DALLAS - EFG Companies, the innovator behind the award-winning Hyundai Assurance program, announced today the launch of EFG Express Claims, one of the industry’s first claims automation systems enabling dealerships to self-adjudicate claims and receive automatic approvals. For more information, visit http://bit.ly/EFGClaims.

EFG Express Claims automates the claims adjudication process using self-service features within DRIVE, EFG’s client portal. Using EFG Express Claims, dealership service managers have the ability to:

• search for open contracts on behalf of their customers and see exact coverage levels;

• open and submit claims;

• automatically adjudicate and approve claims meeting certain parameters set by dealership management and EFG; and,

• receive automatic payment by corporate credit card within one hour of claim approval.

“In today’s tight sales environment, dealers are focusing their attention on creating repeat business through the service drive and dealership-wide improvements in customer service,” said John Stephens, Executive Vice President, EFG Companies. “That’s why we developed the EFG Express Claims platform. Think about it from the service manager’s point of view. When a customer does not have their vehicle service contract information, which happens quite often, there is usually a multitude of phone calls and emails to obtain the information, causing delay in both filing the claim and getting the vehicle in the queue for repairs. With EFG Express Claims, the manager can look up all in-force contracts for any given vehicle. They can electronically submit the claim and receive instant approval. The customer is happy because work can begin more quickly. The service manager is happy because they can process the work on the vehicle more quickly and secure payment faster.”

For those claims that fall outside of the parameters for automatic approval, EFG Express Claims reduces the manual process of calling a claims service representative, and repeating all the necessary information for them to enter it into EFG’s system. Instead, the platform submits the claim and populates it within EFG’s internal system for claims processing. This further speeds up the entire process across the board.

“Each year, EFG endeavors to expand the company’s training, protocols, and software solutions in the effort to provide expeditious and high-quality customer service for contract holders and dealership service managers,” said Ken Overly, Vice President, Operations, EFG Companies. “Ninety-six percent of our claims are paid in one hour. We maintain an average 26 second speed to answer, and 67 percent of our total claims are one-call claims. However, no matter how quickly our team can answer calls, fill out claims information, and process the claim, it still takes time to open and close a claim. With EFG Express Claims, we make the process instantaneous in some cases, and drastically cutting claim processing time down for more complicated claims.”

EFG’s claims adjusters maintain an average of 12 years of experience, and are ASE and BenchmarkPortal-certified. Since 2010, EFG has invested more than $17 million in technology resources and IT development, with the goal of making EFG the easiest and most efficient company with which to conduct business. In addition to EFG Express Claims, EFG provides full contract automation, online contract cancellation quotes, online cancellation, a sophisticated skill-based routing system directing complex claims to the best qualified adjuster, and an online Parts Wizard to identify the highest quality parts from suppliers across the nation, at the lowest price, and in real time.