Rising fraud and the need for faster, more confident claims decisions

Many insurers in the UK have continued to grapple with the impact of the cost-of-living crisis and higher interest rates, while also keeping pace with increasingly sophisticated fraudsters. According to Zurich UK, fraudulent property claims have increased by 88% in two years alone (since 2022). The organization also reported a 44% increase in claims investigations in that same time period. Over the last few years, the Zurich organization has been focused on investing in technology to improve business efficiency and enhance customer experience to adapt to evolving consumer expectations. In the UK, Zurich’s Head of Claims Fraud Scott Clayton and his team were looking for technology to gather insight for fraud detection and claims validation that they otherwise wouldn’t have access to.

Clayton saw a significant opportunity to better and more quickly identify potential risk of fraud earlier in the claims process, as well as have a better handle on stage two and three fraud referrals. Driving operational efficiency while maintaining customer experience was paramount.

Voice-based risk assessment embedded into the claims process

As a trusted partner to Zurich for 20 years, Allied Universal Compliance and Investigations recognized the potential for Clearspeed’s technology to significantly improve Zurich’s claims processing and complement its existing risk assessment capabilities. Leveraging Clearspeed would help augment Zurich’s current approach and better deploy their expert handlers while prioritizing customer experience.

“Clearspeed is a very unique technology that provides never-before-seen insight, which is what drew us to the solution,” says Clayton, who has a multi-decade-spanning career with Zurich. He adds that he was driven to explore Clearspeed’s voice-based risk assessment capabilities after seeing real-life ROI examples from other clients.

Zurich’s first deployment of Clearspeed’s technology was on P&C and warranty/device claims for a high value client book of business, with an eye to understanding Clearspeed’s impact on fraud referrals and customer experience (in particular, disrupting or unsettling customers) as two key success metrics. Following this phase of working with Clearspeed, Zurich saw increases in both its claims that were accelerated for payment and its claims withdrawal rate — the latter a testament to the deterrent effect of leveraging Clearspeed early in the claims process. The team also saw an uptick in fraud referrals — flags that may have otherwise been missed.

Clearspeed has fundamentally changed Zurich’s fraud approach. The proactive identification of risk early in the claims process allows Zurich to fast track low risk claims, preserving resources and preventing unnecessary delays for customers.

“Clearspeed was initially used as a fraud detection tool, but now we are embedding it into our processes as a claims validation tool,” says Clayton. “It provides better outcomes from a fraud detection perspective, but has also given us far more confidence that the claims we’re settling are genuine.”

Clayton notes the idea of a “multi-layered fraud filter” as a strategic approach to reducing fraud — with powerful layers spanning the full claims cycle.