(Image source: Desjardins/Roost.)
Desjardins (Montreal), Canada’s third-largest home insurer has announced a partnership with Roost (Sunnyvale, Calif.), provider of smart home devices, for the insurer’s Alert insurance program for preventing water damage. Through Alert, Policyholders holders who sign up for the Desjardins Insurance Home-Auto or The Personal app will receive a free Roost Smart leak detector to place in their home close to a potential source of leaks.
Alex Veilleux, VP, Innovation and Strategic Partnerships, Desjardins General Insurance Group.
The detector is an Internet-of-things (IoT) connected object, and if it senses a problem, it sends an alert to the policyholder’s smartphone, so they can act quickly to limit any damage. Policyholders can choose whether they want to receive alerts by notification, text message or email.
The Alert program addresses the losses associated with water damage, which accounts over half of all home insurance claims in Canada. The partnership with Roost allows Desjardins to provide its clients with a solution to quickly mitigate water leaks in their homes as well as providing a greater peace of mind. Roost offers what it calls a comprehensive and easy-to-use smart home platform built around a set of connected sensors and its smartphone app, to increase home safety via the transmission of up-to-the-minute alerts.
“No one wants to deal with the stress of water damage,” comments Alex Veilleux, VP, Innovation and Strategic Partnerships, Desjardins General Insurance Group. “Depending on the extent of the damage, it can mean lost valuables and family treasures that just can’t be replaced, not to mention a possible relocation during repair work. With the Alert program, we’re helping clients harness the power of technology to avoid this type of stressful situation as much as possible.”
Delivering Policyholder Engagement
“We are very excited about our new technology partnership with Roost,” Veilleux adds. “Desjardins was a pioneer in automotive telematics, and with today’s launch of Alert, we are now looking to deliver an additional client engagement in the home. Through the new Roost smart water leak detectors, we are able to provide our clients with a simple and intuitive water damage solution that they can install themselves.”
Roel Peeters, CEO, Roost.
The Roost Smart Water Leak and Freeze Detector incorporates water, temperature and humidity sensors that diagnose and alert consumers to four major home emergencies directly to their smartphone, including:
- Water damage due to leaks from broken pipes, appliances and basement leaks
- Frozen pipe water damage
- Mold and mildew damage caused by high humidity conditions
- Inefficient energy use due to abnormal home indoor temperature, caused by problems with heating and cooling systems or gaps in home seals to the outside.
“This is a key step in the validation and impact that our Roost Home Telematics solution can have on disrupting the P&C Insurance industry,” comments Roel Peeters, Roost CEO and co-founder. “Desjardins has been a fantastic partner to work with and we are thrilled to begin deploying our smart water leak detectors across Canada. We are eager to work together to better understand the ultimate impact on customer retention and engagement as well as reduction in water claims cost payout.”
Why Roost’s New Smart Water and Freeze Detector Matters to Insurers