At your command: technology is the lifeblood of auto insurers' concierge services--a claims tool that keeps customers happy while cutting costs.

Just as hotel concierges cater to guests' needs with everything from making dinner reservations to hooking theater tickets, some property/casualty insurers are also providing the personal touch to help policyholders involved in automobile accidents or in need of other assistance.

Technology is smoothing the way for that assistance. Insurers' concierge-type services that handle such post-accident tasks as scheduling pickup and delivery of damaged vehicles, coordinating rental cars, sending tow trucks to the accident site and making hotel reservations are now made easier with the click of a mouse.

Farmers Insurance Group, Progressive Casualty Insurance Co. and Plymouth Rock Assurance Group are among a handful of insurers trying to ease the stress of individuals involved in auto accidents by providing personal service. Each company offers its own particular program--services that not only help individuals locate a body shop but also ensure that the work is performed correctly and, at the same time, reduces insurers' claims costs.

At the 2002 A.M. Best Co. E-Fusion insurance and technology conference, Markus Nordlin, vice president of information technology operations for Los Angeles-based Farmers Insurance, discussed HelpPoint--a service that arranges for tow-truck service, car repairs and rental cars, assigns a claims representative for follow-up with the customer, and helps individuals displaced by a fire receive shelter. Farmers' technology initiatives were helped by Farmers Chairman and President Martin Feinstein "pounding the pulpit" to bring about the change, said Nordlin during his E-Fusion presentation. The concierge-type service, introduced in late 2001, was groundbreaking for the company as it used technology to align the brand with the company's strategy to help customers get back where they belong, Nordlin said.

HelpPoint representatives, who follow up with customers after each initial call, are not only trained to handle claims information, but also to provide comfort to customers under duress. One insured told Farmers the HelpPoint customer service representative helped calm her down at the scene of a three-car accident. Another policyholder was impressed with the way Farmers contacted the repair shop, arranged for a tow and scheduled a car to pick him up at work and take him to the rental car agency, making the worst day of his life not so bad after all.

"We're about empathy, 24/7 availability and providing value in the first call," said Robert Evoy, vice president of claims shared services for Farmers. "When someone calls, you just don't take loss information but determine what we can do at that moment to get our customers' claims moving toward a very satisfactory resolution."

The results of the program are paying off. Recent surveys indicate that 99.4% of customers found working with the HelpPoint staff to be a good experience, and 95.6% said the reporting process took less time than expected, according to Farmers. On average, a customer's call is answered in 14 seconds. Slightly more than 99% of users surveyed said their HelpPoint representative took a sincere interest in them.

Preselected Providers

Plymouth Rock Assurance Co.'s Door-to-Door Service--an optional service free for all policyholders who need to find a body shop--is providing its customers similar service. Massachusetts' anti-steering regulations require that the service be offered as an option only to those individuals who haven't already chosen a body shop. Insureds don't have to leave their home or office, visit a repair shop or find a rental car. Instead, acting like a valet, the company does all that for them. Insureds are provided with a list of 80 preselected Door-to-Door body shops that arrange to pick up the damaged vehicle and have it towed to the selected shop.

If individuals have substitute transportation coverage, Plymouth will arrange for a rental car. Individuals without coverage can also receive the service, and the rental company then bills them directly for the rental.

When the vehicle is repaired, Plymouth will arrange to have it delivered to the individual's home or office, pick up the rental and return it to the rental company.

Boston-based Plymouth Rock, which insures more than 150,000 cars in Massachusetts and Connecticut, uses prequalified participating repair facilities, so the work is guaranteed for as long as the insured owns the car.

More Service More Quickly

Technology is becoming an integral part of many insurers' concierge-type services.

"Technology allows you to integrate electronically with everyone needed to take care of a customer," said Farmers' Evoy. If a customer calls the HelpPoint line because his or her car isn't drivable, claim service representatives can transmit needed information to appropriate vendors to get a tow truck dispatched, initiate a rental car company to call the customer to set up a rental, dispatch a field claim representative to the loss site immediately, or whatever is needed, he said. "All this happens in parallel while we are on the phone with the customer, and we continue to find ways to leverage technology so we can provide integrated services much faster."

