This month Nationwide Insurance officially opened a new office for its adjusters inside the Dave Gill Pontiac GMC Service Department. This new office provides Nationwide customers with a central location to handle their estimating needs and in return shorten the time it takes to get its customers' vehicles back on the road after collision repairs."We like the partnership, it is beneficial for both of us," says Mike Sayre, a Nationwide Claims Manager on site for the opening. "This benefits our customers because it reduces the repair process cycle time and gets them back in their car and on the road faster."
According to Sayre, this partnership between an insurer and a collision center is the first of its kind in the country. Why did the Columbus-based Nationwide Insurance choose the Dave Gill Collision Center for this prototype program?
"We liked the facility because of its large size, cleanliness and professionalism of its staff," says Sayre.
The Dave Gill Collision Center, a Nationwide Direct Repair Facility since 2006, also has direct repair relationships with USAA.
"We're very excited about this opportunity to serve our collision center customers better than we have before," says Heath Schotts, Dave Gill Pontiac GMC Collision Center Manager. "We work on many Nationwide customers cars already that it makes perfect sense for them to work right out of our location."
To help take advantage of this new relationship, the Dave Gill Collision Center has expanded its hours to include Saturdays. The Collision Center is now open on Saturdays from 8 - 1 pm like the Service Department.
The new office, located in the dealership's service drive, used to be home to the customer lounge. To accommodate the Nationwide moves, a new customer lounge was created on the sales floor of the showroom. The new customer lounge features a large flat screen HD television, more comfortable seating, desktop work areas and a children's play area.
