Other than educating the customer, what are some other techniques to overcome steering from large insurance companies? Is there any hope for small shops to overcome such a barrier?
Question asked by Andy Sheldon, Bill’s Auto Body, Gatesburg, Ill.
Yes, Andy, there is hope. The key is marketing, marketing, marketing. Marketing is expensive, but the reality is you have to do it, especially if you’re not a DRP shop. And if you were a DRP shop, consider the money you would be losing through all the freebies and concessions you would be giving to the insurer. So why not take that money and lose it in a more beneficial way? Through radio, TV and Internet advertising.
You need to get the name of your shop on people’s minds, putting your "brand on their brain," if you will, before they get in an accident. Insurers are able to steer because they usually get to the consumer first, so you need to figure out a way to beat them to the punch. Part of that awareness comes from consistent and repetitive marketing.
Insurers are coming out with smartphone apps so the consumer can hit a button at the scene of the accident and contact them. Why not create an app of your own? There are businesses out there that can build one for you. And if you’ve established trust with a consumer, they’ll contact you first because you have told them you’ll "take care of everything."
Back to marketing. Marketing involves more than advertising on radio, TV and online.
There are many creative things you can do that cost less than TV or
radio advertising that will get your brand on consumers’ brains.
How about hooking up with the local Welcome Wagon committee and making sure new residents get a free bottle of water with your logo and contact information plastered on it? Or sponsoring local Little League teams? Or holding a safe driving awareness event at a local high school? There is another shop I know of that bottles its own hot sauce and hands it out free to the community. The catch is if you want more, you can only get it at the shop, which forces people to come in.
So let’s say the insurer gets ahold of the consumer before you do after an accident. What will compel the consumer to go to your shop despite the insurer’s word games to get them to go to one of their preferred shops? How about credit on an MVP card toward their next repair? Some shops are using MVP cards with preloaded credit ($150 or $200, for example) that customers can use the next time they get in an accident. Again, there are businesses out there that can produce these for you.
But let’s not forget about educating the customer. This is nothing new, but ask yourself if you’re doing it as well as you can:
• Are your employees using a designed word track every time a customer comes in?
• Telling them that they by law have the right to choose the shop of their choice, that they only need one estimate, how the claims process works, etc.?
• Is this information posted on your website?
• Is it included in your monthly customer e-newsletter? (You do have one of these, right?)
• Are you posting this information daily or weekly on your Facebook and Twitter accounts? (You are on Facebook and Twitter, right?)
• There are even some shops who tell customers about “problem” insurers and what issues they might run into.
And then there’s the "tried and true" method: excellent customer service and quality repairs that create the golden "word-of-mouth" business. Is the experience you offer to customers memorable enough to make them want to come back no matter what the insurer tells them?
I recently spoke with a shop owner in Arkansas who is not a DRP for anyone but gets all the business in her area. I asked how, and she said, "We offer the absolute best quality repairs. The DRP shops in the area have done such bad work that the insurers are now sending all the cars to us."
It’s not easy. When the customer talks to the insurer and says they want their car fixed at your shop, they’ll hear any number of excuses why they shouldn’t:
• We can’t guarantee the repair if you take it there.
• It will take us a few days to get an adjuster out there, but if you go to our preferred facility, we can have one there today.
• You may have out-of-pocket expenses.
But if you’ve educated your customers well and given them motivation to come back to your shop, you’ll have nothing to worry about.
