NRMA Insurance has told the Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry it implemented a new system to allow for better communication with clients following the January disaster.

Queensland Claims and Assessment Manager Dominic Dower says the insurer identified the need for a change and in April implemented a new system which allows claims consultants to identify a customer’s preferred method of communication at the point of lodgement.

“Whether that be letter, phone, email or SMS – the fact that we’re capturing it within our system now allows us to interrogate that data to ensure we’re matching the communication method with what the customer’s preferred method is,” he told the commission.

The inquiry also heard some of NRMA Insurance’s competitors were using weekly text message updates to customers. Mr Dower says changes to NRMA Insurance’s system will allow for these kinds of interactions to happen in the future.

But he warned there is a need to strike a satisfactory balance around information.

“As bizarre as this may sound, I received a complaint last year from a customer who believed that we were communicating with them too much,” Mr Dower said. “So it is important that we match expectation with process.”

Mr Dower also defended NRMA Insurance’s claims process and response to the flood crisis, saying the majority of assessments were completed within six weeks of gaining access to affected properties.

While customers were reminded at the time of lodgement that if the event was considered to be a flood they would not be covered, they were also encouraged to make the claim.

Additional site-specific hydrology reports were not provided to customers. Mr Dower says that as the reports merely confirmed the original findings of flood, he believed there was no reason to provide the report to customers.

“The actual data in no way influenced the outcome of the claim,” he said.