By Alex Harrell
When managing tenants, landlords and owners need protection to stay on top of problems before they become problems.
That’s where a company like Assurant comes in to play.
Assurant is a global provider of risk management solutions, protecting where consumers live and the goods they buy. As a Fortune 500 company, Assurant focuses on the housing and lifestyle markets and is among the market leaders in mobile device protection and related service. Assurant has a market presence in 21 countries, while its Assurant Foundation works to support and improve communities.
Steve Hein, the senior vice president of Multifamily Housing at Assurant, shares what Assurant does that sets it apart from the pack, and details from its latest partnership with property management software program, Entrata.
Tell me about Assurant.
Assurant offers mobile device solutions, extended service contracts, vehicle protection services, pre-funded funeral insurance, renters insurance, and lender-placed homeowners insurance to a wide range of the world’s leading brands.
In the property management space, we are continually adapting and innovating our offered solutions and services to meet and outpace the evolving demands of the market. To that end, technology is connecting more people and bringing with it new opportunities and risks. Understanding those opportunities and risks along with how consumers want to work with our client partners, and then enhancing their relationship and overall customer value proposition is crucial to our success.
What’s a typical day like for you?
Exciting and busy! A lot of my time is spent enhancing the core risk mitigation offerings we bring to the Multifamily Housing industry. I’m also involved in figuring out ways of leveraging what else we do domestically and globally to enhance value to our client’s in the MFH space, as well as exporting that value to the other businesses across the enterprise. We have a robust Connected Living business, which focuses on device insurance, as well as support and logistics to create a great consumer experience. Figuring out ways to bring some of these capabilities to our two million-plus renters insurance customers keeps the creative process going.
What do you offer that your competitor’s do not?
We offer an end-to-end risk mitigation program/service that provides multiple security deposit alternatives, uniquely designed resident insurance program variations, and the only MFH debt recovery solution all managed and supported by a global Fortune 500 Insurance Company. Since Assurant is vertically integrated, our clients enjoy direct access to the underwriter and the ability to collaborate to develop tailored holistic resident-caused damage solutions. We are heavily focused on the customer experience, and work to reduce customer friction in the purchase or servicing processes that provide our clients with an increased ability to manage their own risk. It is critical for us to understand the end customer’s expectations. After all, our clients are trusting us with their most valuable asset — their customer base.
We have been supporting Multifamily Housing for over 30 years, and the key to this is that we never rely on what we are doing today. We are continually evolving to improve our programs and processes to solve our clients’ pain points, which typically overlap with how best they can ultimately serve their residents. Our integrated programs let our clients focus on what they do best while we take on the development and servicing load of many of our clients’ ancillary processes. Our support teams have successfully implemented and manage over two million units, which includes digital solutions across the entire process, from sales to service to claims.
Since we don’t outsource the process to third parties and can scale to build support efficiencies, we have the financial flexibility to meet our clients’ diverse goals. Some companies are involved in part with what we do from a risk management perspective, but these programs are either ancillary to their core focus or significantly outsourced. These impediments inhibit them from evolving and solving clients’ changing needs in the same way that Assurant can.
Tell me about your partnership with Entrata.
Integrating our risk management solutions into Entrata’s platform removes the manual process of property staff entering insurance information for each tenant, provides improved program performance and flexibility and helps to maintain Entrata’s high bar for supporting their clients. Our integration seamlessly places our resident insurance solutions into the Entrata platform, so companies using Assurant for resident insurance management via Entrata’s software can easily track tenant compliance and reduce their overall risk. They have been a great partner to work with, and it is easy to see why they are one of the leading software solution providers in the MFH space.
What’s next for Assurant?
We continue to optimize our risk management programs in the connected lifestyle space. Assurant partners with our clients to prioritize features and solutions that will best allow them to focus on their core business. We are also looking to add additional products and services that their customers are looking for, and that can help them drive additional value across their resident base. With the emergence of more and more connected apartments, Assurant’s ability to protect and support smart technology is crucial to providing the best-in-class solutions that help our clients.
