Filling in the Blanks

More responses were received this year than ever before for INSIGHT’s annual Who Pays for What? survey! A big thank you goes out to all the readers who took time out of their very busy schedules to complete the survey forms and get them back to INSIGHT. Without your feedback, the informative yearly feature article would be a complete blank page.

There are no big surprises in this year’s results, considering the general feeling throughout the last two years that insurers were determined to tighten some belts (And collision repair facility owners say that they know exactly whose belts insurers were talking about!). The overall satisfaction level reported by shops responding to our survey did not change from the 61 percent of one year ago.

State Farm’s relationship with shops performing collision repair continues to win the Who Pays for What? Fair Player crown - for the fifth year straight. As the chart on page nine indicates, State Farm “always pays” almost half the time for p-page items, with a whopping 135 percent increase in “always pays” since 1997. None of the other big insurers come even remotely near this change. USAA is a distant runner-up with a 33 percent increase that brings its “always pays” up to just under 30 percent.

Our TrendLine results this month indicate that State Farm is faster than the average insurer, too. According to our TrendLine respondents, State Farm is quickest in claims handling, cycle time, and payment to shops.

Can an insurer relationship with a shop be built on trust and common sense? State Farm has made an impressive case along these lines over the past few years. State Farm’s John Kent, who was honored at NACE2003 by his industry peers with induction into the prestigious Hall of Eagles, will retire this year. It is hoped that his trademark combination of gentlemanly integrity and business acumen will remain stamped on State Farm. Kent’s successor has a class act to follow.

Stop the presses? The Boyd Group, subject of weeks of industry rumors, announced the acquisition of regional consolidator Gerber Auto Collision & Glass, based in Illinois as this issue went to print. The March INSIGHT will have the full story.