Auto Insurance Appraiser Job Description

The Auto Insurance Appraiser appraises automobile or other vehicles damaged to determine cost of repair for insurance claim settlement and seek agreement with automotive repair shop on cost of repair. The Auto Insurance Appraiser prepares insurance forms to indicate repair cost or cost estimates and recommendations.

Tasks

• The Auto Insurance Appraiser estimates parts and labor to repair damage, using standard automotive labor and parts cost manuals and knowledge of automotive repair.
• The Auto Insurance Appraiser reviews repair costs estimates with automobile repair shops to secure agreement on cost of repairs.
• The Auto Insurance Appraiser examines damaged vehicles to determine extent structural, body, mechanical, electrical, or interior damage.
• The Auto Insurance Appraiser evaluates practicality of repair as opposed to payment of market value of vehicle before accident.
• The Auto Insurance Appraiser must determine salvage value on total loss vehicles.
• The Auto Insurance Appraiser prepares insurance forms to indicate repair cost estimates and recommendations.
• The Auto Insurance Appraiser arranges to have damage appraised by another appraiser to resolve disagreement with shop on repair cost.

Knowledge requirements for The Auto Insurance Appraiser

The Auto Insurance Appraiser should have knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction. The Auto Insurance Appraiser needs knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar. The Auto Insurance Appraiser needs knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming. The Auto Insurance Appraiser needs knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications. The Auto Insurance Appraiser needs knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair and maintenance. The Auto Insurance Appraiser needs knowledge of transmissions, broadcasting, switching, control, and operation of telecommunications systems.

Skills and abilities required for the Auto Insurance Appraisers

The Auto Insurance Appraiser needs the skill to manage their time and the time of others that are part of their department. The Auto Insurance Appraiser must give full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times. The Auto Insurance Appraiser needs the skill to understand written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents. The Auto Insurance Appraiser needs the skill to bring others together in order to try to reconcile differences. The Auto Insurance Appraiser must consider the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one. The Auto Insurance Appraiser needs to be able to use logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems. They also need to be able to talk to others in order to convey information effectively. Comprehension of the situation is vital to settling claims with the customer and getting the best rates from garages. They need the skill to actively look for ways to help their clients, as well as, keeping a budget for the company. Of course, The Auto Insurance Appraiser needs to be able to use the power of persuasion at times in order to achieve their goals.

The Auto Insurance Appraiser needs the ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand. The Auto Insurance Appraiser needs the ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences. They also need to have the ability to understand information and ideas in writing so others will understand. The Auto Insurance Appraiser needs the ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem. The Auto Insurance Appraiser needs the ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events. The Auto Insurance Appraiser needs the ability to speak clearly so others can understand the explanation of what they are trying to do. The Auto Insurance Appraiser works with many different people who speak in different dialects and languages so they must have a broad understanding of speech patterns. Sometimes it is necessary for them to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.