Hello! Little background, I am working with my brother and dad in a family owned auto glass company. I have been going into State farm agencies for 6 months, making sales calls, telling them about our mobile service, how we offer lifetime warranty on workmanship, we are on safelite solutions network, and bring them lunch and treats. We have gotten a few agencies to use us, however, many agencies are still referring their customers to Gerber and Safelite. My question is: is Gerber and Safelite giving some type of kickback to the agencies? I live in Illinois. Any help or inside information is appreciated. Thank you!
Kickback with Gerber/Safelite on Auto Glass Claims
byu/sarah_svestka inInsurance
Posted by sarah_svestka
9 Comments
Insurance doesn’t get any kickbacks from doing business with certain companies as that’s illegal. The insurance companies just have agreements with those companies so they will offer those to customers.
Nine times out of ten the customer isn’t calling their agent for a glass claim. They are doing it online or through the app for 99% of insurance companies. From there they are told the can use any shop of their choice or go through Safelite. You aren’t really going to drum up business via the agents.
Nope… They are using a company they are familiar with. Agents are also not usually the ones referring people and I probably would not just blindly use someone my agent recommended. Agents are sales people, they do not handle claims.
Have you ever heard the saying, from way back when, that nobody ever got fired for buying IBM?
I actually have people call often about glass claims as they want to actually talk to a person and not do it online. We have a local glass company that most people are familiar with, so I normally send them there – if not, they may ask about the company that will company will come to their home (Safelite), so if they want that, I will get online and set it up for them. Keep hitting up the agencies, I don’t think treats or lunch is worth it though – get in for a quick visit, drop off a couple cards, pens or notepads (something that we can give clients) and then you might get a few more clients. For reference, I live in a fairly small town, so we don’t have a lot of options without driving for half an hour.
No kickbacks, that would be steering and probably illegal. for agents to do so in most states. It is moslty becaus Safelite is pretty much embedded in the claim process at the company level. When an insured reportsa glass claim to the company via phone or app, it pretty much automatically goes to Safelite to take the claim and report it back to the insurance company.
As others have said, agents aren’t getting kickbacks from glass companies. Google search “windshield repair near me” and see what the top three or four results are. I’ll bet that is who is getting the most traffic. This is where SEO optimization for your website comes into play.
You don’t think it’s more likely that they simply trust a nationwide, extremely recognized company with a very long reputation over some small business who brought them a cookie and a fridge magnet? And that when customers Google “windshield repair” that those companies aren’t coming up first?
A lot of companies/carriers let Safelite handle the whole claim. When you call the company I work for (top 5 P&C carrier) for a glass only claim it goes straight to Safelite and they handle the whole thing from beginning to end. Most people don’t use their agent to call in a claim so that’s why you’re having limited success. Make sure you aren’t just calling on the big captive companies like State Farm or Allstate but on the independent brokers as they’re more likely to have a ton of companies, some of which won’t use Safelite or don’t have a preferred vendor.