Burbank, CA – SCA Appraisal Company seeks to reduce or eliminate some of the challenges with the current virtual auto appraisal companies through the use of STREAMLINE+. Insurance carriers and financial institutions can reduce cycle time, improve supplement accuracy, protect against consumer privacy and elevate safety standards in compliance with CDC social distancing guidelines. With STREAMLINE+ by SCA, the same local appraiser who handles physical inspections is assigned the virtual appraisal from start to finish; handling not only the initial estimate, but all potential changes and supplements for the life of the claim.
“Years ago, virtual appraisal was just in its infancy and now it is an acceptable method of inspection for most claim types. Inherent with current photo apps there are some obstacles with estimates including: lack of local knowledge and licensing, added days when the virtual-only company needs to send out for a physical supplement inspection and the invasive nature of downloading a single-use app to a vehicle owner’s phone.”, says Timothy Davis, President and second-generation leader of family-owned SCA Appraisal now in its 41st year of operation. “STREAMLINE+ allows us to leverage our entire 800+ national footprint of appraisers to handle virtual estimates using their local parts supplier knowledge, state licensing and familiarity of local collision repairers. Owner or Shop- provided photo appraisals, when handled remote, tend to have a high supplement rate, higher still supplement severity and added cycle time when the initial estimate needs to be assigned to an IA for physical re-inspection. We know this because we already handle these virtual claim supplements from other providers. In short, we are going to take the existing and accepted virtual process and make it better, more accurate and quicker.”, Davis continued.
The STREAMLINE+ process assigns the inspection to an established appraiser in the local market of the vehicle loss, not in a remote building or off-shored overseas. SCA makes contact with the vehicle owner and sends a link via text to start the photo process. The vehicle owner can watch a quick instruction video or simply follow the prompts on their smartphone and once complete, the images are sent back to the local appraiser to write the initial estimate. No app or programming resides on the vehicle owner’s phone. If a supplement or approved part price change is needed, the same appraiser handles the request swiftly and without transfer. And, by using CCC’s Integrated Workflow, SCA can quality control work in near real-time.
“Pilot testing of STREAMLINE+ has proven to reduce overall cycle time by nearly 25% and when combined with CCC reduces supplement severity by more than 30%.”, states Jon Gironda, EVP and Chief Operations Officer at SCA. “We are also seeing this local process has brought more vehicles into the virtual workflow than before, which means not only cycle- time savings, but also the reduction in expensive mileage charges for some vehicles. The process helps us quickly triage vehicles that need a physical inspection. For heavy equipment claims, we’re finding we can service clients 3 – 4 days faster by getting the initial estimate and repairs started sooner. And recently, we have found this to be the safest method of conducting quality appraisal during this time of social distancing.”
There are no setup charges, IT requirements or transactional minimums to use STREAMLINE+. For more information, have a demo setup, or start a STREAMLINE program today, please call 1-818-845-7621 or email ClientServices@sca-appraisal.com. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
For media inquiries please contact:
Phil Langley
Vice President Client Services
plangley@sca-appraisal.com
214-914-0187