Just a few weeks ago,
After a “notable decrease” during the first quarter of 2012, customer claims satisfaction increased by 10 points during the second quarter, to 852 (on a 1,000-point scale).
Of the contributing factors contributing to this improvement, J.D. Power noted that the amount paid out-of-pocket also decreased in the second quarter by $36 to an average of $218. Similarly, the percentage of respondents that spent more than $300 decreased to 22 percent (from 25 percent).
"The amount spent out-of-pocket most definitely affects the perception of fairness of a settlement, further influencing satisfaction with the overall auto claims process," said Jeremy Bowler, senior director of the insurance practice at J.D. Power and Associates. "Additionally, the settlement factor is influenced highly by the clarity and thoroughness of the settlement explanation given to the customer by the insurance company. If the customer understands the process and what they are paying for, they tend to have higher satisfaction with their experience."
Additionally, the average claim duration for a repairable vehicle improved slightly to 13.7 days (from 14 in the first quarter). Despite the fact that the report indicates customers too their vehicles to repair facilities quicker, which likely accounted for the drop, satisfaction with the repair process rebounded 10 points in the second quarter.
For this year’s auto claims data, J.D. Power used more than 2,600 auto insurance customers who filed a claim within the last six months—second quarter data was collected between April and May.
