Las Vegas, Nov. 3, 2011—The Collision Industry Conference (CIC) on Thursday adopted guidelines for beneficial and productive repairer-insurer relationships.
CIC members met at SEMA and discussed what the CIC refers to as a living, breathing document that describes good relationships between collision repair shops and insurance companies.
The guidelines were created with the input and effort of repairers, insurers and other stakeholders in the collision industry.
The CIC handed out a document that reflects the input describing solid relationships between insurers and repairers. This is the language in the document that the CIC approved:
- A clear understanding between insurer and repairer, so that they respectively know what can be expected from each other to participate in, and remain on a referral program, or in a good business relationship with each other.
- A clear definition of the Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) that will be used to measure performance, which are reviewed with participants regularly.
- Timely, open dialogue between participants, especially when there is a need to improve to remain on a program, referral list, or in the business agreement, along with a reasonable timeframe for improvement to occur.
- Timely, open dialogue between repairer and insurer if the business arrangement is cancelled, and/or they are removed from a program or referral list, including informing either party the reason(s) for their removal.
- Consistency between corporate and field associates in the selection and retention of participants in a program or business relationship.
- A mutual understanding that the DRP is an “At Will” business relationship that can be terminated at any time by either party.
- A consistent dialogue about the repair process and/or referral program, to enable clear, consistent, professional communication between the insurer and the repairer. (*)
- An unbiased dispute resolution process/mechanism with a designated point of contact to resolve issues that may arise without repercussions from either the repairer or insurer.
- Communication with the consumer to ensure that the consumer understands the nature of the relationship between the shop and the insurer, and are aware of their repair options. (*)
- A streamlined, electronic communication process between the insurer and repairer. (*)
- An agreed-upon consumer dispute resolution process where insurers and repair shops work together to resolve consumer complaints. (*)
(*) With the exception of the note regarding referral programs, the expectations are consistent for a non-program repair participant.
CIC hasn’t yet addressed vendor selection, indemnification language in DRP agreements, adherence to repair standards and workflow enhancement, according to the document.
