Glossary

Actual cash value (ACV) is what a damaged item was worth in the moment immediately before the loss, normally calculated as replacement cost less depreciation. It is the figure most motor and property policies settle on, and it is what the majority of settlement disputes are really about.

An adjuster is the insurance professional who investigates a claim, establishes the facts of the loss, applies the policy terms, and agrees what the insurer will pay. The title is standard in North America and covers staff, independent and public adjusters working from a desk or in the field.

Aftersales is the European and UK name for everything a dealership does for a vehicle after it has been sold: servicing, mechanical repair, parts supply, warranty work and bodyshop repair. North American dealers call the identical department fixed operations, or fixed ops.

Application fraud is the deliberate misrepresentation or concealment of material information when a policy is bought or renewed, so that cover is issued cheaper or issued at all. It happens at the point of quote, before any incident and before any claim exists.

An approved repairer is a body shop or garage an insurer has vetted and contracted to carry out repairs on claims it handles, working to agreed rates, methods, parts policy and quality standards. Approval is a commercial relationship, not a public certification.

Augmented reality support, usually shortened to AR support, is live remote assistance in which the expert can draw onto what the camera is showing. Arrows, circles and labels stay anchored to the object in view, so both people are pointing at the same component instead of describing it.

Asset uptime is the percentage of scheduled operating time during which a piece of equipment is available and able to run, calculated by dividing the hours it could actually run by the hours it was scheduled to run. It is the availability half of every reliability programme.

Asset utilisation rate is the share of an asset's available time or capacity that was actually spent doing productive work, calculated by dividing hours or units of real output by the hours or units available in the same period. It measures equipment rather than people, and it is not the same thing as availability.

Asynchronous capture is a model for collecting visual information in which the person recording and the person reviewing are never required to be present at the same moment. A request is sent, the participant completes it whenever it suits them, and the submission is reviewed later.

The term BDC, or Business Development Center, is a vital aspect of the automotive industry, particularly in car dealerships. It refers to a department within a car dealership that is responsible for generating sales opportunities, which includes setting appointments for potential customers to meet with sales associates. This article will delve into the intricacies of BDC, its functions, importance, and how it operates within a car dealership.

Betterment is the improvement a policyholder gains when a repair replaces a worn item with a new one, and the deduction an insurer applies to offset it. It exists because indemnity restores the pre-loss position, and a brand new part fitted to an ageing asset goes past that line.

In the realm of personalized video messaging, one of the most crucial yet often overlooked aspects is the video bitrate. The video bitrate is a technical term that refers to the amount of data processed per unit of time in a video file. It is typically measured in kilobits per second (Kbps) or megabits per second (Mbps). This article will delve into the intricacies of video bitrate, its significance in personalized video messaging, and how it impacts the overall quality and viewing experience.

Break-fix is the service model where work is carried out, and paid for, only when something fails. There is no ongoing fee and no standing commitment: the customer calls, a job is raised, an engineer attends, and the invoice covers that visit's labour, parts and travel.

Callback rate is the share of completed jobs that require a return visit for work that should have been finished the first time, calculated as callbacks divided by completed jobs within a defined window. It is the quality metric that sits directly behind first-time fix rate.

A capture flow is the configured sequence of steps a participant works through when submitting visual information to an organisation, specifying what to record, in what order, with which instruction shown at each step and which questions are attached along the way.

A catastrophe claim, or CAT claim, is a claim arising from a single large event that damages many insured risks at once, such as a hurricane, wildfire or hailstorm. Insurers code these claims to one catastrophe event number so the cost of that event can be measured and reinsured separately.

In the automotive industry, the term "CDP" stands for Customer Data Platform. This is a type of software that aggregates and organizes customer data across a variety of channels, including both online and offline sources. The goal of a CDP is to provide a unified, 360-degree view of customers to help businesses improve their marketing, sales, and customer service efforts.

