MARCH COVER STORY: Rally for Retail
Trying to change your posted door rate that insurers control might be as silly as wishing for wings to fly. Creating retail list prices, however, could establish a baseline for negotiation and show insurers just how much of a discount they’re getting.
COVER STORY: The New DRP
Without significant changes to current direct-repair programs, all parties involved are stuck with a system that has become a fertile garden for corruption, abuse, extortion and inefficiency.
CCRE Says CIC Committee’s DRP Criteria Would Further Promote Steering
The Coalition for Collision Repair Excellence (CCRE) recently voiced its opposition to the Collision Industry Conference (CIC) Fair Trade Practices committee’s proposed criteria for DRP reform, saying that DRPs “foster, support and promote insurer steering of repairable vehicles.” “Though the vast majority of collision repairers understand this, it seems that this simple concept remains lost
The Consumer-Centric Solution
With DRPs losing favor and shops in desperate search for profitability, creating a consumer-focused business model may be the answer.
“What Am I to Do?”
It’s a familiar plea to me now. Whether it comes by fax, e-mail, telephone or the good ol’ United States Postal Service, the message is basically the same: “I’m a small, independent shop and I’m at my wit’s end. There are two or three shops in my area that get all the work, and I can’t get on a direct-repair program to save my life. What am I supposed to do?”
Suing as a Solution?
My lawyer friend told me that all parties involved in the collision repair industry are still trying to get away with all they can because there haven’t been enough lawsuits yet. I explored that theory and found he may be right.
Ditch Your One-Dimensional Ways: Diversification
Only selling collision repair service these days? Diversification is the answer
to getting your profits back and making your business worth owning.
Market Like an Insurer
Progressive’s Concierge program is the boldest action ever
taken by an insurer to mitigate the role a shop plays with the consumer. But what might the possibilities be if repairers employed some of these same strategies?
Ditch Your One-Dimensional Ways
Only selling collision repair service these days? Diversification is the answer
to getting your profits back and making your business worth owning.
Focus Advisors: Dealer Body Shops Should Step Up or Step Back
M&A firm says dealers should step up, invest and perform at the level of consolidators and MSOs, or step back and realize improved operational and financial benefits by selling their shops.
