By John Yoswick
Auto insurance company advertising has become ubiquitous, but drivers seem to view insurance almost as a commodity product, with little difference among their choices.
“Ironically, while the industry’s estimated annual ad spend now nears $10 billion, consumers say they see less differentiation” among auto insurers, Tom Super, head of property and casualty insurance at J.D. Power, said in announcing the findings of one of his company’s surveys related to auto insurance.
That’s certainly not the case among the nation’s body shops. The 2021 Insurer Report Card, released in February by industry newsletter CRASH Network, shows that collision repairers see significant differences among insurers in terms of how well their “claims handling policies, attitude and payment practices ensure quality repairs and customer service for motorists.”
More than 1,100 collision repairers gave the insurers in their state a grade from “A+” to “F,” with the survey overall grading 93 auto insurers. As in past years, the survey found the nation’s largest auto insurers, the ones spending the most on all that advertising, received grades putting them …
