When Hog Meets Car

Three cheers for my auto insurer, which gets unexpectedly high grades for a claim experience. (And no, for you conspiracy theorists, they are not currently a Celent client.) I recently had the misfortune of introducing the front end of my 3000-pound car to a 200-pound wild hog. At highway speed, it wasn’t good for either of them. But my car is insured, at least. While I wouldn’t wish the experience on anyone, some good news about our industry crept into the story. Witness:

• A pleasant FNOL. I literally called my insurer as I was driving home from the hospital, and 10 minutes later the claim was in process. The reps on the phone were empathetic, helpful, and knowledgeable. Coverages, deductibles, and repair options were all sorted out promptly. Grade: A-
• Quick action on the fix. Even though my car was towed to a non-company lot, my insurer arranged to have it brought to their local repair facility, free of charge. Of course it was worth it to them to have better control over the repair, but it was also easy for me. Grade: A
• Updates every three days for the duration. How did they know I would have called them several times to make sure my car would be returned to me promptly? Experience probably told them, and they swapped out my inbound calls for some proactive outbound calls that they controlled. Smart. Grade: A+
• Good execution. The car was ready when they said it would be. It had two minor issues, so I’ll ding them for quality control. But the claim center reps jumped to resolve the issues quickly, which prevented a blight on an otherwise great experience. Grade: B+

From an analyst’s perspective, I think this is a triumph of technology, process, and customer psychology. Like many consumers, I’m suspicious what will happen to my premiums at renewal. But for now, I’m telling my friends and family that my insurer knows why I pay them.