Collision Repairers Describe Insurer Relationships

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

Several weeks ago, the SCRS released a study that focused on the specific problems and issues collision repairers face when working with insurers, which can be found here in its entirety. In this most recent update, SCRS asked its member companies about the perception of the insurer/repairer relationship by asking them to rate insurers as one of the following descriptions: Business Partner, Customer, Company I Work with Out of Necessity, or Adversary.

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 of participants as “partners.” Most shops described insurers as “customer,” which SCRS said is one of the biggest contributors to the poor state of relations between insurers and repairers.

“Collision repairers need to reassess their business and thinking,” said Dan Risley, SCRS' executive director, in a release. “Their customer is the vehicle owner, and is the person we should be serving. Unfortunately, many repairers have allowed insurers to position themselves as the customer, which has significantly changed how many repairers market their business as well as operate.”

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

More information is available at www.scrs.com.

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