JD Power and Associates: Farmers Insurance Recognized for HelpPoint Call Center Customer Satisfaction Excellence for a Second Consecutive Year ("Whoop-di-doo")

I have received emails from people stating something like “your web site is incorrect because Farmers Insurance was awarded JD Power and Associates Customer Satisfaction Excellence for two years in a row”. My answer is “whoop-di-doo!” Farmers Insurance’s HelpPoint Call Center is nothing but a glorified telephone answering service.

One article states, "To become certified, the call center operations successfully passed a detailed audit of their recruiting, training, employee incentives, management roles and responsibilities, and quality assurance capabilities.” What does this have to do with customer service and settling a claim quickly, efficiently and fairly? Nothing.

That award/recognition is pretty much meaningless when put into perspective. Why you ask? Well let me give you a scenario. Lets say your local 911 emergency dispatcher call service was awarded Customer Satisfaction Excellence for 10 years in a row. Lets say someone’s dog gets loose, enters your house and bites you. In the process of calling 911 you knock a candle over and your house is now on fire. Your emergency call into the 911 dispatch goes great. A real person answers the phone (wow), records all the pertinent information, logs the call and time, comforts you over the phone assuring you everything will be great. They say just go to the hospital to get your injuries taken care of and the fire truck is on its way. Wow, that was impressive!

You go to the hospital and get your bite taken care of. You come home and your house is burnt to the ground. No fire truck or ambulance has been to your house. They logged your call and did a great job doing it, but the buck stopped there. You later find out that the dispatchers are encouraged (and awarded pizza parties and gift certificates) NOT to send a fire truck to a burning house because then it would cut into the profit margin of your city. You see that your 911 call center was awarded for great customer service and shake your head in surprise, what is wrong with this picture?

For the record.

JD Power and Associates recognizes Farmers Insurance's HelpPoint® Call Center Satisfaction Excellence for two years in a row. ( “whoop-di-doo!”)
According to JD Powers and Associates 2006 Collision Repair Satisfaction Study, it got their Worst rating for "Overall Experience", "Claim Settlement ", "Claim Representative ” and "Claim Process and Procedures".
According to JD Powers 2006 Auto Insurance Study, Farmers Insurance got their Worst rating for "overall experience", "policy offerings" and "pricing”.
According to J.D. Power and Associates 2005 National Auto Insurance Study, Farmers Insurance received J.D Power’s Worst rating for "Claims Handling" and "Pricing".
According to J.D. Power and Associates 2005 Collision Repair Satisfaction Study, Farmers Insurance received J.D Power’s Worst rating for "Overall Experience" and "Claim Settlement".

See Farmers Insurance Rated Worst for details

Even with the Call Center recognition you will probably still have a terrible experience with your Farmers Insurance claim call.

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