National Service Alliance (NSA)
National Service Alliance (NSA), a national aggregator of appliance service companies, has been added to our Service Provider Network. They provide warranty service in mostly rural areas, which will increase our territory coverage significantly. This translates into shorter cycle times for customers.
DO NOT assign NSA for any appliance installations.
Dispatching to NSA
All jobs being dispatched to NSA (700006732) should be done using the schedule calendar, including each request for a multi-item job. If there is no calendar availability for the date you are looking for, do not force book, search for a different date, or choose a different Service Professional.
DO NOT manually assign or force book any appointments to NSA.
When creating the Service Request:
- Event Type is updated to Multi-Item for all additional items of the same trade, but the Event Type of the first request should remain as Standard since the Service Professional needs to collect the deductible on that request.
- NSA will then assign a specific service company within their network.
- The customer will receive an email of the assigned Service Professional along with contact information.
- Once the Service Job is assigned a specific Service Company by NSA, a Comment will be entered by NSA to provide Cinch with the name and phone number to contact the Service Professional directly.
- Please advise the customer that the assigned Service Professional will be reaching out to schedule an appointment.
- The name and phone contact can be provided to the customers who may experience scheduling concerns.
- Allow up to 24 hours for this information to be updated in ServiceBench
DO NOT attempt to contact or provide the customer the phone number listed in the NSA profile for updates or inquiries, it is a recording.
Active Profiles
- NSA Profile (Account Number 700006732)
- DO NOT submit claims against NSA jobs that are dispatched to this profile.
- Like Sears, NSA’s claims are uploaded in batches daily.
- If no claim has been submitted by NSA for their charges yet, and you submit/approve a claim against the job, it will result in a Rejected claim when their claim is submitted.
- NSA Parts Procurement (Account Number 700008026)
- Created for claims to be submitted for Replacement Equipment or Claim Credit Buyouts by Research of Authorizations.
Service by NSA
Once NSA has been to the home, they will typically supply all parts for the repair.
There are rare occasions where they are unable to source parts themselves. It those instances, we will attempt to source the parts in our Shopping Cart or Parts Portal. It is imperative that the parts be shipped to the customer’s address.
National Service Alliance Labor Rates:
Labor Rates | |
Diagnostic Fee (Service call where no repairs are
attempted/completed) | $110 |
Flat Rate Labor (Total labor when a repair is
attempted/completed) | $145 |
Refrigerator – Sealed System / Complex Repairs | $295 |
- If the repair costs are projected to be below their $400 pre-approved limit, they will proceed with the repairs and will communicate directly with the customer (i.e., labor + parts – deductible).
- If the repair costs are projected to exceed their $400 pre-approved limit, they will submit an estimate to Cinch via their portal and a notification/alert is received via email (i.e., labor + parts – deductible).
- These estimates are reviewed by the Client Support Services Team in the NSA Portal and are finalized by that team.
- Once the estimate/pre-auth requests are finalized, the job in ServiceBench is updated including the claim decision.
Contacting NSA
In order to communicate with NSA, you can submit a Public with Email Job Comment. NSA will see the note in their portal. All notes from NSA will appear in the Service Job Comments.
NSA is also unable to view Service Job Escalations created by Cinch.
NSA Note Statuses
NSA will enter job comment notes with the prefix NSA UPDATE. These status update are entered for the following reasons:
NSA Status | Meaning |
EVENT_TYPE_COMMUNICATION | Anytime an update communication is sent or received. |
EVENT_TYPE_NOTE | Anytime an update note is sent or received. |
EVENT_TYPE_SC_CREATE | Initially assigned provider contact info usually within. |
EVENT_TYPE_TRANSFER | If they need to reassign the job to another provider |
EVENT_TYPE_EST_PASS_GATEKEEPER | Any estimate creation. |
EVENT_TYPE_EST_APPROVED | Estimate update for approvals. |
EVENT_TYPE_EST_REJECTED | Estimate update for rejections. |
EVENT_TYPE_EST_CANCELLED | Estimate update for cancels. |
EVENT_TYPE_PART_ORDERED | Update for each part ordered. |
EVENT_TYPE_PART_DELIVERED | Part order delivery update. |
EVENT_TYPE_PART_BACKORDERED | Backorder alerts. |
EVENT_TYPE_PART_ETA_UPDATED | Order ETA updates. |
Authorization Calls
Agents should never approve an NSA estimate over the phone directly with the provider because it bypasses the automated process and systems in place to notify all stakeholders, process part orders, create status updates, etc.
Please note that NSA Service Technicians should not be calling into Authorizations for approvals. Please redirect them to submit the Service Report through the NSA Portal.
Sealed System Repairs:
There are scenarios where we’ve dispatched a Refrigerator job to NSA and the initial company diagnosed a sealed system failure, but they were not able to undertake the necessary repairs. In those instances, follow the steps below:
- Confirm whether the technician collected the deductible and notate existing job.
- Add a New Service Job to the Service Order.
- Update the Product Status to Recall (if the deductible was collected by the previous tech)
- Assign it to National Service Alliance again (using the calendar).
- Update the Problem Description text field to include:
“Sealed System repair diagnosed by previous technician – deductible collected”
This will ensure that a properly skilled tech is dispatched to perform the necessary sealed system repairs.
DO NOT Reassign the initial job in these instances. The initial job assigned to NSA will need to stay open so they can still be paid for their diagnostic visit.
Escalation Procedures
NSA will usually update the Service Job within minutes of dispatch with the direct phone number of the assigned NSA Service Network Company/Technician.
- If it has been greater than 24 hours since the Service Job was scheduled, provide the customer with the NSA Service Company/Technician’s contact information so they can reach out to them directly.
- If needed, you can also call them directly to assist the customer.
- You can also create a Public with Email comment to have the NSA Service Company/Technician contact the customer.
NSA Service Report Updates
Once the NSA Service Network Company has been out to the customer’s home, NSA updates the notes in the Service Job every step of the way, including what parts have been ordered.
- If the Service Report is pending and the Service Job has not been updated, create a Public with Email comment. NSA will submit the report (estimate) via NSA Portal and Support Services will review and update.
NSA Multi-Item Service Requests
NSA can service Multi-Item Service Jobs. Follow the current Multi-Item procedure.
- A Service Job must be entered for each appliance and assigned to NSA.
- Product Status is updated to Multi-Item for all additional jobs/items of the same trade, but the Product Status of the first job should remain as Standard since the provider needs to collect the deductible on that job.
- The first item must have a note in the Special Instructions indicating that this Service Job is part of a Multi-Item Service Request and only one deductible is due.
- The Claim Estimate Required flag on the first item must be set to NO.
- Notate that the deductible must be collected on the first item and include the amount.
- For all related Service Jobs, the Claim Estimate Required flag must be set to YES.
- In the Problem Code Description, also indicate that this request includes multiple items and reference the Special Instructions for details.
NSA Recalls
NSA can service Recall Service Requests. Follow the current Potential Recall procedure.
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