What contractors want from their carrier partners
To better facilitate contractor-carrier collaboration, we surveyed our network of insurance restoration professionals about what’s going on in their businesses today.
Nearly 500 senior leaders of construction businesses across the U.S. responded to our inquiry, sharing their visons for lasting success in the managed repair market. Here’s what they told us about their relationships with carrier partners.
Opportunities exist for increased contractor-carrier collaboration
The data is clear. Amid economic uncertainty and growing labor shortages, Managed Repair Programs offer contractors a steady stream of work, credibility, and trust, while simultaneously improving carriers’ claim cycle times and increasing policyholder satisfaction.
Contractors and carriers rely on each other in this mutually beneficial value chain, and contractors have clear ideas about how to make the relationship between them stronger. Their message to the industry: improved communications and responsiveness offer the biggest room for improvement.
If carriers and contractors collaborate more closely on documentation standards, realistic timelines, and clear escalation paths, we can reduce delays, improve quality, and create a better experience for the customer.
Rebuilding a communication ecosystem through the Managed Repair Program will bring success to everyone. When communication works, everything works!
The biggest opportunity for contractor-carrier collaboration is communication and partnership. When both sides share information openly and work toward the same goals — like safety, efficiency, and customer service — operations run a lot smoother.
As the coordinating hub of the insurance restoration ecosystem, Managed Repair Programs help achieve this aim. MRPs provide a framework to reduce adjuster workloads and ensure contractors have the information and resources needed to complete work to the carrier’s specifications.
Trust, partnership, and mutual respect are the goals. Technology can help us get there.
Contractors told us that they are using technology to strengthen their businesses in many ways. They also see the opportunity for it to help build better coordination with their carrier partners.
The most promising opportunities lie in coordinated, data driven partnerships where contractors and carriers share goals, communicate regularly, and integrate logistics into the project lifecycle. This approach can cut costs, improve quality, and open access to new markets while building long-term, mutually beneficial relationships.
Quicker collaboration between contractors and carriers would greatly assist with complex claims, by streamlining the process and creating a better experience for the insured.
I also think technology creates a big opportunity for real-time updates, better planning, and faster problem-solving. Overall, the best results come when contractors and carriers work as long-term partners instead of just transactional relationships.
This, too, is a place where participation in a dedicated MRP can make a meaningful difference. From Contractor Connection’s automated Digital Review tool, which improves estimate accuracy, to JobTrack, our real-time visibility and communication platform, today’s MRPs are leveraging technology to enhance coordination.
Facilitating mutual understanding, while simultaneously providing the tools to streamline contractors’ interactions with carriers, is right in Contractor Connection’s wheelhouse, and it’s a responsibility we take very seriously.
Lance Malcolm | President, U.S. Network Solutions | Crawford & Company
Stronger partnerships start with understanding.
Nearly 500 contractors shared their perspectives on today’s managed repair experience and the opportunities ahead. Margins are tightening almost everywhere. The demands on their businesses are coming from all sides. And they’d like to be better aligned with their partners.
None of these challenges can be solved by a single key stakeholder alone. They sit in the space between, where the two sides depend on each other most. With more than 25 years in managed repair, Contractor Connection is built to work in that space, and the findings in this report will help shape our future focus and priorities.
To every contractor who took the time to respond to our survey: thank you. Your candor is invaluable. To carriers and industry partners: we hope these findings start conversations within your own teams, and we’d welcome the chance to continue them with you.
Find out more
This is the third chapter of a three-part report on the managed repair industry and the trends shaping its future.
Read the first two chapters to learn about stakeholder needs and expectations and what’s on contractors’ minds.
Download the complete PDF report here.
Learn more about managed repair at contractorconnection.com