Helping the Customer Address Short Pays

Up until the last year, I’ve always been able to negotiate with the insurance adjusters who came into my shop. But something has drastically changed. And it’s not just their unwillingness to negotiate either! When insurers insisted on short paying a claim, the difference was only a couple hundred dollars between my final repair bill and the check they’d cut. Now, though, I’m seeing vast differences…We’re talking $5,000 checks for $10,000 repair bills! Recently, I’ve had a number of claims with a short pay of $9,000 or more each.

It can be daunting when this happens, and I know I can’t be the only one – plenty of you are probably facing the same types of situations with insurers. Maybe our repair plans look a little different, but if you’re being thorough and documenting the procedures you’re following, you don’t deserve to get shortchanged on claims that come in your door. For some of us, that means charging the customer a copay, which is one option.

by JERRY MCNEE

But the customer is being harmed when they’re under-indemnified for a claim. They shouldn’t find themselves in a worse financial position after an accident when their insurance contract is supposed to make them whole again. Meanwhile, that money that rightfully belongs to the consumer is turned into the insurer profits center as they unjustly enrich themselves.

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There’s another option: Educating your customer about their right to invoke the Appraisal Clause takes the shop out of the equation and can help protect that customer. Two appraisers decide on the cost of the repair, and if they can’t agree, an umpire comes in to settle the difference. There are only a few options for your customer.

We aren’t asking for anything we don’t deserve, but as professionals, we are expected to repair their vehicle safely and properly. Labor operations we’re requesting don’t belong to the insurer; they belong to the customer whose policy promises to restore their vehicle to its preaccident condition. The insurer isn’t your friend or the consumer’s friend, and they don’t care who you are or what you do. They have one objective: to indemnify the claim. They don’t care that we have to invest into our shops to repair these vehicles safely. Do they even care if the vehicles are repaired safely? It doesn’t always seem to be the case.

As shop owners and technicians, we care…we have to because these are our customers, and the liability for an unsafe repair falls on our shoulders. Try asking the insurer to back you because you didn’t correctly repair your customer vehicle properly “because they won’t or didn’t pay for a procedure” and watch how fast they start pointing! So, it’s in our best interest to help