The move shows State Farm is aiming to make the frustrating process of filing an accident claim as easy as possible, given the initial frustration that comes from being in an auto accident alone. When accidents happen, users need to be met with a simple solution, and State Farm continues to use the most innovative mobile technology to ensure a pleasant experience.

“We leveraged optical character recognition (OCR) within Pocket Agent to allow you to take pictures of vehicles in the claims process to populate relevant claim information,” said Rachael Risinger, a media relations representative at State Farm, New York. “We continue to evaluate our offerings to customers to identify ways to simplify their interactions by taking advantage of emerging technologies like optical character recognition.”

A Sunday drive
Filling out an online form using a mobile device can be a difficult task, and innovations such as mobile optimization, responsive Web design and mobile apps have begun to solve this problem.

Furthermore, with object recognition now available to State Farm app users, the amount of typing is substantially decreased, and the possibility for discretion is eliminated.

In the case of an auto accident, users can snap a photo of the other car involved and can that way record the make and model information.

The app also uses customer information to simplify the process by selecting information rather than typing it in.

Through the app, available for free on iOS, Android and Kindle Fire devices, users can access their policy information, including policy name, type and renewal date, and search for nearby hotels, gas stations, taxis, locksmiths and rental car facilities.

State Farm maintains a number of other apps, including Driver Feedback, Steer Clear and MoveTools.

Driving mobile
In 2013, State Farm launched an interactive iAd campaign that put consumers in control of their experience to ultimately generate a sales lead.

The insurance company’s “Chaos in Your Town” iAd campaign leveraged GPS to pull in a video scene of chaos happening around a consumer’s location. State Farm worked with DDB on the ad (see story).

In 2012, State Farm’s mobile site was voted best by Key Lime Interactive among other auto insurance companies’ sites.

State Farm ranked best in several categories that consumers said were most important to them when managing their insurance information via mobile (see story).

By keeping the convenience of the customer in mind, State Farm is sure to ensure the loyalty of its customers and ROI from the development and maintenance of its apps.

“Simplification of critical interactions and expediting processes in the customer journey demonstrates to new and existing customers that we continue to focus on meeting their needs,” Ms. Risinger said. “It is critical that we as a company continue to leverage new technologies to meet customer expectations across industries.”

Final Take
Caitlyn Bohannon is editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York