Security First Improves Disaster Recovery With New Social Media Technology

With hurricane season a few weeks away, Security First Insurance Company, the fourth largest homeowners insurance provider in Florida, has developed a new platform aimed at speeding up the response time and recovery process for its nearly 180,000 policyholders in Florida following a natural disaster. Social Media Capture, Control, Communication and Compliance (SMC4), which was recently launched at a press conference in Jacksonville, Fla., is designed to integrate social media technology and email communication into a single interface, making it easier and faster for Security First Insurance to assist its customers following a storm.

After closely monitoring the response efforts during major storms in other parts of the country, Security First Insurance recognized the importance of developing a responsive disaster communications solution which led to partnering with Integritie to develop the technology.

With more than one billion smartphone and Facebook users worldwide today, the widespread use of technology has created major challenges for first responders in a disaster, capturing and prioritizing all incoming messages and developing a quick and appropriate response. According to the American Red Cross, at least 76 percent of Americans expect help in less than three hours of posting a request on social media.

SMC4 is IBM Smarter Planet Approved®, a distinction given to companies that have the courage to innovate and leverage technology to improve business. It was built using IBM smarter analytics technology to automatically prioritize and route incoming messages to the right employee based on the keywords used in the message. The system enables Security First Insurance to effectively manage the high volume of requests the company anticipates it will receive after a hurricane and improve the response time to customers.

In a typical month, the company receives approximately 700 reported claims from policyholders – less than one percent of the company’s customer base. In 2004, when Florida experienced four hurricanes, several insurance companies received loss reports from 20 percent of their customers. If the storms of 2004 were to make landfall today, Security First Insurance estimates it would receive approximately 36,000 loss reports in a short period of time. Security First Insurance expects many of those policyholders to reach out to the company to report a claim using social media and smartphones, especially when all other lines of communication are down.

Key features of SMC4 include:

• ·Turns social media and email messages into an actionable communications channel during a major disaster;
• ·Expedites the resolution process by routing messages to the appropriate employee based on information from email and social media posts;
• ·Facilitates prioritizing urgent cases by analyzing social media content for keywords;
• ·Helps ensure control by automatically documenting social media communications.

Source: Security First Insurance Company