A digital chain of custody is the documented, unbroken record of how a piece of digital evidence was captured, received, fingerprinted, sealed and handled from that moment on, supporting the traceability of the material and its handling rather than the truth of the events the material shows.

Claim frequency is the rate at which claims arise across a book of business, normally expressed as claims per 100 earned exposure units over a defined period. In motor insurance the exposure unit is the earned car year, so frequency is read as claims per 100 earned car years.

Claims automation is the use of software to carry out steps in the claims process that a handler would otherwise do by hand, from intake and validation through triage, decisioning and payment. The aim is straight-through handling of simple claims and faster routing of complex ones.

Claims cycle time is the elapsed time between the first notification of loss and the closure of a claim, usually counted in calendar days. It is the headline operational metric in claims, and most of the time inside it is spent waiting for information, not working the file.

Claim severity is the average cost of a claim, calculated by dividing the total amount paid over a period by the number of claims in that same period. It answers how expensive claims are, while claim frequency answers how often they happen.

A claims handler is the person who owns an insurance claim from notification to closure: validating cover, gathering evidence, instructing suppliers and experts, negotiating settlement, and keeping the customer informed. The title is standard in the UK, Ireland and most of Europe.

Claims leakage is the difference between what a claim actually cost the insurer and what it should have cost if every step had been handled correctly. It is money lost to process failure rather than fraud, and it is found only by re-auditing closed files.

A claims portal is the online interface where a claimant or their representative notifies a claim and tracks it through to settlement, holding the claim record, collecting evidence, showing status, and passing structured data into the insurer's claims system rather than into a shared inbox.

A claims reserve is the money an insurer sets aside to pay the remaining cost of a claim that has been reported but not yet settled. It sits on the balance sheet as a liability, and it is revised up or down every time better information about the claim arrives.

Claims triage is the process of sorting incoming claims by what each one actually needs, complexity, value, urgency and risk, then routing each to the right handler, channel and level of investigation before substantive work begins. It happens at or just after FNOL.

Claims validation is the set of checks an insurer runs to confirm that a reported loss is covered by the policy, that the account given matches the evidence supplied, and that the amount claimed is right, before payment is authorised. It runs on every claim, not only the ones that look wrong.

Commissioning is the structured process of proving that an installed system performs the way it was specified to, tested and documented before responsibility passes to the operator. Installation puts the equipment in place. Commissioning proves it works, and records the proof.

A contents claim is a claim made under the contents section of a household policy for movable possessions at an insured address that are damaged, destroyed, or stolen. It is settled item by item rather than as a single repair, which makes proof of ownership and value the part that decides how long it takes.

Control points are the technical signals and recorded session events that a capture system logs around a digital submission, such as device history, IP reuse, virtual camera detection and recording location. They tell a reviewer which cases deserve a closer look. They never decide whether a claim is genuine.

A courtesy car is a replacement vehicle a garage, dealership or insurer provides to a customer while their own vehicle is off the road for repair. It is normally a small, standard-specification car offered for the duration of the work, not a like-for-like match for the customer's own vehicle.

Crash for cash is organised motor insurance fraud in which a collision is deliberately caused, invented or exaggerated so claims can be made against an insurer. The money comes less from the damage itself than from the personal injury, credit hire, storage and recovery costs bundled around it.

The Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) is a critical metric used in the automotive industry to measure the satisfaction levels of customers with the services provided by the service department or workshop. This index is crucial for automotive businesses, especially for service managers, as it directly impacts the sales of parts and services. The CSI is a comprehensive tool that takes into account various factors, including the quality of service, the efficiency of the service process, and the overall customer experience.

In the realm of digital marketing, the term 'Call-to-Action' (CTA) holds a significant place. It is a strategy that prompts an immediate response from the audience, leading them to take a specific action. This article delves into the concept of Call-to-Action in the context of personalized video messaging, a rapidly growing trend in the marketing world. Personalized video messaging involves tailoring video content to individual viewers, creating a unique, engaging, and highly effective marketing tool.

