The storm has passed. Your claims backlog is still growing.

Imagine an insurer receiving a sudden wave of property claims after severe weather. Customers submit photographs through the app, call for confirmation and send additional documents by email. A broker forwards the same event under a different reference.

An intake assistant processes the messages quickly. The dashboard counts completed interactions. Meanwhile, the adjuster receives incomplete files, duplicate records need checking and customers call again because they do not know what happens next.

Preparing for a surge means testing how the service behaves under these conditions. Faster intake is only one part of that preparation.

Rehearse the arrival pattern

A normal day's average volume does not describe an event. Requests arrive together, information is incomplete and the same customer may use several channels. External partners can also be under pressure.

Use a controlled exercise with representative, appropriately protected test data. Include duplicate submissions, missing policy details, conflicting contact information and a customer who needs urgent assistance.

Measure what reaches the next stage, not just what the assistant reads. Can the claims team identify the policy, the reported event and the evidence already supplied? Can it distinguish a new claim from a follow-up without silently merging unrelated losses?

A matching suggestion should be reversible and supported by evidence. Similar names and addresses can belong to different insured interests or events.

Make the first response useful

A generic acknowledgement may confirm receipt while leaving the customer uncertain. Where the facts are verified, give a case reference, explain the next expected step and identify any specific missing information.

Avoid asking for documents already received through another channel. Also avoid promising a settlement date that depends on an inspection or coverage decision still outstanding.

An assistant can prepare the response from the actual case state. The permitted language should reflect what the insurer knows, including the difference between receiving a notification and accepting coverage.

During a surge, clear updates can reduce avoidable repeat contacts. Whether they do so in your operation should be measured, not assumed.

Preserve priority and specialist routes

Some requests require urgent attention because of the customer's circumstances or the nature of the loss. Others need specialist review. The responsible teams must define the routes and the applicable service obligations.

Test whether those routes remain visible when the ordinary backlog expands. A large volume of easy files should not hide the smaller group requiring a different response.

AI classification can help prepare routing, but the operating design needs a way to correct it. A customer or employee who notices a missed urgent issue must be able to reach a responsible person without repeating the entire intake process.

Check the capacity outside your own system

A claim may wait for an adjuster, repairer, document provider or another partner. Automatically generating more requests to a constrained supplier can increase noise without creating capacity.

Agree how availability and accepted appointments are confirmed. Distinguish a request sent from an assignment accepted. If a partner cannot take the work, the case needs another authorised route and a customer update.

Exercise these failures before the event where possible. Test delayed responses and unavailable services. The team should know how to continue a bounded manual process without losing records or duplicating commitments.

Plan the recovery period

The arrival rate can fall while unresolved work remains high. Temporary staff may leave just as complex files reach assessment. An event-response plan needs an exit condition based on the remaining workload, not simply quieter phones.

Track the age and current blocker of unresolved files, repeated contact, reopened cases and outstanding partner actions. Keep event-related work distinguishable from the ordinary backlog so that one does not conceal the other.

Afterwards, review where work accumulated and why. A slow stage may have protected a necessary decision; another may have waited for information already held elsewhere. The remedies differ.

Bring a claims-surge scenario to a Strategy Session. We can map the intake, partner dependencies and recovery path, then identify which parts are suitable for AI assistance and which need operational capacity or a different decision route.