On this episode, Gregory Bailey sits down with Stacey Brown, Lead Organizer at InsurTech Hartford. Stacey shares how InsurTech Hartford is disrupting the industry from the insurance capital of the world. He gives a real-life story about a customer service experience with his carrier and how he believes insurtech can inspire the solutions to the problems he faced.

InsurTech Harford’s Origins

Stacey watched the insurtech boom from the technology side of the fence. But as he looked out his office window in Harford, Connecticut, he didn’t see any startups associated with insurtech. So, Stacey set out to change that, and InsureTech Hartford was born. He wanted to utilize his resources and knowledge to keep his corner of Connecticut in sync with the times. InsureTech Hartford mainly does this through three types of events for the community:

• Hackathons, where participants rapidly come up with ideas and solutions to industry problems
• Educational events to develop talent, like a Blockchain event held in October
• Networking events that provide access to experts on an array of subjects and industries to team up eager talent

This community engagement work is how InsureTech Hartford builds connections, plants the seeds of innovation, and sprinkles the community with education and skill development.

Changes Needed in the Industry

Stacey says, hands down, customer service needs a great improvement. One of Stacey’s properties was recently damaged from the cold. After hours of getting batted around all over the company, from phone call to phone call to person to person — just to find out if the damage was covered, Stacey still had no information. Not even the next day. It’s not a one-off story, and customer service has long been viewed as a pain point for customers when dealing with claims.

Digital Consumer Expectations

The want-it-now mindset is real — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you’re snoozing and aren’t on point with the right product at the right price, there isn’t going to be a sale. Ease is another key factor the digital consumer demands. Everyone is incredibly busy, and the last thing they want to do at the end of a tough day is be passed around from phone call to phone call. Stacey sees hurdles in commercial insurance as well, as the decision making requires more data of higher fidelity to make the best decisions. The experience with enterprise software can often be clunky, complicated, and confusing as well — an area Denim is targeting with our products.

Links

InsureTech Hartford

Stacey Brown