In the world of automotive and car dealerships, understanding the customer lifecycle is crucial to the success of the business. The customer lifecycle is a term used to describe the stages a customer goes through in their relationship with a company, from the initial contact or discovery, through the process of engagement, purchase, use, and finally, loyalty or advocacy. This lifecycle is not a linear process, but rather a cyclical one, where the end goal is to turn a one-time customer into a repeat customer, and ultimately, a brand advocate.

Customer loyalty is a term that is frequently used in the automotive industry, particularly in car dealerships. It refers to the likelihood of a customer returning to a particular dealership to make repeat purchases, and their willingness to recommend the dealership to others. This concept is crucial in the automotive industry, as it directly impacts the profitability and sustainability of a dealership.

Customer pay is the pay type on a dealership repair order for work the vehicle owner funds themselves, as opposed to work billed to the manufacturer under warranty or charged to another department internally. Dealers shorten it to CP, and it is the highest-margin of the three pay types.

A damage matrix is the grid an operator uses to turn observed damage into a consistent code and a charge: panel or component down one axis, damage type and severity across the other, with a tolerance and a cost in each cell. It is what makes two inspectors reach the same number.

Declined work is the recommended repair or maintenance a customer refuses to authorise at the point of the write-up. It is the same money as recommended work, viewed from the other side of the conversation, and it stays on the vehicle until someone else does the job or the part fails.

A deductible is the fixed amount a policyholder absorbs on a covered loss before the insurer pays anything, subtracted from the settlement on each claim. It is set at underwriting, applies per claim rather than per year, and is the same mechanism UK policies call a policy excess.

A deepfake is synthetic media generated by artificial intelligence: an image, video, audio clip or document depicting something that never happened. In claims, it means evidence with no real-world original behind it, unlike a shallowfake, which is a real file someone edited.

A desk adjuster is a claims adjuster who handles claims from an office or remotely, working from documents, photographs, video and phone calls rather than travelling to inspect the loss in person. The role is also called an inside adjuster or a telephone adjuster.

A digital claims journey is the end-to-end path a claim takes from first notification to settlement when every step is designed to be completed through digital channels. It describes the whole sequence rather than a single portal or app, and it is usually judged by how few times the customer has to leave it.

A digital fingerprint is a short value calculated from the exact contents of a file, almost always using the SHA-256 hash function, so that the same file always produces the same value and changing anything at all, even one pixel in one frame, produces a completely different value.

Customer loyalty is a term that is frequently used in the automotive industry, particularly in car dealerships. It refers to the likelihood of a customer returning to a particular dealership to make repeat purchases, and their willingness to recommend the dealership to others. This concept is crucial in the automotive industry, as it directly impacts the profitability and sustainability of a dealership.

Digital retailing is the set of tools and processes that let a dealership structure and progress a real deal online: price, part exchange allowance, finance quote, add on products, deposit and paperwork, with the same numbers carried through to the showroom.

Dispatch is the act of releasing a job to a named technician and committing them to travel to site, with the parts, permits and information the job needs. It is the point where a plan becomes a vehicle on the road, and the last moment at which a visit can still be avoided.

In the automotive industry, the term DMS, or Dealer Management System, refers to a comprehensive software suite that assists car dealerships in managing their operations. This includes everything from sales and finance to parts inventory and service management. A DMS is essentially the backbone of any car dealership, providing the necessary tools to streamline processes and improve efficiency.

An end of lease inspection is the formal condition assessment carried out when a leased vehicle is returned, grading bodywork, glass, tyres, interior, equipment and paperwork against the return standard written into the contract. It produces the report that end-of-contract charges are built from.

An engineer report is the written assessment a qualified motor engineer produces after examining a damaged vehicle, setting out the damage found, the cost and method of repair, and whether repairing it makes sense against the vehicle's value. Most total loss decisions rest on it.

