Why our Smart Score matters

Austin Mutual’s Smart Score of 86 was created by combining weighted averages of ratings for customer service, claims process, and value for price from 3rd party sources as well as our own research. We view these as the most important factors since they cover the entire experience of shopping for, maintaining, and making a claim on an insurance policy.

How our Smart Score is calculated

Data comes from customer reviews, officially filed complaints, financial stability data, and other insurance industry rating companies. Combining these metrics and sources provides the most accurate and broad-based analysis of what matters most when considering Austin Mutual’s overall quality compared to other auto insurers. While there is some overlap between our three primary metrics, each has unique characteristics that set them apart from each other.

What does this mean for you?

With a score of 86, Austin Mutual rises above the industry average of 75. While this metric isn’t the be-all and end-all, it’s definitely a good point of reference when comparing auto insurance options.

Our customer service score measures two primary things: user satisfaction when interacting with Austin Mutual’s representatives, and their experience with online tools like quoting and managing a policy via website or app. Austin Mutual’s customer service score comes from a variety of places. These include user reviews on Honest Policy, as well as other analytics companies such as JD Power, Insure.com, and Consumer Reports.

What does this mean for you?

As you can see from Austin Mutual’s service score of 7.7, they have a decent rating compared to similar auto insurance companies, which clock in at an average of 7.7.

With minimal sources reporting customer service data for this company, we can’t calculate the estimated range. Consequently, we’re not certain about the accuracy of this score, but it’s the closest estimate we have.

Our claims process score looks at users' experiences when filing claims with Austin Mutual. It takes into account not only claim outcomes, but also the ease of making and tracking a claim, as well as how fast Austin Mutual handles it.

Austin Mutual’s claim score is derived from various sources. These include reviews from Honest Policy users, and outside sources including Consumer Reports, Insure.com and JD Power. We round off our calculation with official complaints filed with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (which primarily are claim related). These complaints are weighted against the size of each company to ensure an apples-to-apples comparison. This gives our claim score the most complete picture of what to expect when filing a claim with Austin Mutual.

What does this mean for you?

Evident from a claims score of 10, Austin Mutual has an outstanding rating compared to the average claim score of 8 for similar auto insurance companies.

With minimal sources reporting claims quality data for this company, we can’t calculate an estimated range. Thus, we can’t be certain about the accuracy of this score, it’s just our best estimate.

Austin Mutual’s value score measures customer satisfaction when considering how much they pay versus the quality of their experience when dealing with the company.

How Austin Mutual comes up with the price of a policy varies by state, and relates to a number of different factors. Some of these include driving record, how much you use your car, location, age, gender, and the car you drive. While price is a critical factor for most insurance customers, what they get for that money is even more important. As with our other scores, this rating comes from a variety of sources: Honest Policy, JD Power, Insure.com, Clearsurance, and Consumer Reports.

What does this mean for you?

Austin Mutual’s value for price score of 8.4 is excellent compared to the average of 7 from other auto insurance companies.

With few sources reporting price value data for this company, we don’t have an estimated range. As a result, we’re not 100% sure about this score. It’s more of an educated guess, so take it with a grain of salt.

Tracks how many more or less official complaints Austin Mutual has than average. With an index of 0 Austin Mutual is better than average.

The complaint index comes from two variables for each year and type of insurance.

• The percentage of how many complaints Austin Mutual has filed against them with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) compared to the total number of complaints filed with every company.

• The percentage of how much insurance business (total policy premiums) Austin Mutual has compared to the total amount of business of all the other companies.

By weighting complaints and business against their totals, and then dividing share of compliants by share of the market, we get the index value. With 1.0 being an average number of complaints, a 0.5 would be half as many complaints. With an index of 0 Austin Mutual is better than average.