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Between apps, emails, and fitness bracelets, many aspects of our lives have gone digital. So it only makes sense that insurance evolves to a digital-first approach – not just in billing and claims but also in its mission and purpose.
That’s why we welcomed Mark Coons, CEO of Savvi Insurance Group to the vipHome Podcast. Mark has been in the insurance industry for 30 years and is taking a future-ready approach to homeowners insurance. Savvi focuses on “predicting and preventing” losses from happening in the first place rather than just “reacting and replacing” after the loss – with the help of today’s smart home technology.
Find out how your insurance experience will evolve in the near future with new smart home insurance!
There’s a new focus in town…insurance prevention
Most insurance carriers and agencies embrace a reactionary business model. A homeowner has property damage. They submit a claim. The insurance company verifies the claim and then pays for repairs.
However, this traditional approach often promises to replace the irreplaceable.
Explains Mark, “No matter how good your insurance is, no matter how much money you get for replacing things, it can never replace damage to photo albums, to pictures, to all the things in your home that people love. No insurance can put that together again.”
Instead, Savvi Insurance looks to modernize the insurance industry by preventing that loss in the first place. It leverages smart home technology to give homeowners insight into their home and its functionality.
“If we look at the landscape today, ‘smart home’ is growing like crazy,” says Mark. “We’ve seen a significant uptake in consumer adoption around IoT and smart home [devices] in the wake of COVID. People are home more, so they want to know more about what’s going on in it.”
These devices can feed information back to the homeowner to help them maintain their home and even improve the value of it.
Championing the customer experience
A preventive, digital insurance model also includes a better experience from the “get-go.”
“We’re doing a better job for the consumer on the front end, and that will benefit us in the form of having to pay fewer claims,” says Mark.
A digital-first, preventive insurance model transforms the insurance experience in three ways: streamlining the onboarding process, leveraging smart home tech, and providing no obligation risk assessments.
A swift and easy onboarding experience
Today’s traditional insurance carriers require 30 to 60 minutes of the policyholder’s time to answer dozens of questions, get a quote, and bind the policy. Most homeowners don’t even know the answer to many of the questions.
“It’s a very archaic type process that really hasn’t changed,” says Mark.
Savvi’s smart insurance modernizes this process. Customers can log into their website, generate a quote, and pay the premium, all within five minutes. Plus, Savvi cancels the homeowner’s previous insurance policy.
“It’s a real game changer.”
How to make your home “smart”
Savvi provides every homeowner with a complimentary smart home kit — that helps mitigate risk with smoke and fire detection, burglary and theft detection, freeze and heat alerts, and water leak sensors — and a complimentary membership to vipHomeLink. Our market-leading digital home management solution is designed to simplify homeownership, make homes safer, and prevent claims.
In addition to vipHomeLink, the Savvi Home Kit includes:
- Water leak sensors.
- Door/Window
sensors. - Motion
sensors. - Smoke detectors.
- A camera.
These tools leverage smart automation to optimize the homeownership experience. With the ability to control lights while away from the home or detect when smoke is present, homeowners can ward off a burglar or stop a home fire from occurring.
For seamless integration, the Savvi Home Kit connects to Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and thousands of other devices in the home.
The combination of important features and components in the Savvi Insurance offering is a game-changer for the industry. “Home smart home technology really enables us to focus on predicting and preventing losses from happening in the first place,” says Mark.
The future of risk inspections
Savvi also facilitates the risk assessment and inspection through an artificial intelligence-generated service. This stops an inspection company from disrupting a client’s life by needing to do an in-person inspection.
“Especially during COVID, people don’t want others in their homes, so we’re using a digital-first approach around our inspection process,” says Mark.
Customers download an app and use their smart home to complete the inspection. This process allows Savvi to examine the parts of the home most likely to yield an insurance claim.
“We can look at the positioning of a washer upstairs on the second floor, where that may provide a higher risk for water damage,” says Mark.
It also alerts a homeowner to potential home improvements and can recommend a homeowner replace the hoses on a washing machine or even highlight where a homeowner has been diligent. Through this model, Savvi can help consumers prevent a home claim from occurring, deliver lower premiums, and even provide rewards for a well-maintained home.
Modernizing insurance coverage
Smarter insurance requires smarter policies. Many are more than 60 pages long and rather confusing for a homeowner. They also include coverage for everyday items that are no longer common in homes.
“Homeowners policies haven’t really changed in decades,” says Mark. “If you look at a homeowner’s policy today, you’ve got coverage in there for things like stamp collections, fur coats, silverware, and pewter.”
Savvi builds upon the traditional homeowner’s policy and addresses modern homeowners’ concerns and personal property. With greater choices and more succinct policies, homeowners are empowered to choose a coverage that closely matches their needs, which may today include, for example:
- Home office and smart technology.
- Enhanced appliances and systems.
- Credit card fraud and identity theft.
“You’ve got to make sure you have the appropriate coverage for the homeowner to begin with,” says Mark.
Prioritizing privacy
In today’s digital age, customers demand cyber safeguards that protect their personal data. That includes their smart home devices and their functions.
“Data security, which is absolutely paramount to us, is baked into the service,” says Mark. “When we think about GDPR regulations, California consumer protection codes, ISO certifications – all of that was absolutely critical to us as well.”
This includes protecting the data on a camera set up in the house to monitor activity.
“We wanted a system that went beyond just leak sensors and delivered a system that provided consumers with the things they really want.”
Home safe home
vipHomeLink helps improve the safety of your home and prevent claims. Our home management app works in tandem with insurance carriers, such as Savvi Insurance Group, to empower homeowners to stay on top of home maintenance and simplify homeownership. The app’s personalized reminders send actionable items directly to your phone, and the new property-specific weather alerts help ready your home for whatever Mother Nature can throw at it.
Know what to do and when to do it around the home with vipHomeLink. Download the app today!