An escalation path is the pre-agreed route a problem takes when the team holding it cannot resolve it within agreed limits. It names who it goes to next, what triggers the move, how fast the next tier must respond, and what information travels with it.

Evidence integrity is the set of technical and procedural controls that let an organisation prove exactly what digital material it received, when the receiving system recorded it, whether that material is still unchanged, and what the team did with the case afterwards.

An exaggerated claim is a genuine insurance claim whose value or extent has been deliberately inflated beyond the actual loss. The incident is real, the damage is real, and the dishonesty sits only in the size of what is being asked for.

Fair wear and tear is the deterioration a vehicle picks up through normal, careful use over the term of a lease, as opposed to damage caused by a specific event, neglect, or misuse. It is the line every end-of-contract charge is argued across.

A field adjuster is a claims adjuster who travels to the loss location, inspects the damage in person, and writes the estimate from what they see and measure on site. The role is also called an outside adjuster, or a field appraiser in motor claims.

A field engineer is a technically qualified person who works at customer sites rather than from a fixed workshop, installing, commissioning, diagnosing, repairing and certifying equipment where it sits. The role pairs hands-on technical skill with decisions made alone, on site, usually under time pressure.

First line support is the first tier of a support organisation: the team that takes every incoming contact, logs it, resolves the issues that have a known answer, and hands the rest to a specialist tier with the diagnosis already under way. It is defined by scope, not seniority.

A first party claim is a claim a policyholder makes against their own insurance policy for their own loss, settled by their own insurer under the contract between them. Collision, comprehensive, buildings, contents and health claims are all first party claims.

First-time fix rate is the share of service jobs resolved on the first visit, with no return trip for parts, information or a second technician. It is the headline productivity measure in field service, calculated as jobs fixed first time divided by total jobs.

Fixed operations is the North American name for the side of a dealership that services and repairs vehicles instead of selling them: service, parts, and the body shop. It is called fixed because those departments carry fixed overhead and produce steady gross whether or not new cars are moving.

Fleet telematics is the use of an in-vehicle device or built-in connected system to record location, driving behaviour, fuel use and engine diagnostics and send it to the fleet office, so vehicles can be tracked, routed and maintained without anyone calling the driver. Insurers use similar data for a different job.

First Notification of Loss (FNOL) is the first report a policyholder or third party makes to an insurer after an incident. It is the point at which a claim file is opened, a reserve is set, and the claims clock starts running.

The term 'video frame rate' refers to the frequency at which consecutive images, known as frames, appear on a display. In the context of personalized video messaging, understanding and manipulating video frame rates can significantly impact the quality and effectiveness of your messages. This article will delve into the intricate details of video frame rates, their implications on personalized video messaging, and how different tools and software can be utilized to optimize them.

A fraud indicator is an observable feature of a claim, an application or a claimant's behaviour that is statistically associated with fraud and is used to decide how much scrutiny a file gets. It is a reason to look more closely, never a finding of dishonesty.

Field service management is the coordination of work carried out away from the employer's own premises: raising and prioritising jobs, matching them to technicians with the right skills and parts, and closing out a verified record of what was done on site. Shortened to FSM, it runs from request to billable job.

Ghost broking is the fraudulent sale of motor insurance by someone posing as a legitimate broker, where the victim pays for cover that is either wholly fake or genuine but obtained on falsified details, and usually discovers the problem only at a police stop or a declined claim.

A goodwill repair is work a manufacturer, importer or dealer pays for in whole or in part when no contract obliges them to pay anything. It is discretionary, usually offered to keep a customer, and it is what a service department turns to when a component fails just outside cover.

Guided capture is a method of collecting photos, video and answers in which the requesting organisation, rather than the person holding the phone, decides what gets recorded, in what order, and with what instruction at each step. The participant follows prompts instead of guessing.

A handover certificate is the document recording that completed work has been formally accepted by the party receiving it, on a stated date, transferring responsibility for the works and starting the contractual clocks that run from acceptance. It records acceptance, not the absence of defects.

