The Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS), anassociation consisting of more than 6,000 collision repairbusinesses who work with consumers and insurance companies torepair collision-damaged vehicles, has released an update to itssurvey of auto repair shops is comprised of over 6,000, and theresults don't speak well for insurers.

Several weeks ago, the SCRS released a study that focused on thespecific problems and issues collision repairers face when workingwith insurers, which can be found here in its entirety. In thismost recent update, SCRS asked its member companies about theperception of the insurer/repairer relationship by asking them torate insurers as one of the following descriptions: BusinessPartner, Customer, Company I Work with Out of Necessity, orAdversary.

According to results, most repairers do not prefer the term“partner” to describe their business relationship with insurers.SCRS said only State Farm and USAA were defined by a majority ofparticipants as “partners.” Most shops described insurers as“customer,” which SCRS said is one of the biggest contributors tothe poor state of relations between insurers and repairers.

“Collision repairers need to reassess their business andthinking,” said Dan Risley, SCRS' executive director, in a release.“Their customer is the vehicle owner, and is the person we shouldbe serving. Unfortunately, many repairers have allowed insurers toposition themselves as the customer, which has significantlychanged how many repairers market their business as well asoperate.”

“Most repairers don't consider insurers to be their partners asthe relationship has become strained, more than any time in recenthistory,” said Tim Waldren, treasurer of SCRS, in a release. “Theerosion of good will is due to a lot of things, but the fact that'steering' and 'suppressed labor rates' were cited by our survey asthe most pressing issues facing repairers speaks volumes.”

More information is available at www.scrs.com.

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