Customer mapping technology developed in-house by QBE after last year's floods in North Queensland was applied to the insurer’s bushfire strategy this year, helping deliver its most efficient natural disaster response yet.

QBE says it has now finalised more than 81% of its bushfire claims, including more than 90% of domestic and commercial motor and residential contents claims and 80% of commercial property claims.

“Our customer mapping tool gave us immediate visibility over where our customers were based in relation to the fires, helping us to make important business decisions about where and when to direct efforts,” Australia Pacific Chief Claims Officer Jon Fox said.

QBE says the new technology and smart use of data analytics overhauled its catastrophe recovery process in the wake of what was Australia’s worst-ever bushfire season.

The tool helped identify customers who may have been impacted so QBE could make contact and arrange any emergency payments or accommodation if required.

Mapping helped navigate the challenges as many states were impacted at the same time and supported a coordinated response, helping identify vulnerable customers and allocate resources with more localised understanding and efficiency, QBE says.

Existing technology combined with a range of statistics created effective mapping of customer data and segmentation of impacted areas, guiding QBE’s bushfire strategy.

“Despite the vast geographical challenges this presented, we’ve actually delivered one of the strongest recovery efforts to date, in large part due to the data-driven technology strategy we’ve implemented and backed by our local agents based within these communities,” Mr Fox says.