A health and safety inspection is a planned examination of a workplace, site or piece of equipment to check that actual conditions match the standards that apply, with the findings recorded so they can be assigned and closed out. It looks at what is true now, not at what might go wrong later.

A home insurance claim is a request for repair, replacement, or payment under a household policy after damage, loss, or theft at an insured address. It covers two distinct sections, buildings and contents, and which section responds decides the evidence, the supplier, and the timescale.

In the automotive industry, an Inventory Management System (IMS) is a crucial tool that helps car dealerships manage their inventory effectively. This system allows dealerships to keep track of their stock, manage orders, and ensure that they have the right amount of vehicles at the right time. It's a complex system that involves various processes and technologies, all aimed at optimizing inventory levels and improving business performance.

Indemnity is the principle that an insurance payment restores the policyholder to the financial position they were in immediately before the loss, and no better. It is the rule that almost every settlement mechanic, from actual cash value to betterment to salvage, exists to enforce.

An independent adjuster is a licensed adjuster who handles claims on an insurer's behalf under contract rather than as an employee, usually through an independent adjusting firm and usually paid per assignment. Insurers use them for surge, coverage gaps and specialist work.

An installation checklist is a fixed, ordered list of the steps and verification points a technician completes and records during an installation. It controls the sequence of work and doubles as the record that proves the job was done correctly, not just finished.

Insurance telematics is the use of driving data recorded by a vehicle, a plug-in device, or a smartphone app, covering speed, braking, cornering, mileage, time of day, and impact forces, to price motor cover and to support claims decisions. It is also sold as usage-based insurance or black box insurance.

Internal work is the pay type on a dealership repair order where the workshop performs labour and fits parts for the dealership itself, billed to another department rather than to a customer or the manufacturer. Reconditioning, pre-delivery inspection and lot damage are the classic examples.

A job card is the shop-floor record of a single job: the sheet or screen that travels with the work and captures what the technician found, did, fitted and timed. The work order authorises the job. The job card records what actually happened on it.

Job completion rate is the share of scheduled jobs finished within their planned visit, calculated as jobs completed divided by jobs scheduled in the same period. It measures schedule reliability, and it is the field service metric most easily improved by changing paperwork rather than performance.

A labour rate is the hourly price a workshop charges for technician time, applied to the hours a job is billed at rather than the hours it actually takes. Most workshops run several at once: a posted retail rate, a warranty rate, an internal rate and negotiated rates.

A lease return is the handover of a leased vehicle back to the lessor at the end of the contract, covering collection, the condition assessment made at the same time, and the settlement of any end-of-contract charges. The return is the event. The inspection is the assessment carried out during it.

Lone working is any work carried out by someone with no close or direct supervision and nobody immediately on hand to help if something goes wrong. It covers field engineers, drivers, contractors on empty sites, care and housing visitors, and anyone left in a building after hours.

A loss adjuster is an independent claims professional appointed and paid by the insurer to investigate a larger or more complex claim, establish its cause and extent, test it against the policy, and recommend a settlement. The title is standard in the UK, Ireland and much of the Commonwealth.

Loss ratio is the share of earned premium an insurer pays out in claims, calculated as incurred losses divided by earned premium and shown as a percentage. It is the clearest single measure of whether a book of business is priced correctly for the risk it carries.

A method statement is a written description of how a specific job will be carried out safely, setting out the sequence of work, the equipment and people involved, and the control measures that the risk assessment for that job identified. It tells the crew how, not just what.

The MOT, short for Ministry of Transport test, is the annual roadworthiness and emissions test required for most vehicles used on UK roads. It checks that a vehicle meets minimum road safety and environmental standards on the day of the test, and it is not a service or a mechanical health check.

A motor claim is a request for repair, replacement, or payment made under a motor insurance policy after a vehicle is damaged, stolen, or involved in an incident causing injury or third party loss. The process scales with severity, from a windscreen chip settled in a day to a total loss taking weeks.