Water damage poses a disastrous threat to homes and is a significant cost driver across Europe for property insurers. Insight from the ABI suggests that insurers in the UK are paying out £1.8 million every day for escape of water damage claims. Meanwhile, in Finland, almost 40,000 water damage cases are reported to insurance companies each year, resulting in payouts to private house owners of more than 160 million euros (£140 million). Despite this, most insurers are not actively taking measures to prevent this problem.
However, in 2019, Finnish insurer LocalTapiola began cooperation with GROHE in a bid to help mitigate this problem.
“Within the last two years we have equipped thousands of households with a GROHE Sense system. The results are incredible: we have been able to reduce our costs for water damages by over 70%”, says Pasi Korhonen, Business Development Manager at LocalTapiola Finland. “This programme is our clear differentiator in the property insurance market.” Customers who are selected by the insurer for this revolutionary offer and agree to it, have the smart water controller
GROHE Sense Guard
The partnership started as a pilot project back in 2019 and has developed very strongly ever since.
“With LocalTapiola we work hand in hand for residential water security, applying an innovative concept: proactive water security”, explains Claus Kurt Nielsen, Leader, Business Development SenseGuard at GROHE.
“We are not just providing the devices themselves, but an all-inclusive end-to-end service.” In the course of the partnership GROHE takes over a chain of services, starting with communication and lead generation. On behalf of LocalTapiola, GROHE executes a marketing campaign to reach potential customers. Once a customer has registered, the GROHE installation team takes over and ensures a smooth delivery and installation of the Sense system in the customer’s house.
Afterwards, the GROHE customer support takes on all product-related questions and issues and also pro-actively ensures that the installed devices remain active throughout the entire lifetime. Thus, the whole operation and customer handling is covered by one strategic partner: GROHE.“
Smart Solutions for the Water Management of Tomorrow
GROHE’s Sense system comprises two products. The smart water controller GROHE Sense Guard is directly installed in the water pipe and tracks any kind of activity in regard to water consumption through a combination of sensors, and, in case of an irregularity, either sends warnings or shuts off the water supply. This enables 24/7 water security without any human interaction required. The GROHE Sense gadget detects leaking water, tracks temperature and humidity and alerts you automatically when the numbers exceed the user-defined thresholds.
The GROHE Sense app lets users monitor and control the system from anywhere and at any time, thereby providing a maximum level of security. In case of an emergency, a notification is sent to the user‘s smartphone.
Water consumption has now been made trackable – a ground-breaking innovation. In addition, customers who enter their water and energy prices receive a statement of their estimated costs. This not only ensures control of the valuable resource of water but also offers the opportunity to adapt user patterns and to use water more consciously.
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