Insureds can also rely on technology to retrieve information and track the progress of their claim. When insureds call into HelpPoint, they are assigned a personal identification number they can use when logging onto the company's Web site. Take-up for the online service has been low, however, with only 2% of insureds logging on. But Farmers is hopeful more policyholders will eventually take advantage of the convenience it provides, said Evoy.

HelpPoint is only a part of Farmers' claims operation, which is connected through technology to deliver a faster, more efficient outcome for insureds, said Evoy. The company, for instance, relies on its employees, agents and claims dashboards to communicate business results, expectations and customer experience internally. In addition, its Customer Restoration Network--an electronic claims platform--allows the company to connect directly with vendors and field claim representatives. Customer questions can be answered by virtually anyone in the company who can tap into the system, Evoy added.

Technology is also an integral part of Progressive's claims service centers, which provide a "concierge" level of claims service to help customers involved in auto accidents. The centers employ a Web-based scheduling and workload management system called Web Tracker to allow claims representatives to schedule customers, track the progress of the repairs--from start to finish--and identify potential problems. Every entry in Web Tracker is time and day stamped.

Progressive's policyholders can also track repairs with a pager provided by the company to relay text messages from Progressive or the service center. After repairs are completed, customers receive text messages to inform them their car is ready. All Progressive's policyholders can also access information about their claims around-the-clock via the company's customer-dedicated Web site (personal.progressive.com). They can view the claim's status and the estimate for repairs and can e-mail their claims representative.

Plymouth Rock's Door-to-Door Service relies heavily on technology to provide personal service to its policyholders. The company is connected via the Internet to many of the program's participating body shops. Company appraisers use wireless laptops, so the company can notify them of an incident and schedule an appraisal. Once the appraisal is completed, the company can access the information over the Internet. Everything in the process is paperless, including digitized photos, said Frank Arment, vice president of claims. Participating repair shops are equipped with digital cameras to send photos of damaged vehicles to the company.

Saving Time, Saving Money

Not only is technology helping speed up the concierge-type services process, but insurers are finding added savings as a result.

"The whole concept of the service is that it allows us to compress the entire repair time from start to finish," said Arment. Massachusetts law requires that insurers inspect all damages in excess of $500. "Even the very insignificant impacts normally amount to at least $500, so we virtually inspect every accident that comes into our claims operations," he said. Once the car is delivered to the repair shop, it's immediately stripped down, and a company appraiser visits the shop to inspect damages, thus avoiding a supplemental appraisal and saving time. "In the meantime, the shop has ordered parts so that compresses the repair time, plus we offer shops incentives to prioritize repairs and make sure things are done immediately and efficiently, which cuts down costs on paying for a rental car," he said.

Since repair time under the Door-to-Door program averages about eight days, compared with 15 days when customers select their own body shop, the shorter turnaround time saves on both rental-car and administrative costs. The company saves between $200 and $300 on the typical claim, according to Plymouth Rock.

While feedback about the program has been favorable, take-up has been somewhat low. Currently, only about 15% of Plymouth Rock's insureds elect to take advantage of the program. "In some cases, people want to be involved in the repair process and don't want to turn the responsibility over to a third party like their insurance company," said Arment. The company will begin piloting the program in several other states in the next several months.

Key Points

* Technology is an integral part of many insurers' concierge-type services to assist policyholders.

* Some insurers can connect online with companies to schedule rental cars and tow trucks, arrange for car repairs and make hotel reservations for insureds who are involved in an auto accident or need other assistance.

* While feedback about companies' concierge services has been favorable, take-up has generally been low.

* Insurers are finding added savings from administrative and rental-car costs as a result of personalized service programs.

Learn More

Farmers Insurance Group

A.M. Best Company # 00032

Distribution: Exclusive agents, independent agents

Plymouth Rock Assurance Group

A.M. Best Company # 18527

Distribution: Independent agents

Progressive Casualty Insurance Co.

A.M. Best Company # 02407

Distribution: Independent agents, direct sales, strategic alliances

For ratings and other financial strength information

about these companies, visit www.ambest.com