Guest Editorial: Coordinate Your Efforts For Optimal Results
by Dick Strom Dick Strom is owner of Modern Collision Rebuild in Bainbridge Island, Wash. In business for 22 years, Strom is a member of the Automotive Service Association (ASA).
I resent being thrown in the same grab-bag with just anyone who calls his shop a "body shop." We have been in this business 23 years and in our yuppies-n-lotsa-lawyers-n-doctors area, you won't stay in business long without doing what you say you will. We expect payment for everything we do, but not for what we don't do. We do supplement most estimates and, if we can't negotiate what we need to do each job correctly and safely, we let some other "shop" bear the responsibility of an irate customer. Frankly, I would rather go fishing (if I had the time) than alienate perfectly good customers.
We make a good living and we have a clear conscience. The vehicle owner is our customer, and we negotiate with the insurance representative, on the owner's behalf, for fair compensation. For this reason, more than 70 percent of our customers are referrals or repeat customers.
We don't cheat our insurance representatives and we don't tolerate being cheated by them. Recently, when two scraped Merkur door glasses were cleaned up with buffing, we returned $900 to the insurance company. As a result of our business policy, the insurance representatives trust us and we regularly get what we need to properly repair the auto.
When needed, we get the customer involved in the negotiation process. If an insurer's estimate is insufficient to properly do the job, and they are unwilling to negotiate, we tell the customer it will be impossible to restore their auto to pre-accident condition for what the insurer is offering and still make a reasonable profit. We then compare the insurer's estimate, line by line, to what it would take to do it properly and safely, and then tell the customer we will have to pass on this repair. We say there are other "shops" that will gladly accept the insurance check, and remark "we guarantee you will be back to see us next time you need the services of an auto body professional."
By this time they are usually on the phone with the insurer insisting we do their repairs. We seldom lose a job under these circumstances, but when we do, we usually get all their future work as predicted.
Does it pay to "play square" with insurance representatives, customers and employees? One of our local parts suppliers recently told me that we have more work in our shop than do three of his good accounts combined -- and we are scheduled nearly three weeks in advance!
Someone once said, "There is only one success ... to be able to spend your life in your own way and not give to others' absurd, maddening claims upon it."ASA Main Page || AutoInc. Main Page
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Guest Editorial: Coordinate Your Efforts For Optimal Results
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AutoInc. Magazine ®, Vol. XLV No. 1, January 1997