Zurich UK has commenced a six week chatbot pilot for first notification of non-emergency Home and Motor claims.
Named ‘Zara’ it is a sophisticated chatbot programme that allows customers to notify Zurich of a claim efficiently, intuitively and in as prompt a way as possible.
Due to the recent nationwide snowfall and subsequent high levels of melt water, Zurich experienced higher call volumes than usual and ‘Zara’ was on hand to facilitate convenient and immediate logging of first notification.
Through ‘Zara’ the information is gathered at any hour, seven days a week is then passed to a human claims handler who can then respond to the customer and process the claim within three working hours – an improvement on the targeted 24 hours.
‘Zara’ was developed using themes of behavioural economics with external partners Spixii, an insurtech startup that came out of Zurich-sponsored StartupBootCamp.
Zurich Insurance chief claims officer David Nichols said: "In a digital age, many of our customers expect to be able to interact with their insurer online and this pilot has allowed us to gauge interest in this type of innovative and exciting technology.
"The recent launch of Zurich's UK Innovation Foundry also demonstrates that we’re truly dedicated to exploring new technologies for our customers and will seek out the innovative start-ups that will ultimately benefit them.
"The move to use robotics shouldn’t necessarily be viewed as a hindrance. New and innovative technologies will help customers, but also empower us to redeploy people so they can develop new skill sets beyond traditional career paths."
Spixii CEO Renaud Million said: "Completing this integration in such a short period of time was only made possible by the collaboration between Zurich and Spixii, and their clear investment in delivering value to their customers. It is with great pleasure that we have completed this step with Zurich."