How to run a remote video assessment: steps

Running a remote video assessment comes down to six steps: prepare the file, send a link by SMS, capture consent, guide the customer, trigger the certified captures, and add everything to the claim file. On the customer side, there is nothing to install and no account to create — a single link opened in the browser is enough. This article covers the operational procedure; the question of evidential weight is handled separately. For the full business context, see how remote appraisal and assessment for insurance works.

How do you run a remote video assessment, step by step?

The sequence is linear and takes a few minutes, with no expert traveling to site. From preparing the file to handing over the captures, each step stays simple on the customer side: all they do is film. Here is the full procedure.

What should you prepare before starting the assessment?

An effective remote video assessment is won before the SMS even goes out. Preparation avoids hesitation during the session and ensures you leave with the right images on the first pass. Two things to line up: the file on the agent side, and the bare minimum on the customer side.

What information should you gather in the file?

Start with the claim reference, the nature of the damage and the address involved. Then list what absolutely must be captured: an overview that sets the scene, followed by the telling details that document the loss. Water damage, for instance, is documented through the affected ceiling, the running wall and, where possible, the source of the leak. Finally, note the customer's mobile number: it is the only detail needed to launch the session.

What does the customer need on their side?

Very little, and that is the point. The customer needs a smartphone with a recent browser, a mobile or Wi-Fi connection, and physical access to the area to film. Nothing else: no app to download, no account to create, no dedicated hardware. That absence of friction matters especially in insurance, where the customer often reports a loss under pressure and has neither the time nor the appetite to install software.

How do you capture the customer's consent during the assessment?

Consent is captured at a precise point in the flow: when the customer authorises camera access in their browser. Before any video starts, that explicit authorisation establishes clear, dated and traceable consent. You are not asking the customer to sign a separate form: the very action that opens the camera counts as agreement, and it is timestamped.

This is first and foremost a matter of how the flow works. Its evidential reach — the fairness of the evidence, legal basis, data protection — is covered separately: see is a remote video assessment legally valid? for the legal side. Just keep one factual principle in mind: filming a person means processing personal data, which under GDPR requires a legal basis, data minimisation and informing the person concerned. Consent alone does not make any recording lawful, and this article is not legal advice.

How do you guide the customer to film the right elements?

This is the practical heart of the assessment. The customer holds the camera, but the agent directs. Always begin with an overview: it establishes the scene, the address, the surroundings of the loss. Then move to the telling details, frame by frame.

The decisive asset is real-time annotation. The agent sees the HD stream and draws directly on the image to show where to point the lens — the corner of the ceiling, the crack, the rating plate or an appliance's serial number. Showing rather than explaining over the phone avoids misunderstandings and repeat visits: you get the right image on the first pass. This real-time guidance turns a non-technical customer into an effective camera operator, without them having to grasp what you are looking for technically.

How do you capture and certify the assessment's evidence?

During the session, the agent triggers the useful captures. Each is automatically enriched with metadata: GPS coordinates, a precise UTC timestamp and a unique session ID. The image never travels alone — it arrives with its context attached. These are certified screenshots, taken at the right moment, not a continuous video recording to archive.

The good practice is to capture a verifiable state while it is visible: the damage as it presents itself, not a reconstruction. These certified screenshots with timestamped metadata limit later disputes over the date, location or origin of an image. One caveat, though: technical certification strengthens the credibility of evidence; it does not guarantee automatic admissibility. The court keeps its discretion, as the article on legal validity explains.

How do you add the assessment to the claim file?

The last step is closing out. At the end of the session, the certified, timestamped and geolocated captures are gathered into the claim file. They become shareable with the adjuster or claims handler, and usable in several ways: as pre-diagnosis to steer how the file is handled, as support for the initial claim declaration, or as documented exhibits in case of a counter-appraisal.

The goal is the same every time: to hold a verifiable visual record, tied to a date and a place, without having sent an expert on site to produce it.

How long does a remote video assessment take?

A few minutes is enough, from sending the SMS to handing over the captures. Based on usage observed on GroundCam — not a third-party study — a session starts in under 10 seconds once the link is opened and the camera authorised. That same remote pre-diagnosis helps avoid roughly 40% of site visits and reach 85% first-contact resolution.

The operational gain is easy to sum up: you document a loss in minutes, with no travel, with images tied to their context. Where an on-site visit takes days to schedule, a remote video assessment can be triggered during the reporting call, while the customer still has the problem in front of them.