An US study has revealed some hard truths about the collision repair industry and how customers feel about their work that could represent an industry wide trend across the globe.
The Australian collision repair industry faces its own unique challenges with an ageing car parc and labour shortages.
CCC Intelligent Solutions Inc. undertook a study to identify the “moments of truth” in US consumers’ satisfaction with their insurers and repairers after a vehicle accident and the subsequent claim and repair journey.
“Moments of truth” study
The study evaluated 47 “moments” in the claims and repair journey after a policyholder had filed a first-party claim. The “moments” study included how consumers perceived communications, the process, the empathy they received, overall time to repair, and more.
The study sought to define the critical “moments of truth”, in which carriers and repairers must perform well to achieve a good outcome for customer satisfaction, and for carriers, customer retention.
Among the key findings is that when it comes to customer satisfaction, policyholders hold both carriers and repairers accountable for outcomes that are the responsibility of other partners.
Key findings – “Received deductible back” is not a moment that matters, except for lower income policyholders
Initially, before controlling for income, receiving the deductible back was a “moment of truth” that significantly impacted insurer satisfaction. However, once income was added to the model, the significance of receiving the deductible faded.
Additional analysis found that insurer satisfaction scores were significantly impacted by receiving the deductible back at lower household income levels. This may be because recovering $500 or $1,000 is far more important to a household at a lower income level than to those at higher levels.
The important point here is that different things matter to different people. Insurers should consider ways to generate the highest number of optimal outcomes for every customer, and at lower income levels, receiving their deductible back can be an important determinant in how satisfied a consumer will be with their carrier.
Key findings – Empathy and digital communication mattered more to customer satisfaction for urban and suburban drivers.
The study initially used all of the data to ascertain specific moments of truth, but when the model was re-run with just the respondents who indicated that they lived in “urban” (52 per cent) or “suburban” areas (36 per cent), the “Empathy” moment went from the fifth most important to the third most important, and the “used text to communicate with repair facility” moment showed up as a moment of statistical significance (compared with not showing up at all in the model for the overall sample).
Overall, the study highlights the shared responsibility of both carriers and repairers in customers’ minds to get them back on the road, regardless of who is actually the responsible party. Study findings underscore the need for a unified, customer-centric approach that focuses on configurability, personalisation, and retention management.