When you walk into a claim office, you can easily spot the best adjusters. Glowing letters from delighted customers paper the walls. Conversely, managers all learn about the bad apples when they field complaint calls from a policyholder who is either being treated unfairly or is receiving poor service.

Let's consider, however, the vast majority of employees flying below the radar. How does a company decide if their mediocre customer interactions typically result in customers being either "somewhat satisfied" or "somewhat dissatisfied"? Insurers may spend a lot of time and money on customer surveys that are inconclusive in determining why the customer is thrilled or dissatisfied. Did the adjusting staff influence their opinions, or did someone in your chain of service providers leave a lasting impression? There are many people in the auto claim-handling process that could potentially impact your customers' sentiments. These include the agent, call center representative, damage evaluator, liability adjuster, personal injury adjuster, body shop service advisor, or rental facility representative.

How do you fix a problem if you don't specifically know which party is causing it? Even if you ask your customers directly during satisfaction interviews, they often mislabel an adjuster as an agent and vice versa. So how reliable is that information? You certainly can't use such sketchy information for performance management. Instead you resort to a broad-brush approach that reinforces service standards across your entire team or at the leadership level of your suppliers.