Loss control strategies had to pivot amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and while many insurance carriers reverted to ‘Old School’ loss control inspections via the phone, some took it even further, industry experts share during a Canadian Underwriter webinar.
The height of the pandemic saw commercial clients inspected via drone or satellite imaging, panelists shared during ‘Protection post-pandemic: The ‘new normal’ for your commercial clients.’
‘We had to move loss control basically virtually,’ says Jennifer Hill, head of customer, distribution, marketing and regional management at Zurich Canada. ‘You weren’t able to physically attend plants anymore. You weren’t able to necessarily go to sites any longer, or maybe didn’t want to -- it probably wasn’t in the best interest of our staff.’
While drone inspections were a innovative byproduct of the pandemic, Hill says underwriters are eager to interact with commercial clients in person again.
‘It’s helpful to be at the operation, talking to the people running the operation, getting those insights to really bring back the information that informs our underwriters,’ she says. ‘[It] also informs the customer’s ability to mitigate, or perhaps improve their risk.’