Create claim report — capture insurance cases digitally

A good claim report captures the damage so completely that the case handler can decide without queries. That saves in any case at least one back-and-forth cycle by email or phone. Therefore capture structured: when did the damage occur, where, by what, which item or person is affected, and what evidence exists. These five fields are often enough to clearly classify the damage type.

Different damage types need different detail questions. A water damage in the apartment requires different follow-up questions than a traffic accident or travel luggage damage. Use conditional logic to show the appropriate follow-up fields after the first selection of the damage type. This way the form stays short for each individual case and complete in total. Pay attention to plain language and avoid insurance jargon in the form — the policyholder is usually a layperson and should not be confronted with technical terms like "recourse" or "deductible" without these being explained.

Most claim reports arise directly at the damage location — on the road, in the kitchen, at the holiday destination. Your form must therefore work excellently on mobile. The photo upload should be possible directly from the camera app of the smartphone, without intermediate storage in the gallery. Allow several photos per damage, ideally four to eight: overview, detail, surroundings and possibly license plate or receipt.

Pay attention to file size. A modern smartphone photo can easily be 5 to 10 MB, with several photos you quickly hit limits. Automatically compress the images on upload to a sensible resolution — 2,000 pixels on the long edge is completely sufficient for case handlers. Show a preview so the user sees what is being uploaded, and offer a way to remove or replace photos before sending. A progress bar per file conveys the feeling that something is happening — on slow mobile connections this is decisive for whether someone completes the form or exits annoyed.

Insurers and property managers usually route claims by line of business, region or claim amount to different teams. Build this logic directly into the form. From the captured fields — damage type, postcode, estimated claim amount — you automatically derive the routing. A car damage in postcode 1xxxx with a claim sum over 5,000 euros goes to team Berlin major claims, a household damage in postcode 8xxxx with under 1,000 euros to team Munich standard cases.

Delivery to the right case handler is best done via webhook into the existing claims system or ticket tool. Anyone who does not yet have a claims management system gets far with a shared mailbox per team and a meaningful email template. Automatically add a unique claim ID and a timestamp — both are decisive later for case processing. Also send a confirmation to the insured person with the claim ID and a realistic processing time. This one mail saves half of the follow-up calls in our experience.

After the claim report, the waiting time begins from the insured perspective — and it feels like nothing is happening. Therefore build in a simple status tracker. The insured receives in the confirmation email a link via which they can view the processing status at any time: received, in processing, expert commissioned, settled, closed. This transparency massively reduces queries and strengthens trust in the provider.

The tracker does not need to be a full-fledged portal. A lean status page with five steps and a note per status change is completely sufficient. Trigger status changes automatically or manually by the case handler — with each change a short notification goes to the insured. Take care not to show sensitive claim details publicly; a unique claim ID and an email verification step are enough to prevent abuse. This simple mechanism costs little and lifts the customer experience to a level that most classic insurers do not currently offer.