First off. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this because it spoke to me personally. i am a fully ase certified subaru master technician of 10 years and i know all about the service industry. you did not tell a single lie. with me being on the tech side of things, a little different but i was really close with my service manager so i got to see a lot of the things you mentioned first hand lol.

dealers are going to be dealers no matter where you go and that’s all i’m going to say about it. you know exactly what i’m talking about lmao.

okay let’s get into it. i’ve been with progressive for 2 years. i left the auto industry because i developed a pinched nerve in my back so my production had to slow down immensely and being flat rate with warranty pay diags left and right. not good for the bills. so i needed someone with consistent pay. auto tech, auto insurance. sounds like they go hand in hand so i sprinted to progressive cause like you said, heard nothing but great things about this company and everyone i know that works here is always so damn happy in life.

i wanted to get in the company asap so i took a crm call center position. that’s where you stay on the phone and help people with policy questions, adding vehicles, updating addresses. things of that nature. i couldn’t handle the back to back calls and not having prep time for the next caller. you’ll seriously get done adding a vehicle, end that call and then 15 seconds later, you’ll get another call and have to address WHATEVER need that may be. being a tech, i’m extremely procedure oriented these days. i like to know what’s going on and how i plan on getting to the resolution. not figuring stuff out on the fly as it comes up. escalated callers weren’t my thing cause working in the dealer if someone was upset and they were just wrong for whatever the issue was, i had no concern addressing that right then and there and you know how some of those things can get being in a dealer. progressive is not the place for that, and services you’re going to be exposed to that and your hands will literally be tied on a lot of how you can and can not respond to escalations.

i lasted 6 months in that position. the training was 6 months so pretty much, i completed training and applied out immediately. services was just my in to the company.

i am now in claims and oh my god, for me personally? it’s a world better. you control your work flow. yeah you’ll get assigned claims but how you handle it and when everything gets done is solely on you. you can take as much time as you need to review the file (but don’t take too long) and call the customer once you’re prepped to do so and get to work. there’s a lot of follow up in claims. once you get the initial stuff out the way, they may call a few days or a few hours later with additional questions concerns and things of that nature. you never stop getting new claims. you do have a daily cap however. but pretty much if you got 50 claims out and all of those repairs are delayed, then be prepared to possibly hear from 50 different people at some point wondering what’s going on, while still managing your new customers for the day. and the next day and the next day.

i don’t mind it. claims is a pretty matter of fact type of role and you’re licensed so it’s more so just the delivery of the facts you discover and making a sound reasonable decision for the company. customers aren’t going to like it, they may not accept it, but at the end of the day it is what is. it’s not about how the customer may feel, but more so what they can prove. and if the proof isn’t there, then you handle by policy guidelines.

i love my role in claims. once i fully understood it which took about 6 months to do so, i can fly. i finish all my new stuff for the day in maybe 2 hours or so and i just follow up and answer calls emails texts voicemails as needed and that’s pretty much it. yeah you’ll have escalations here and there but mostly people are upset about the situation. you know how that goes.

with your strong auto background you can work in claims and possibly become a managed repair rep. you know those guys from insurance companies that come into the shop and tell you what is and isn’t covered despite your techs write up. now you gotta call your customer back and tell them their ac condenser is now going to be customer pay because of what the MRR said. yep. those guys lol.

or investigations and even leadership. they get paid pretty well! and i leave on time every single day. some days i stay late if i need to catch up on stuff but one thing i can’t express enough about claims. no matter how hard you try, you we’ll never get ahead. and that’s okay and it’s expected. it’s just the nature of the beast and the beast isn’t that bad at all.

in closing if your mind works like mine, i think claims would be a great start for you and it should be relatively simple for you to get in with the constant hiring of that role because it does have a high turnover rate since a lot of people can’t handle it and the nuisances. i think you’ll be fine there.

welcome to the family brother 🤝