Climate change is changing the nature of natural disasters and the insurer aims to keep ahead of it.
As climate change changes the nature of storm damage, and as technology continues to progress, State Farm has invested into advanced catastrophe research and insurance agent training.
The insurer wants to make sure its tech and teams are prepared for current and upcoming trends.
State Farm is using the additional insurance agent training and catastrophe research to help keep ahead of the impact of climate change for more rapid claim handling, quicker policy payouts, and more rapid customer recovery.
This concept isn’t necessarily new for the insurer, which opened its Fire Training Center in 1995. That center contained two fully equipped houses at full scale, as well as a classroom in which Claims associates can obtain additional training. A number of years later, a third home was added to the center, as well as a burnt-out manufactured home. This made it possible to broaden cause and origin training. Each of the training center houses was created using different construction techniques and materials both for their exteriors and interiors.
Insurance agents and other team members receive a more complete training journey with new tech.
The State Farm Proximity and Deployed Claim Specialists all head to the training facility to receive their complete training journey throughout a week-long capstone course. Each of the training houses has experienced different degrees and forms of damage. The associates must examine them in order to conduct identification and estimates. Damage to the homes includes everything from fire, wind, hail and water to vandalism.
The most recent addition to the center is a fourth three-story building. That structure was added to make it possible for Claim Specialists to receive additional training on roof inspections.
“We are constantly looking for ways to update and change our Fire Training environment to reflect changes in real life situations, said State Farm Operations Vice President of Property and Casualty Claims Shyama Terry in a news release about the new training for insurance agents and other team members. “State Farm prides itself on training the best people, in the best scenarios available, to help our customers recover from the unexpected, faster.”