Improving Scorecard Performance

With the extensive use of data and online information to make improved decisions including gamification of things like fantasy sports apps, knowing how to interpret data is so important in our day-to-day lives. Our industry is increasingly being tied to KPI’s as work provider (OEM program, insurer, dealerships, or fleet), scorecard performance can directly impact the assignment traffic from your work sources. Optimizing referrals with work preferred provider you have partnered with requires you to understand the rules of the game established by that specific work provider. To win any game, we all know we must learn the rules of the game and achieve the results necessary to earn an edge in the game. In this article, we will explore the use of profiles and KPI’s to drive workflow and offer some ideas to help you get an edge in the game! 

History of the Insurance Repair Scorecard 

Locator - In the late 1990’s, I was fortunate to be a part of a few teams which were considering commercialization of an accident management entity. We started with the idea of certifying repairers on a network program as affiliate (on their way to achieve certification) and partner repairers. Once a shop was certified, the work provider would market network members' locations to their customers in a geographic area, with fully certified partners getting priority. Then, the network (funded by a paint company) spent a substantial budget to promote this network to the consumer, and the network successfully earned the members consumer referrals for several years.  

Today, many work providers ask repairers to provide and maintain profile data and triangulate the nearest member that meets the requirements or having achieved preferential score card results) with geolocators. So, the first key to winning the game is remembering to frequently update your profile data (with the various work provider networks) to be certain they know of all your capabilities (such as new tooling, vehicle-specific training, and OEM certifications.) 

Scorecard – In a parallel project in accident management a few years earlier, a different team I was on patented the idea of a weighted scorecard. We studied which eight to 10 metrics work providers were interested in using to evaluate their networks based upon. We considered that most work providers review different metrics. We then included the idea of adding a weighting to the various KPIs and then asked for claims data to be shared so that data can be stack-ranked or mean-averaged to the market. Below is a simple example of how one might work where the score is the mean average of the market values: 

Currently, work providers, on a global basis, have implemented scorecard tools similar to the simple example above (each insurer has their own weight and they tend to use the mean average to determine the score earned), which are used to rank repairers which their call center use to list top “X” performers within the geolocated area.  

Savvy repairers study these metrics and attempt to gauge the weighting of each KPI to win more of their business! Consider: 

Which KPIs are used by the work provider to evaluate repairers? 
Based on historical scorecards, how might they weight these different KPI’s? (some work providers might openly tell you what carries more weight). 
Based on your performance, how do you compare to the market? Note: Some data providers have dashboards to show how you perform 
Your goal is to always be “Better than market average” or to “Be a top performer.” 

It’s up to you to improve your process-driven system to optimize the scorecard. 

Most importantly, you should evaluate the various internal estimating, repair, production, or administrative processes which affect the KPI’s. and refine those processes to improve your results on the KPI targeted by the work provider. 

If you look at your position in the market, you should seek to have the maximum repeat and referral work from consumers and a “diversified and profitable” flow from the work providers you have partnered with.  

Understand the “Other Strategies” of the Game 

A metric which should be watched on an ongoing basis is to monitor the total job count or volume assigned and repaired per insurer, fleet, or dealer. This is a leading indicator that some strategy or rule of the game may have changed, and you need to adjust how you play. In some cases, a certain competitor may have made an agreement to lower reimbursement rate or give discounts, in a “race to the bottom” by discounting. Today, with a labor shortage and rising cost, this thinking is counterintuitive but may be a way for poor performers to “earn an unfair edge the game”.  

Look for signs of these changes in strategy and be cautious regarding your next moves. Often, these discounts are temporary and the focus on KPIs comes back in focus. You then need to decide if you will win by performance or if you need to meet or beat the discount. I always prefer a win/win negotiation, where if I perform or help them by offering a concession (win for them), then they must reciprocate and offer more claims volume (win for me). 

In the example above, the repair center in Q2 & Q3 2024 can see the insurer is providing fewer assignments. If you notice the trend, you might take a few steps in progressive order to turn the results back in a growth situation: 

Ensure your scorecard results are in the local or regional top performer category to win via performance. 
Solicit more Google Reviews and CSI results to build a larger sample size and to use those improved results when meeting with the referral source. 
Visit the work providers agents or local representatives to share past customers reviews or NPS feedback and ask questions to ensure their customers were completely satisfied. 
If volume is still declining, ask to meet with the claims team to see if “is there anything we could do better?” This may smoke out personality conflicts or other quirks which the data doesn’t show. 
Further, look at the data on heavy hits in the same period. Your local competitor may also be “gaming the system” by sending all the heavy hits to other repairers to lengthen their competitors’ cycle time and rental days and lower CSI scores because of lower on-time deliveries. The intention is to get more claims sent their way. Meanwhile, the repairer completing the heavy hit is delivering more labor hours per day and dealing with complex repairs. You may either decide to specialize in these heavy-hit repairs or you may consider a twist and temporarily redirect the heavy hits to another repair center. 

What specific “strategies,” processes, or procedures do these companies want to focus on? 

Work providers frequently will contact the repair centers with new company decisions on P-pages or other procedures they want to ask you to adhere to. Some of these requests may seem unfair or unreasonable, so you must weigh whether you are comfortable making the concessions. The local claims team is often merely trying to interpret these new rules and pass them along to local repairers. And some local teams enforce them more vigorously than others. It’s important to track what they are asking for and decide if it can be profitably overcome or whether you back off accepting assignments with that organization. In the instance where the concessions are significant, try not to drop the DRP (as they are hard to get back). Instead, back off claims for a while to see how long these new policies last. In some cases, tracking past concessions can allow you to change back to charging the “standard rate” again when they are focused elsewhere. 

Note: Another challenge is when you make a concession for one work provider, you don’t need to apply that concession to all. Instead, have a simple cheat sheet per insurer to ensure you verify you are following your agreed concessions or guidelines as you submit claims. 

The Reality 

For most of what we have said in this article, you may have thought of or even looked at from time to time. But ask yourself: are you routinely (monthly or quarterly) meeting with your staff proactively to discuss the ever-changing rules and strategies per work provider? You should discuss their compliance and challenges and preparing (by reviewing estimating system data in advance) for face-to-face meetings with referring organizations Being proactive will help enable you to make course corrections more quickly to minimize any downturn in assignment volume.  

Summary 

The key to winning any game is to understand the rules very clearly, have an adaptable strategy and play the game with focus thinking of the impact of your decisions. It goes without saying that the key to optimizing the profitable volume from the work providers is solid performance in the metrics on which their organizations place the most weight. Also, making concessions shouldn’t be a race to the bottom; they should be a win/win. Further, watching the trends allows you to proactively implement ways to course-correct and solicit more volume. Good luck!