Agent Steering ! What To Do ?

[FREENCLEAR]

ANYONE EVER HAVE AN AGENT STEER CUSTOMERS ? & WHAT TO DO ?
MAN IT -------- ME OFF !:o

[GlasWeldTech]

Lots and lots of posts about this subject to read.

[Sneck]

ANYONE EVER HAVE AN AGENT STEER CUSTOMERS ? & WHAT TO DO

I'm just thinking out loud here, but... ever thought of steering an insurance agents customer to a another insurance company for better rates and better service? Maybe collect a finders fee for referring customers???

We repair techs are in quite a unique position when you think about it. Here we are taking care of a customer (who also happens to be an insurance agents customer), servicing their vehicle, and handling insurance issues. With a little insurance knowledge, we would be in a time and position to steer customers to a different insurance company, and could do it quite easily.

I would think that if a repair tech really wanted to, he could have insurance agents eating out of his hand.

... but like I said, i'm just thinking out loud here.

[Jerry Martin]

ALL of the agents here steer their repairs to Safelite and that does make me POed. All the time when I call in repair orders to Safelite and they think I am the customer I hear the samo, samo "They are not on our perfered repair list."
If the customer calls, I warn them that they will try to be stolen from me.

[streekyd]

Here is a link to all the states laws including steering.

http://www.beyondparts.com/states/states.htm

[guitardood99x]

If you ever have steering call your states insurance commisionar they employee ppl to do nothing but catch ppl doin this carp. In nc I have jim longs phone number on speed dial his ppl help me out getting me insurance companies phone numbers for repairs. hey I even got in an accident a month ago and they told me everything i needed to know about getting some extra cash out of the women who hit me.

[GlassStarz]

refering the customer to the companys network is not steering unfortunatly some of those networks like safelite are also repar companies not much you can do and its not worth the lost brain cells trying. I use Act for my billing and dont have the cusstomer call thier guy at all tell them its not needed and I will take care of it when I get there put them on with the Act rep they dont get steered and even if they tried im already doing the reapir so its too late

[JAC]

Steering is when you tell someone they "have to" or "should" go to a specific company. I was an insurance agent for 13 years before purchasing a glass company. My staff was trained by me to say the same thing every time when someone called in with a glass claim. "Do you have a shop you have used in the past that you like or do you have a comany you would like to use now for this repair/replacement?" If they said yes, they were told to give them a call and set up claim/appointment with them. If they said they did not have a place they wanted to use, we aksed them if they would like us to refer them to a company we trusted and knew would do a great job for them. We would then refer them to the company we preferred to use.

This is not steering. I did not receive a dime from the company I referred to. A happy customer, with no complaints about the service was worth 10 times anything a glass company could offer me. A problem with service would be 2 hours out of my day tracking down the shop, insured, claims departments, etc.

As a glass shop owner, it is now my job to be that company that does a great job and makes sure there are no problems during or after the claim. As long as the agents are following the steering laws, I have no problem with them referring jobs to a company. My job is to do a good enough job to become that company for a good amount of agents.

JAC

[J.T.Window]

California insurance code # 758.5 - in part:
' ...after the claimant has chosen an automotive repair dealer (glass shop), the insurer shall not suggest or recommend that the claimant select a different automotive repair dealer..'
Violations of this code are punishable by fines of $5,000 to $10,000 per infracton.
The Insurance Commissioner's Complaint Line is 1-800-927-4357

[maxryde]

Steering is when you tell someone they "have to" or "should" go to a specific company. I was an insurance agent for 13 years before purchasing a glass company. My staff was trained by me to say the same thing every time when someone called in with a glass claim. "Do you have a shop you have used in the past that you like or do you have a comany you would like to use now for this repair/replacement?" If they said yes, they were told to give them a call and set up claim/appointment with them. If they said they did not have a place they wanted to use, we aksed them if they would like us to refer them to a company we trusted and knew would do a great job for them. We would then refer them to the company we preferred to use.

This is not steering. I did not receive a dime from the company I referred to. A happy customer, with no complaints about the service was worth 10 times anything a glass company could offer me. A problem with service would be 2 hours out of my day tracking down the shop, insured, claims departments, etc.

As a glass shop owner, it is now my job to be that company that does a great job and makes sure there are no problems during or after the claim. As long as the agents are following the steering laws, I have no problem with them referring jobs to a company. My job is to do a good enough job to become that company for a good amount of agents.

JAC

California insurance code # 758.5 - in part:
' ...after the claimant has chosen an automotive repair dealer (glass shop), the insurer shall not suggest or recommend that the claimant select a different automotive repair dealer..'
Violations of this code are punishable by fines of $5,000 to $10,000 per infracton.
The Insurance Commissioner's Complaint Line is 1-800-927-4357

I have ACT doing a fair amount of my claims also, as GlassStarz said, when I use them no problem. Now when I prequalify claims, I do as when I use the folks at ACT to qualify for me. I start the work before I contact the customer's insurance companies TPA. You see nearly all companies use the same TPA and they are ruthless steerers, to deny this is a joke, just like calling for "approval" is. I provide a very good service; they contracted to pay for that service with their client, who is my customer, to say that the language they use is not steering is an error Jac. I am not picking on you as you described an ethical method of processing, but I have had thousands of steering efforts in my day and never heard the language you described on a call. (Yes I monitor all calls) I have had problems with CSR's trying to steer customers that call in claims after the work has been complete for days, the CSR is told of it and they continue with the effort to get the customer to use their "preferred provider". Take your head out of the sand and stick up for your self. If you do good work you deserve to receive payment, more importantly the customer deserves to be treated better. Most of their tec's are given 50% of the actual fee that is paid and their experience is limited as they quickly loose interest in the 50% program when they pay for the fuel and provide the vehicle and then get a few jobs per day etc. In this area we have seen 6 Tec