MPP Company

Improving Customer Service

MPP Company, the extended warranty subsidiary of Van Enterprises, a large automotive dealership group, is using DocuWare to electronically route documents and enhance the accessibility of business-critical information. The solution has resulted in secure information, automated workflow, better cash management, and exceptional customer service.

(For a quick summary, click here.)

Van Enterprises, Inc. is the nation’s largest privately owned automotive dealership group. Founded in 1955 with one car dealership, the company has grown into a multi-state operation with more than 50 dealerships and has become a Fortune 500 powerhouse which consistently ranks in the top 15% of all US companies. MPP Company was established to provide Van Enterprise car buyers with high quality service agreements and exceptional customer service.

Documents

MPP Company operates from Merriam, Kansas, and needed a better way to manage policies, claims, repair orders (ROs), proof of insurance and changes-in-coverage endorsements for over 650,000 vehicles.

Work Process

Under the company’s paper-based system, thousands of claims were routed through the approval process attached to a paper workflow check slip. The process began when a repair facility called to obtain pre-authorization for a repair. Next, the RO was mailed to the office where the information was transferred to a cover sheet and forwarded to the adjuster for verification and payment approval. A check would be generated and the paper work was filed. With over 25 adjusters, the company processed close to 10,000 claims a month! Circulating that volume of paper made the process less than efficient and lengthened the time it took for repair shops to receive payment.

In addition, the subsidiary frequently needed to retrieve paid claims and service agreements to explain payment amounts or provide a repair shop with the original service agreement in order for the shop to get credit for parts under a manufacturer’s warranty. Due to the volume of claims, lost or misfiled documents were common and reduced the quality of customer service while increasing claims expense.

Solution Requirements

The company wanted to implement a document management system to make their business processes simpler, faster and more efficient. They wanted to decrease the overall claims processing time, issue claim payments faster and improve customer service by reducing wait time on the phone. They knew they were being over run with paper and moving to an electronic system would allow them to improve customer service and remove barriers related to business growth.

Solution

Word-Tech Business Systems, Inc., an Authorized DocuWare Partner, implemented the company’s electronic document management solution and digitized not only the paper documents, but automated the workflow process as well.

Today, claim processing is digitized and automated. Prior-authorization occurs over the phone and ROs are mailed to the office, then scanned and automatically routed through the workflow process based on the document’s status and audit adjuster fields. All claims assigned to a particular adjuster, will appear in an electronic CONTENT-FOLDER located on his desktop computer. The adjuster opens the CONTENT-FOLDER and sees a list of claims to process. He opens the first claim, verifies the information, makes any notes directly on the e-document and electronically stamps the claim with “Paid.“ When e-stamped, the document status field automatically updates and causes the document to be instantly routed to the manager’s CONTENT-FOLDER. Once a batch of claims is ready to be paid, the manager will cut the checks and stamp the claim as “Closed“ causing the claim to be removed from the manager’s CONTENT-FOLDER and automatically filed in the electronic file cabinet.

The Benefits in Detail

Individual Benefits

Implementing a document management solution has empowered employees by giving them the tools they need to meet the company’s goals and improve customer service. Thanks to DocuWare, constant trips to the filing cabinets or offsite archives, dealing with paper routing slips and allocating significant blocks of time for filing and retrieval are now a thing of the past, vastly improving job satisfaction.

“We love how the CONTENT-FOLDER module directs our workflow. When a document appears in my folder I can process it, electronically stamp it, and it’s on its way. It has really streamlined my job,“ said Darryl Black, Customer Service Claims Adjuster for MPP Company.

Department Benefits

With DocuWare in place, information verification, the primary function of the Claims department, can be achieved quickly and easily from the desktop. Policies are now retrieved by a variety of indexes such as authorization or policy number, allowing instant access to complete information. Being able to answer customer’s questions immediately has improved customer service and reduced phone time by half.

The department no longer has to rely on an employee’s memory or post-it note annotations that were easily lost. By utilizing DocuWare’s layering feature, annotations can be easily attached to documents without compromising the integrity of the original document.

Filing time has been reduced from eight hours a day to only three hours of scanning and indexing - allowing the processing of more claims per day and increasing the department’s overall productivity.

For the Policy department, making a change in coverage and adding the new document to the existing policy is simple with the use of DocuWare’s electronic stapling function, and verifying coverage and retrieving policies is instantaneous.

Corporate Benefits

On a corporate level, the automating of workflow processes has contributed significantly to providing quality customer service for consumers. Raising the level of service reflects positively on individual car dealerships and adds heavily to dealer relations and sales.

By improving work processes in the extended warranty subsidiary, internal customer service between all arms of the company has been enhanced, allowing information to flow more routinely and accurately for better financial management of resources. As individual dealerships and repair shops are paid sooner, advanced cash flow decisions can be made for better control over finances.

“The biggest benefit for our dealers is the increased turnaround time for claim payments to repair facilities. Since we implemented DocuWare, our payables turnaround time has been cut in half. Our dealers love that we’ve been able to provide better service by excelling beyond their expectations!” said Josh Earnest, Payables Manager for MPP Company.

Management can easily perform internal audits on claims approved for payment and quickly resolve disputed claims while maintaining better control over the process. Efficient workflow allows the company to process more claims without hiring additional staff, positioning the company for growth while controlling costs.

By implementing DocuWare, the company is able to maintain original document integrity, and by assigning access rights - information is now more secure, limiting their legal and compliance exposure.

By investing in DocuWare, Van ­Enterprises and it’s extended warranty subsidiary, MPP Company, have given their employees the tools they need to succeed. The company has improved organizational efficiency and the bottom line while securing its reputation, what is considered by most industry experts, as the premier automotive operation in the world.