Is it worthwhile investing in a system to provide digital updates to your customers? The preliminary data from a 2009 J.D. Power and Associates survey of consumers who had filed an auto insurance claim in the preceding 12 months indicates that it is.

As ABRN reported earlier this year (see Three steps to achieve customer satisfaction), a similar 2008 survey found that customers who said they did not have to initiate contact with the body shop for updates during the repair process reported satisfaction scores 100 points higher (on a 1,000-point scale) than those who said they had to contact the shop.

This year’s survey examines the issue a little deeper and found that 60 percent of younger customers (under age 34) and even one-third of customers older than 35 expressed a preference for a different type of communication than they received from the shop.

About 10 percent of those aged 18-54, for example, want fewer phone calls. A fair percentage in each age bracket want more e-mail or text message updates, including 18 percent of those aged 35-54, and a whopping 26 percent of those aged 18-34.