Progressive 2006 Annual Report Download - page 10

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Long before 2006 started, we recognized that growth, and the atten-
dant issues in managing growth, would not be the primary focus for
the year but rather we would give maximum effort to key initiatives
we believed would shape the company for the future and, in some
cases, provide a distinct competitive advantage. We concentrated
on claims, developing a marketing culture and focusing on long-term
customer satisfaction that will lead to increased retention.
Claims Our emphasis on quality claims handling and superior
customer experiences continues to meet our expectations, and
I never tire of reporting that year-after-year our assessments on
both measures exceed prior highs. Going forward, our emphasis
will be to ensure quality and service levels are maintained in bal-
ance with a cost structure that contributes to, and strengthens, our
market competitiveness.
Our biggest strategic contribution to facilitating this balance took
a huge step forward in 2006 with the opening of 29 new concierge
claims centers. We now operate 53 such claims centers nationally
in 41 metropolitan markets. Long-term followers of Progressive
know that this initiative has gone from concept, to market test, to a
20 operation burn-in period to, now, full-scale deployment. Each
phase tested our thesis that this concept is capable of creating a
really meaningful and valued change in the consumer experience,
while reducing the frictional costs associated with claims handling,
all while leveraging our scale to economic and competitive advantage.
I could not be more pleased that we have now reached a market pen-
etration where we can declare and advertise that this is our primary
approach to damage assessment and facilitation of repair in a grow-
ing number of markets. We will incorporate this distinctive offering
as part of our ongoing advertising and brand communication.
STRATEGIES AND EMPHASIS
Provide our customers the
best claims service available in
the industry.
Make all of our customer
interactions as pleasant, accurate
and efficient as possible.