First-notice-of-loss calls triaged by AI

Client profile

SafeGuard Insurance handles auto and property claims across a regional book of policies, with a claims operations group of adjusters, dedicated intake specialists and a small after-hours rota. Almost every claim still opens by phone: a policyholder standing on the shoulder of a highway or in a flooded kitchen wants a voice, not a web form. First notice of loss is the moment a customer decides whether the insurer is actually on their side, and that conversation happens entirely on the voice channel.

The challenge

After an accident, customers called and waited on hold at the worst possible moment, then repeated their details to three people.

After-hours claims had to wait until morning.

The loss line peaked exactly when it could least afford to: the evening rush, the first hour after a hailstorm, the Monday after a long weekend. People who had just been in a collision sat in a queue while a tow operator stood beside them asking whether to hook up the car. Some hung up and called their agent's personal cell instead, so the claim reached the system hours later, in fragments, as a text message.

Whoever picked up wrote down the basics: policy number, plate and VIN, time and place of loss, weather, the other driver and their insurer, injuries yes or no. The file then went to an adjuster who asked for the same details a second time, and on to the repair coordinator who asked a third. Every retelling was a chance to invert a plate number or shift a date, and every retelling made a shaken customer feel processed rather than helped.

After six in the evening the line went to voicemail. A crash at eleven at night waited until morning, and by morning the scene had been cleared, the car sat in an unknown yard, the water had been mopped up, and the photographs that would have settled the claim quickly simply did not exist. Weekends were worse: the backlog of overnight losses landed on Monday on top of Monday's own calls.

Why earlier attempts failed

• A deeper IVR menu Pressing through options sorted callers by loss type but collected no facts, so both the queue and the intake interview stayed exactly as long as before.
• Outsourced overflow answering Operators outside the company could take a name and a number but could not see the policy or the coverage, so every call was taken a second time by SafeGuard staff.
• Mobile claim form Policyholders at the roadside abandoned a long form on a cracked phone screen, and the ones who did finish it called anyway to ask whether it had arrived.
• Volunteer night rota On-call shifts covered part of the week, wore down the adjusters who took them, and still left whole nights on voicemail.

The solution

A MyChatBot voice agent now answers the SafeGuard loss line itself, takes a complete first notice of loss inside the call, and opens the claim file before the caller has left the scene.

1. Rebuilt the intake script The Configuration Wizard turned the claims handbook into a single agent instruction, battle-tested it against recorded loss calls, and versioned every change so the claims lead could roll back any wording that misfired.
2. Loaded coverage into the KB Business Domain docs in the Knowledge Base carry policy wordings, covered perils, deductible rules and the document checklist per loss type, and Agentic Search pulls the right clause while the caller is still on the line.
3. Put the agent on the line MyChatBot Calls SDK answers inbound calls on the first ring around the clock and works through the FNOL field list conversationally: policy and plate, time and place, damage description, drivability, injuries, third party.
4. Opened the claim in CRM create_crm_lead and create_crm_deal open the file with the source tag AI-, add_crm_client_contact attaches the caller, and lead_chat_link pins the recording and full transcript so the adjuster reads the account instead of asking for it again.
5. Wrote the escalation rules Hand-off Control routes any injury, fire or third-party liability dispute to a live adjuster through a silent hand-off without the caller being transferred or re-dialed, while Flight Control raises the duty team in Telegram.
6. Closed the evidence gap Follow-ups chase scene photos, the police report number and the chosen repair shop, Lead Processing labels and statuses move the file along, and Google Calendar books the inspection slot before the call ends.

The AI agent takes the first notice instantly, any hour, and intake is four times faster.

What was deployed

Rollout timeline

Results

What comes next

SafeGuard is extending the same voice agent to outbound status calls, so policyholders hear where their claim stands without chasing anyone. Renewal and coverage questions move onto the line next, using the quiet night hours the agent already covers.