Dictation solutions that deliver accuracy, speed and agility – anytime, anywhere
The facts
The customer
Crawford & Company, Canada
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Philips partner
Warwood Office Equipment
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For more than 75 years, the Crawford & Company team has been driving their organization’s important mission: restoring and enhancing lives, businesses and communities. As the world’s largest independent provider of claims management and outsourcing solutions, the company’s team has extensive experience helping people get back on track following natural disasters, medical emergencies, and many other types of incidents.
Crawford Claims Services is the core of Crawford & Company’s presence in Canada. The division’s expert claims adjusters are adept at expecting the unexpected, meeting unique and individualized client needs, and settling their claims with superior efficiency and accuracy. If it sounds like a tough job, it is. And one that requires innovative enablement tools built to handle the volumes and the complexities of this type of work.
Challenges for an industry that’s “always on”
Claims adjusters must simultaneously be highly accurate, thorough, and quick. This is no easy feat when compounded with the fact that the nature of their work is highly mobile. Between tasks such as interviewing claimants and witnesses, gathering reports from law enforcement and medical professionals, and conducting on-site inspections, they record copious notes (usually via dictation) while on the go. As they travel from site to site, they must keep meticulous notes and records, requiring reliable communication and information sharing with a centralized hub for transcription and claims processing.
Until a year ago, the Crawford & Company team had been using handheld recorders for their dictations but found that the devices were not meeting their needs. The recorders and the supporting software were not user-friendly, adding unnecessary friction to the workday and consuming an inordinate amount of the IT department’s time.
Very impressive product! 812 dictations completed to date with no technical issues.
Rick Thorpe
GTS and medical malpractice adjuster at Crawford & Company
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The solution: A field-proven tool that’s up to the task
With the excessive demands on IT time and resources, the Crawford team decided to implement Philips SpeechLive in the field. The innovative, cloud-based dictation solution, SpeechLive, works in any web browser and seamlessly integrates with the intuitive and user friendly Philips voice recorder app. This enables users to record, edit and send dictation files on their smartphone without carrying an additional recorder, reducing turnaround times for transcription and document generation. As an adjuster’s “office” could be anywhere (with “office hours” at any time), the solution is extremely valuable in providing flexibility in the workday, keeping notes organized, and increasing overall productivity. SpeechLive also secures dictations by encrypting them during recording, again when they are sent, and again by storing them in an encrypted format when safely kept in the cloud. This is critical in the insurance industry, where adjusters handle sensitive or confidential data.
The right solution + the right team = The right results
The engagement with Crawford & Company began with a pilot of SpeechLive that was successful in several aspects. The IT department immediately saw far fewer help desk tickets related to dictations. Support staff and transcriptionists reported greater clarity and accuracy of the recordings. The management team mitigated expenses related to purchasing and maintaining separate recording devices, and appreciated the responsiveness and collaborative approach of the Philips implementation team. And of course, the most important opinion was that of the field team – there too, the response was overwhelmingly enthusiastic.
“Being able to use the recorder app connected to SpeechLive on a regular mobile phone is much more convenient, and I can even use it while my phone is charging – unlike the handheld recorder, which was not available for use while it was in its cradle,” said Rick Thorpe, a GTS and medical malpractice adjuster on the team. “The clarity of recordings is outstanding, and I’ve completed 812 dictations to date with zero technical issues.”
The initial pilot program has grown into a full implementation across Canada with more than 500 users, and is being considered for adoption in other regions as well. While technology plays a supporting role to any organization’s best asset – its team members – it has a substantial impact in today’s fast-paced business landscape. Utilizing Philips solutions, Crawford & Company has a partner in doing what they do best: Putting people first in claims resolution and delivering the highest quality of customer service.