Strong winds, baseball-sized hail and torrents of rain sweeping across portions of the United States cause damage to thousands of roofs every year. Roofing claims due to weather damage account for a large percentage of property and casualty claims.
In addition to the dollars associated with the damage, the cost of processing and closing the large volume of roofing claims can be phenomenal. Property and casualty companies are turning to new technologies to help improve their efficiency, reduce costs and increase their ROI when processing roof damage claims.
An influential new technology in this area that provides important third-party validation for roof measurements is EagleView® headquartered in Bothell, Washington. EagleView delivers aerial 3D roof measurement reports that provide overall square footage, lineal footage and pitch. The reports are the most accurate measurements in the industry due to their ability to create 3D images and then extract the important measurements from the 3D diagram. The patented software and process has been tested by major insurance carriers for accuracy thousands of times with great success.
While accuracy is critical, it is important to understand how these reports can help an insurance company increase their productivity. One major insurance carrier has begun using EagleView reports on all of their roofing claims and has increased their daily claims capacity by 33%. The carrier’s assistant vice president of claims explained, “We typically handled four claims per day and since incorporating the EagleView report, we have increased the number to six per day.“
How can a report increase productivity by 33%? “We’ve saved at least two hours per claim by eliminating the need to measure and because EagleView’s reports integrate into Xactware® we no longer spend time using Sketch.”
Many insurance companies using EagleView reports have discovered time savings because multiple site visits are not necessary and the need to measure no longer exists. The reports can be imported directly into many existing workflows, eliminating the need to spend time using a sketch tool.
Other carriers have found that having the EagleView report has virtually eliminated the need for supplementals caused by incorrect measurements. When a roofing contractor sees that the insurance carrier has an EagleView, they accept it without disagreement.
EagleView diagrams
The assistant vice president of claims for the major insurance carrier that has seen the 33% increase in productivity has used 500 EagleView reports to date and has said this is saving them hundreds of dollars per claim. “The accuracy alone eliminates any chance of overpayment. We know that in addition to time savings, we are saving money. Before we used EagleView I would say half of our claims were turning into supplementals. Not any longer.”
While ROI and efficiency are important considerations when deciding to use EagleView’s reports, one must not forget about the safety benefits. Adjusters no longer have to carry ladders and climb on roofs to obtain measurements. This can substantially increase safety and decrease risk of injury. Besides being the proven accurate, industry-standard, third-party measurement report, EagleView is proving to be a leader in providing visible, measurable results in increasing productivity for insurance carriers.
