Today, few insurance companies offer mobile applications for their customers. Here is a lowdown on the benefits of these applications:

Buy/Renew policies: We are already familiar with mobile banking facilities provided by banks. Insurance companies too have adapted to the new scheme of things and now allow policyholders to buy and renew policies using mobile phones. A customer wanting to purchase a motor policy for example can obtain quotes instantaneously through mobile application for buying or renewing policies. With payment options spanning credit cards, debit cards and IVR acceptance, a customer can conduct a secure transaction using the preferred mode of payments.

Confluence of policies on one window : Say you have a motor insurance and a home insurance with the same insurer. In such cases, not only does the mobile application service your motor insurance needs, it also provides a confluence of various other policies bought by you from the same insurance company. The mobile application for example, lets customers store details of other policies such as Health Insurance card which can be displayed to the hospital during a cashless entry.

Click to file a claim : Continuing with the motor insurance example, the mobile app here allows a customer to click a picture of the damaged part of the vehicle and share the same with the insurer to lodge a claim. By using this feature, a customer can save precious time in claim intimation compared to the traditional approach wherein he/ she would be required to visit the nearest garage, station the car overnight for the insurance surveyor to visit and inspect the vehicle. Sharing pictures on a real-time basis ensures quick customer service as well as enables faster initiation of the claim process.

Record and share the reason : Apart from clicking pictures of the damaged portion of the vehicle, insurers also allow customers to record their voice. The customer can then share his/ her version of the cause of the damage to the vehicle using the sound record feature available within the app.

Locate the nearest garage : Global Positioning System, a technology innovation has already been made popular by GPS devices installed in vehicles to assist the driver to locate a desired location. Using this technology, customers can now view the nearest garage network of the insurance company which allows them to contact the garage authorities for assistance in dealing with emergency car breakdown. This allows customers to make use of GPS features to locate a nearby garage.

Medical aid at the touch of a finger : Similar to using GPS technology to locate garages, insurance companies now allow customers to locate the address of the closest hospital directly from a mobile app in case of emergency situations. This feature is useful to find the nearest hospital not only in times of road accidents but also during other instances of health emergency.

( The writer is Head, Customer Service – Motor, ICICI Lombard. )

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