Earlier this summer the Symbility team attended one of the largest expos in the restoration industry – the 2017 Contractor Connection Conference & Expo in St. Louis, Missouri. This annual industry-favorite event brings together Contractor Connection network members, insurance carrier clients, approved product and service providers, and special guests. Educational, training, and networking opportunities are just some of the many benefits of attending this conference.
The theme for this year’s conference was “Get Connected,” making reference to the general industry focus “of getting better connected through technology and innovation”. Technological advancements continue to impact the insurance and restoration industries in ways which were unimaginable even two to three years ago.
The event also included a large host of informative general sessions, engaging workshops, and a variety of breakout sessions led by insurance carrier personnel and industry experts. The numerous speakers provided some great insights from the technology, insurance, and contractor sides of the industry.
One example of a great session at this year’s event was on how technology is impacting the insurance and restoration industries is through the use of drones. A panel of experts that included Gary Sullivan, Jim Loveland, Kenneth Knoll, and Ben Looper, discussed in great detail how many insurance companies are exploring ways to use drones to gather property data, make property estimating more efficient, and automate damage assessment. Not to mention, drones add the safety benefit of not needing property estimators to climb roofs anymore. They also made mention that drone companies are constantly innovating new and better ways to capture property data which can be used in estimating software, such as Symbility’s Mobile Claims. It’s incredible that just a few years ago, drones weren’t even part of the conversation.
Improving the customer experience is another way we’ve seen the insurance industry leverage new technology. Using technology to engage the consumer throughout the entire claims process has become a key and important element to the customer experience in the insurance industry. This includes how they submit claims, track the status of their claims in real-time, communicating with those associated in the claim process, and being able to view all the documents associated with their claim. The use of mobile apps, such as Symbility’s LINK, which is integrated with the insurance carriers’ systems, allow for a new seamless and efficient flow of information to the insured, making them feel like they were an active participant and not left in the dark about their claim.
Customer self-service technology provides avenues for carriers and contractors to enhance the speed of service, increase transparency, and operate more efficiently. The result is elevated performance and increased levels of customer satisfaction. With Symbility being a technology company focused on the insurance industry, this year’s conference really fell into our comfort zone.
We were also fortunate enough to have some great discussions with the attendees who stopped by our booth. Their interest in technology and training opportunities with Symbility products showed that contractors really see the value in how we can help them better position themselves for additional job opportunities within the insurance network.
And of course, we took in some famous St. Louis BBQ. It was as good as advertised, and the cravings for more have already started.
Thank you, Contractor Connection! Looking forward to Indianapolis in 2018.