Higher Satisfaction With Auto Insurance Claims Process

Despite an increase in the number of more complex physical damage claims, auto insurers are doing a better job of handling these types of claims.

The just-released J.D. Power 2014 U.S. Auto Claims Satisfaction Study finds that overall customer satisfaction with the auto insurance claims process has improved steadily during the past five years to 857 on a 1,000-point scale in 2014, up from 842 in 2010.

What’s more, customer satisfaction with more complex claims – those in which vehicles have significant structural damage and need to be towed – has also increased.

Satisfaction with total loss claims in 2014 averages 829, while satisfaction for towed vehicle claims averages 851. Satisfaction with each claim type was up 12 points from 2013.

J.D. Power notes:

Those improvements in satisfaction with insurers’ handling of complex claims are largely due to insurers managing customer expectations with respect to the timing of the claim and moving the claim along more quickly—key metrics of communicating the settlement, repair time, and paying the customer (if applicable) are all performed faster in 2014.”

The fact that customer satisfaction continues to rise is even more noteworthy when you consider that auto insurers are handling a growing number of more complex claims.

Total loss claims and claims in which vehicles have significant structural damage and need to be towed accounted for 37 percent of all auto claims in 2014, up 5 percentage points from 2011 when complex claims accounted for 32 percent of the total.

However, the study finds the rise in more complex claims has pushed up the average severity of claims (based on the dollar amount of loss) for the third consecutive year.

Check out I.I.I. facts and statistics on auto insurance.