As Claims Director at Ageas UK, Stephen Linklater is committed to finding innovative ways to help customers protect what matters most to them – their homes and families.
As the UK’s first insurer to incorporate WeatherNet’s SurgeCast application with the precise geographical location of its policyholders, Ageas can anticipate and consequently support its customers who are forecast to be impacted by extreme weather events.
This latest advancement underpins Ageas’s commitment to support its customers facing increasingly frequent extreme weather events. Stephen shares how this data-driven solution is helping to support Ageas’s customers.
Our response
Extreme weather events can have a truly devastating effect both emotionally and financially, and the winter of 2023/24 has been almost unprecedented.
As the increasing prevalence of extreme weather introduces new challenges, I have seen how it has impacted our customers as well as our employees.
While these weather events are beyond our control, we are committed to delivering brilliant service to our customers.
Drawing on our technical expertise and our supply chain relationships, one of the ways we are achieving this is through our unique use of WeatherNet’s SurgeCast application.
SurgeCast
As a recognised authority on UK weather and climate, WeatherNet offers Ageas access to comprehensive and granular weather data from its exclusive network of weather stations and remotely sensed sources, updated in real time.
WeatherNet’s SurgeCast application delivers bespoke weather forecasts for the postcodes of our policyholders, up to 16 days ahead, refreshed four times every day.
We are also applying deep learning from a detailed study of historical severe weather events to predict the impact of forecast ones.
By combining this cutting-edge capability, we can identify, advise, and support our customers who live in the geographical areas most at risk of inbound extreme weather.
SurgeCast not only enables us to forewarn our customers, but it also means we can anticipate when call volumes are likely to increase and to what extent. As a result, we can estimate what days and times we may need to bring in additional resources to our claims function.
Similarly, we use Weathernet’s SurgeCast to make sure our suppliers are ready to respond. By advising them on where our policyholders are likely to see damage to their homes because of extreme weather events before it actually happens, we can help them prepare in a way we’ve not been able to before.
As climate modelling evolves and more data becomes available, we will continue to work closely with WeatherNet to regularly update this predictive service.
Prevent, protect, and repair
In order to support our customers with extreme weather events, we are continuously consulting with a variety of subject matter experts.
In addition to the deployment of SurgeCast, we’ve spoken to people affected by severe weather events and consulted with flood resilience champion and campaigner Mary Long-Dhonau OBE (aka ‘Flood Mary’).
A flood victim herself, Mary works hard to raise awareness of flood risk and campaign for improved property resilience and recovery projects.
Available for free through our website, we have collaborated with Mary to create videos and a flood recovery guide for our weather hub platform.
As well as the advice on flooding, our weather hub offers lots of information on how to protect your homes and families from storm and freeze events.
To make the claims process more accessible and efficient for those adversely affected by extreme weather, our customers can now report storm claims online.
This functionality will help many of our customers, and for those who would prefer to talk to someone, our claims handlers are available via virtual chat or phone.
Discover our weather hub and online reporting tool today: https://www.ageas.co.uk/need-help/weather-hub/
WeatherNet
WeatherNet is a subsidiary of Synergy, the technology and data company owned by Claims Consortium Group. As a recognised authority on UK weather and climate, WeatherNet offers Ageas access to comprehensive and granular weather data from its exclusive network of weather stations and remotely sensed sources, updated in real time.