How is the mood of proximity appraisers across the country? I know SF is working constantly to eliminate the positions and at the same time putting everyone against each other with weekly metrics reports that only encourage high volume not quality. Most areas are way under staffed yet management is preaching doom and gloom daily if unrealistic metrics are not achieved.
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Left the company 7-31 and have never been happier. Took a hit on pension but after talling with former co workers it is worrh the cut in pension. No one is happy in my old unit. PTO is denied because not enough employees left and people are maxed put and are losing PTO days.
Shops now hate State Farm, employees are over worked and price wise we are not competitive. Down to 2 car policies and 2 old kid life insurance policies that cost $10 per month. At one time I had 4 cars,house, plup, mortgage, flood policy, checking, credit card, 30 K in mutual funds, and a 100K life policy, I only keep the cars because the are guaranteed renewable.
I have an old agent who should have retired 10 years ago who provided zero customer service and he told me if they complain to him about any thing he tells th hem to go find another company.
Been with yhe vompany policy wise for over 40 years and worked for them for over 30 and never saw things ghis bad
I was a 38 year employee in Claims that retired last year 2 years earlier than planned. Claims had become a disaster especially after Future State August 2015. The metrics was impossible to meet if you really worked a claim and customer service sank! Claims folks were forced to take any shortcuts they could and Cheating became a common denominator for trying to keep your numbers up. TMs didn't even care what you did or how , as long as the Metrics were maintained. For tenored employees, who cared about SF , quality and customer service it was impossible to keep up. PTO had to be used or would not continue to accure. So after being out on pto, you would come back to even more workload. Supposedly team members were dividing up your work and doing it , but they would only click it off to get a Metric point and not do the work. They didn't have time to do their own much less anyone else's. Claims were not being properly investigated and were being overpaid. I never imagined this could happen in my career! And it became obvious the tenored employees were being nitpicked and written up for anything a TM could find. In my TM's huddles ,we were told that State Farm was trying to get rid of the older employees. It became a miserable, toxic environment. I finally gave in to the pressures and left! A numerous amount of Claim Specialist left the company or resigned earlier than planned during 2018 including the younger, less tenored employee and even new hires after they got thru training and saw the impossible workload . Travelers, Erie, Acceptance, etc hired tons of SF employees. The Proximity folks then went thru it and Estimatics also. Saddens me what has happened to the Company that once was near and dear to my heart! Good luck OP , sorry you get sloppy work from Claims but they are being pushed beyond what is humanly possible!
Took the buy out last year. Took a 20% hit on pension but was worth it. Have not gone back to work but have had a few offers.
Friends that could not leave are miserable. My suggestion is as soon as you are eligible move on. Last 6 months have been wonderful.
My personal claim was handled by an independent who screwed up the claim. I was paid statutory penalty. That is sad. Bye SF. You blew it
@XrEMzk7-5ovh it is funny how perspective works, I will grant you that claims is a dumpster fire but you actually think estimatics was working? 5-7 days to get a staff estimate written in the jurisdictions I handle, Pocket estimates are not worth the paper they are printed on, the supplement desk is a joke that "never receives" more sups than they actually review and approve. The only thing that works in estimatics the way it should is Select Service and that is because estimatics is not involved. Classic case of the pot calling the kettle black.
gets*
@XrEMzk7-4ike the thing that gest me when they did the restructuring back in July, we were told a year ago this month, they stated that claims was going to take the lead on the estimatic restructuring, I was like, you know claim is a major dumpster fire. Why would you have claim managers and claims VPs take the lead on the restructuring in another department. It seems since they let claims advise them on the restructuring, they have destroyed the only part of the claims process that have worked.
Prox. appraiser here. 27 yrs. Team morale at an all time low. Express reps. and ILR (and essentially everyone that touches a claim) prior to us getting to look at it have customers IRATE. Which is lovely, because we are usually the ONLY in person employees of SF they ever see, and trust me, they let us have it on a constant basis. WAY understaffed, 20-30 yr estimators with enough accrued PTO that are forced to take time off, or give it to the company (no way). This makes the staffing coverage even harder. Feeling forced out. Just waiting for an opportunity, or hopeful severance. Impossible metrics to hit, especially with forced id--t programs like Estimate Check, and InPart Search. Decades of relationships with shops destroyed in a few short years due to policy, APU, etc., etc. Shops used to love when SF walked in the building. Now just another a--hole company man. Untrained, and constant rotation of claim reps that couldn't change their own oil much less argue an auto claim. Trying to argue auto repairs with trained technicians at shops. Every estimator I know, hates the way the company has gone. Every ETM is fed up with the lack of accountability in claims. They are dropping like flies. Now we are back to the way things were in the 70's and 80's- let the shops write an inflated estimate, send it in to be reviewed, and get a fat check. Feels like a sh--ty marriage gone bad after decades. Once trusted, family friendly company that was SO much fun to work for. Gone to sh-- in what I would say the past 5 years. Really s---s. Heartbreaking.
Management is clueless on how to increase production. They want is to phone scope or FaceTime losses in hopes that can maintain metrics. We have had additional reps quit since the July 31st bloodletting and have had extreme difficulty In hiring replacements. I believe the word is out that this is not the place to work.
I also am hoping for a future package.
Growth for growth ‘s sake is not good. Hopefully, at some point, the pendulum will swing back and SF will write policies for better customers.
If SF cannot do this, then SF will fail. I would say the loss of proximity appraisers and good claims handlers are going to be the demise of SF. SF can only pee on its people and customers for so long while saying that it’s a ‘warm golden shower’ before people realize that - no, they are just getting p-ss-d on.
So how do you like it where you are now?....honestly I hope they offer another transition.....the metrics are crazy and yes it just pits everyone against each other and all anyone talks about is how soon they can leave.....5 years ago I would have NEVER thought I would feel this way.
This ticks me off.......I took the package back in July and I am working with another insurance company, the restructuring in Estimatics never made sense to me.I think it was done in a hurry because the company overall panicked about the 7 billion underwriting loss and they told the VPs to cut back where they can. I think there were various VPs(including Estimatics) wanted to impress the CEO. I heard they cut estimators in some areas in half and relying on Independent Appraisers even more. It does not make any sense and let me guess service levels are dropping and they are telling the people that are left "you have to do more"........smh