The modern world moves fast. Consumers expect convenience and the ability to get what they need from the smartphone in their pocket. Businesses and their investors are always looking for efficient ways to meet consumers’ expectations of instant fulfillment.
In today’s insurance world, the apex of consumer convenience is straight-through processing. Now, consumers can input all essential information on an online form and submit everything needed for a quote online. Carriers then use a custom-built algorithm to evaluate the information and provide a quote in minutes, and in some cases—instantly!
Unfortunately, when the form has inaccurate information, there can be significant delays caused by something as simple as a mistyped address. Automated processes are interrupted, and the correct address must be manually sought. The more automated operations are suspended, the longer it takes for the customer’s requests to be fulfilled, and the longer it takes to start seeing ROI for your efforts.
Having an accurate address autocomplete option can help streamline your straight-through processing and minimize the need for manual intervention. Insurance companies that implement an address autocomplete utility can see improvements with better webform submission rates, improved accuracy on those submissions and a decrease in fraudulent claims.
Increasing Webform Submission Rates
Webform address fields are an often-overlooked friction point for users that may lead to incomplete or abandoned forms. The longer prospects take to fill out their address on a web form, the higher the chance they’ll give up. The mix of numbers and upper- and lowercase letters in an address slows the typing and increases the likelihood of mistakes, especially on a mobile device. Using an autocomplete utility can greatly reduce the number of characters a user has to manually enter by suggesting verified addresses as they type. The utility can even be set up to give top priority to address suggestions that are close to the user’s geographic location and can even limit result to a state, city or ZIP code. In just a few keystrokes, your prospects and customers can select their address.
See also: Using Payments to Improve the CX
Improving Accuracy
Allowing users to submit their address information without standardization leaves room for mistakes, entering bad data into your database and creating delays in producing quotes. As much as people think they are excellent typists, we all make mistakes. It’s easy to push the letter "V" instead of "B" or add an extra digit to a house number without realizing it.
Another challenge is when a potential customer inputs an address with a minor difference from the one in your system. While a person could tell that “210 jefferson center floor 2” is the same as “210 Jefferson Center, Floor 2,” an automated system may be unable to. Simple mistakes like incorrect street names or numbers can trigger a manual exception process and delay a policy’s creation. And once that data is part of your database, it takes manual intervention to correct or remove it.
Address autocompletion prevents these types of errors from being made.
Rooftop geocoding and address verification can help with accuracy for creating insurance quotes, as well. Address verification standardizes and validates the address, while rooftop geocoding pinpoints the exact location of the structure for accurate quote creation. Carriers can then use that data to determine how close the structure is to a fault line, coast line wildfire zone or tropical storm area. When combined with the right risk analytics tools, geocoding and address verification can help you create a robust straight-through processing system.
Avoiding Fraud
A 2021 survey from Finder.com found that 35.8 million American adults admitted to lying to their insurer. Nearly a third of those who admitted lying said they used an inaccurate address to obtain better rates. Address autocomplete can help prevent fraud because, instead of depending solely on user input, address autocomplete provides a precise, verified address for the insurer.
Conclusion
Adding an address autocomplete utility to your straight-through processing arsenal helps save time and decreases the chance of errors. Automation reduces the workload of insurers, both in the present and down the road. Straight-through processing with an address autocomplete utility makes the quote process convenient enough to please consumers, accurate and efficient enough to please insurers and fast enough to fit into the lifestyle we have all come to expect.
