Customer Experience: Claim Culture & Experience

Our ethical & empathetic claim culture

Treating our customers, claimants and business partners with the highest degree of integrity, professionalism and empathy and paying what we owe are core to our mission. That’s why our Claim organization has a deliberate focus on attracting, developing and retaining a high-performing workforce that shares our values and embraces our culture. We offer our Claim professionals comprehensive training designed to drive alignment with Claim’s values and vision, including the importance of providing a positive customer experience. Employees are regularly recognized for their ability to make our customers feel secure, respected and cared for at every interaction.

Our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics clearly establishes Travelers’ policy to handle claims fairly by paying what we owe and following the terms of the applicable insurance policies and all claim-handling standards contained in the applicable statutes and regulations. The Code specifies that Claim personnel are expected to act promptly and in good faith when handling claims. These principles are frequently reinforced by management at all levels within the Claim department through regular training, communications and claim review. Claim professionals’ core technical training addresses coverage determination and customer communication, and our internal quality review of claim files includes determination of whether all coverages were correctly identified, applied and communicated to the customer. In addition, all Claim employees are required to annually certify compliance with a Claim-specific compliance plan that goes above and beyond the company compliance plan to specifically address good-faith claim handling.

The claim experience at Travelers

From a claim perspective, customer experience is both a core value and a business discipline. For the overwhelming majority of claims, we do not contract with third-party claim adjusters and instead rely on our own staff to respond to claims. In 2023, we were able to adjust nearly 100% of our catastrophe claims with our own employees, supported by innovative technologies, self service capabilities and trusted service partners. This structure sets us apart in the industry, allowing us to process claims quickly and accurately, with a consistently high standard of customer service. Our claim-handling capability is at the heart of our promise to our customers and proved again in 2023 to be a significant competitive advantage that resulted in a better outcome for our customers and a more efficient outcome for us. In 2023, we resolved nearly 90% of our customers’ property claims arising out of catastrophe events within 30 days. This was a particularly remarkable result given that we responded to 74 catastrophe events and over 135,000 catastrophe notices of loss in 2023. The capacity to service virtually all of our claims with our own employees also provides us with valuable insights and data, which helps us continually learn from our customers and refine our service processes to optimize their experience with us.

In recent years, we adjusted our claim inspection process to rely more heavily on state-of-the-art digital and virtual capabilities. In addition to creating operational efficiencies, investments in digital capabilities over the past few years have enabled us to improve the customer experience in meaningful ways. We are now using virtual claim-handling capabilities on a significant majority of both auto appraisals and wind/hail claims, often eliminating the need for inspection by a Travelers Claim professional. In other words, we are delivering great experiences for our customers and a more efficient outcome for our shareholders.

Simplifying the claim process

Travelers Claim Services is dedicated to continually improving the claim experience for our customers, agents and brokers, and Claim professionals. That’s why we are investing in technologies and resources to improve claim handling, expedite claim resolution and add more transparency to the claim process. For example:

• Virtual inspection technology. Using artificial intelligence-assisted virtual inspection and measurement technology, we are able to transform smartphone photos of a property into an accurate 3D model so that our Claim professionals can easily inspect property damage without climbing ladders and our policyholders can provide information without having to schedule an on-site inspection. In addition to providing convenience for our customers, this capability offers safety benefits for our Claim professionals and operational efficiencies to us.
• Virtual claim handling capabilities. We are now using virtual claim-handling capabilities on a significant number of auto appraisals and wind/hail claims without the need for inspection by a Travelers Claim professional, making the process more convenient for our customers and more efficient for us.
• Claim resource center. To help make the claim process as simple and stress-free as possible, we have developed a virtual resource center for claimants. The resource center features tools to help customers manage the claim experience, including access to claim status, a portal for file uploads, secure messaging with a Claim professional and helpful information for navigating the claim process.