Industry First: Major Insurer Brings Collision Repair Representative In-House
CARSTAR has collaborated with a major Canadian insurer to install a first ever in-house Claims Assistance Advisor at the insurer’s office. This is an industry first, with CARSTAR championing the efforts to streamline insurance program management, pioneering this new initiative.
Rental, salvage and tow partners inspired this model, as they often have in-house representatives working at insurance offices. Improving partner communications and expediting customer requests were just some of the obvious benefits, leading CARSTAR to not only replicate this model, but also enhance it with a number of key performance indicators and measurable efficiencies.
The primary function of this role is to oversee insurance partner programs. With daily responsibilities varying, this in-house Claims Assistance Advisor is essentially the go-to for all CARSTAR related queries. Expediting claims, advancing referrals, coordinating estimate appointments and tows in real time, participating in team huddles and working closely with the internal team, including adjusters, are just some of the daily responsibilities of this CARSTAR representative.
Although this program started in the spring of 2018, the CARSTAR team is already seeing massive benefits from this in-house representative. Seeing an increase in referrals is initially how CARSTAR planned to measure success. Now that the program has rolled out, many ancillary benefits are coming from this program allowing for additional data points for success measurement.
Some of the benefits seen by both the insurer and CARSTAR include:
- Improved customer service scores
- Reduced cycle time
- Reduced customer complaints
- Reduced number of inquiries for claim payments
- Reduced in-bound calls to insurance call centres
- Streamline communications with in-house adjusters
- Quick response time for remote adjusters through internal messaging platform
CARSTAR is eager to replicate this program with other insurance providers, seeing as it can benefit all parties. Additionally, the advanced technology of telecommuting alleviates any privacy concerns insurance partners may have. The CARSTAR representative can physically work in the insurance office – without having access to any of the insurer’s servers or networks. The only thing the CARSTAR representative needs is a Wi-Fi connection and somewhere to sit.
Rolling out variations of this program have also proven to be successful and CARSTAR is open to supporting insurers wherever they need help. Having a representative spending one day bi-weekly in the insurance office is one variation and conducting in-house training on collision repair processes for new adjusters is another variation CARSTAR has also implemented.
Welcomed by the insurer, the in-house Claims Assistance Advisor participates in office events and feels like a part of the team. CARSTAR is grateful for its partnership and is eager to replicate this success with all of its insurance partners.