls or emails, or third parties.
Transparency and consumer trust: Trust and data is more important than ever in today’s hyper-online world. When you request insurance data directly from the consumer, you open the door to customer confidence, retention, and referrals.
Fresh data every time: By gathering insurance data directly from the source account, e.g. straight from a customer’s online insurance account, you are getting the most reliable and accurate data available so you can make decisions with confidence.
How to implement new strategies for insurance data collection
Incorporating these new tech-first strategies for insurance data collection can be a game-changer for the companies that collect it. To ensure success, it is crucial to make the data collection process user-friendly and exceptionally efficient for your business’s use-case. Luckily, using consumer-permissioned data with MeasureOne makes insurance data collection accessible for every businesses with different levels of integration and access:
- Hosted portal: With no development involved, MeasureOne provides hosted web experiences to access and share consumer-permissioned data
- API: Integrate the consumer experience natively into your application. Results will automatically populate your platform
- Third-party platform: MeasureOne integrates with third party platforms allowing for easier integration and deployment using your existing operational workflow
Using MeasureOne to collect and use consumer insurance data
MeasureOne’s consumer-permissioned data platform presents instant insurance data collection in limited steps from within any digital channel for automation leading to faster decision-making for your business’s needs.
When you partner with MeasureOne, you also gain:
- Marketing-leading coverage/conversion: 95% coverage of insurance carriers. Plus leading coverage in other industries.
- Lowest costs in the space: MeasureOne’s platform gathers data by API rather than manpower to verify documentation and connect to third parties and comes at a lower cost than leading competitors.
- Better technology and scalability: Technical ability to deliver a one-stop-shop for consumer data for your current and future needs including VOIE, insurance verification, and more.
MeasureOne brings secure, transparent data to the table for the benefit of lenders and their consumers. Are you ready to step into the digital age?