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After spending 20 years in technology, the second act in Guy Hoffman’s entrepreneurial career is much more low-tech: he’s gone from hardware to homes – from computers to claims. Yet he’s still looking for innovation, and Hoffman believes he’s found it with Service247, which applies the provider network approach to the home insurance claims handling process.

So if a homeowner suffers a property loss of one kind or another – fire/water damage, roof leaks, vandalism – Hoffman thinks Service247 offers a better foundation for the insurance industry that speeds up service while reducing claims costs.

“Rather than having everybody after their own interests and kind of starting everything from opposite angles, by aligning the interests of the carrier and the policy holder, the adjuster and the service provider, we can provide better outcomes for all,” Hoffman said.

Service247 does that by building a contractor network that includes many of the same home repair specialists used by insurance companies. But they charge Service247 less because they’re guaranteed a higher volume of work and quicker payment once the job is done. Hoffman’s company also promises that a homeowner won’t have to wait long for an adjustor to arrive on the scene.

“It all begins with the initial response,” Hoffman explained. “We guarantee that we will either provide immediate access or get back to that policy holder within 15 minutes, 24 hours, seven days a week, 365 days a year, and we’ll have somebody on site within four hours of that initial phone call.”

A quick response means homeowners won’t be tempted to seek non-network repair specialist who may try to soak an insurance company for their work. It also may explain why since launching Service247 in March 2008, the company has been able to maintain a 100 percent policyholder satisfaction rating while processing more than 1500 claims.

“Insurance carriers should note the opportunity they have to build on cost savings by offering Service247 as a policy option,” Hoffman said. “While the insurance carrier retains 100 percent authority over the settlement, by aligning the work flow and aligning the interests of all the stakeholders in the claims process, we’ve been able to demonstrate that we can reduce loss adjusting expenses as much as 40 percent, and we actually guarantee a 10-15 percent reduction in claims costs.”

With savings like that, why doesn’t the insurance industry take advantage of the preferred provider network model, as other countries have, along with the U.S. health insurance industry? “I think that on the surface it looks like what we’re doing is both new and different, when in reality it’s neither. It’s built on a foundation of proven approaches to mitigating losses and handling claims, and at the end of the day I think that change is perceived as being risky. It’s always easier to stay with the status quo, and people are a bit skeptical at first and a bit nervous. But we’ve introduced an approach in working with the insurance carriers that involves virtually no risk and no change to their existing processes.”

Yet because the insurance industry is highly regulated, each state must give its approval before carriers can offer Service247 as an embedded option in their homeowners’ policies. Hoffman thinks that will happen once the benefits for customers and the industry are studied. “Those regulatory authorities are most interested in protecting the consumer, and as long as we provide superior service and the consumer always retains the right to choose, the regulatory authorities are always going to be pleased with what we do,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman admits that there are other concierge claims service/direct repair service companies out there, but the speedy response guaranteed by Service247 and the unique nature of the business model will help his company stand out. “It really goes core to why we do it – we’re purpose-built to provide customer satisfaction. We’re purpose-built to provide a better outcome. Our focus is in aligning the interests in all of the stakeholders in the claims process, to reduce costs, to enhance service levels and to help get that policyholder back to their pre-loss condition as efficiently as possible.”

For more information on Service247, go to http://service247.com/a_new_approach.