At the International Bodyshop Industry Symposium held earlier this year in Germany, event moderator David Lingham posed an interesting rhetorical question for attendees. At any given moment, he said, there may be 100,000 collision repair estimates being prepared worldwide. If you could observe that process, how much time would you see the estimator spending with the vehicle versus how much time the estimator was spending with the vehicle owner?

His point, clearly, was that as an industry, collision repairers may not be devoting enough time and energy to an increasingly key component of business success: customer service.

At least one national study backs this up. In a J.D. Power and Associates survey last year of 11,700 people who had filed an auto insurance claim within the preceding year, one-third of respondents said they did not receive updates during the claims and vehicle repair process. Only about 66 percent reported being made to feel at ease with the whole process. That included getting an accurate expectation of how long the repair would take – and having that expectation met.

So what are shops with superior customer service doing that sets them apart?

Making it personal

Waters Auto Body in West Los Angeles was recognized by Allstate and customer satisfaction indexing (CSI) provider AutocheX last year for being among the top 5 percent of Allstate direct repair shops nationwide in terms of customer satisfaction.

That ranking comes in large part thanks to shop owner Jim Bjelajac’s ability to use humor, good will and face-to-face interaction to turn what could be a stressful situation for the customer into a stress-free experience.

“This whole business is all about customer service,” Bjelajac says. “With all the computers, nobody talks to each other anymore. Even with insurance companies, it’s voicemail and uploading assignments. You never get to talk to a person anymore. I think when people come in and you treat them really well, they get to see what customer service used to be like. They miss that.”

That service, he said, may include taking care of some light scratches or scuffs on a car that’s just in for an estimate.

“They’re out getting estimates for $2,000, and here we’re giving them a cup of coffee and polishing out their car for free,” Bjelajac says. “You’ve just made a customer for life. If you do a good job and treat people right, they’ll recommend you like crazy.”

Bjelajac tries never to let the frustrations of running his shop interfere with what he sees as his real job in the business: being the “people-person” at the front door who brings in jobs for his 10 employees.

“I just try to keep customers up-to-date and aware of what’s going on, and to be really friendly” Bjelajac says. “A lot of places, if you meet somebody who really doesn’t like their job, you can tell. They don’t want to help you. They’re not friendly. It’s bad enough when you’ve been in a car crash; you really don’t need an attitude from someone when you walk in somewhere. We’re grateful for anybody who walks in here, and we try to treat them like that. They can go anywhere. You have to set yourself apart somehow.”

Offering uncommon service

Mike Anderson has been so successful at “wowing customers” – his shop, Wagonworks Collision Center in Alexandria, Va., has annual sales of more than $3 million with no direct repair agreements – that he is asked to conduct seminars on the subject.

His advice includes making sure estimators and office staff avoid using industry terminology that won’t be understood by many customers. Never require a customer to fill out a form at the shop, he suggests, but rather ask for the information and fill it out for them.

Every customer at his shop is given Anderson’s cell phone number to call at any time with any concerns. The shop also offers customers an after-hours emergency number and always has one employee on-call to help customers who might realize over the weekend, for example, they left their golf clubs in the trunk of their car in the shop.

Anderson also has standard operating procedures for virtually everything. Customer special requests, for example, are written on the driver’s side door glass, so that everyone getting in or out of that vehicle can’t avoid seeing them. Detailers cannot remove that information without confirming that the requested items have been handled.

The shop’s office staff also logs information they learn about customers during their conversations. Knowing a little about customers’ hobbies and interests, whether they have kids, or when their birthday is, gives the shop a way to make a more personal connection.

Anderson uses an e-mail marketing service, for example, to send an article or notice of an upcoming event in the community to those in the database who might have an interest in that particular topic – an added customer service that also helps keep the shop name in front of those customers.

Wagonworks also sends birthday cards not only to customers but to their vehicles as well. The shop notes the production month and year of customers’ cars, and each month sends a “birthday” postcard to all customers whose cars “were born” in that month of the year. The card invites the customer to schedule a free wash, vacuum and 12-point inspection of the vehicle.

Making it clear and easy

Jeff Potter, manager of Diablo Auto Body, a 17,000-square-foot, I-CAR trained Gold Class shop in Pleasanton, Calif., said his own experience as a consumer helps shape the type of customer service he wants the shop to provide customers.

“The most important thing we do is take the time with the customer to explain every procedure to them,” Potter says. “If you don’t take that time, they don’t understand what the heck you are doing to the car. Then keeping them informed is probably the other biggest thing you can possibly do. I had a kitchen remodeled and that was my biggest complaint: I never knew what was going on. That just opened my eyes to see that we need to tell our customers what’s going on.”

Potter said it’s the times when things don’t go as planned – even if just in the customer’s eyes – that can set your shop’s customer service apart from others.

“There may be times when you get irritated with a situation, but you have to keep your cool,” he says. “We go out of our way to take care of that customer, no matter what the situation may be. If something is borderline-not-right, I’m going to make it right. Even if I don’t think it’s our fault, I may explain that, but I make sure we take care of those things.”

Potter said the customer satisfaction effort extends right up to delivery of the repaired vehicle. He personally checks each vehicle for flaws before it goes out front and is returned to the customer.

“I know what to look for, because I’ve worked on cars, so I’m opening and shutting doors, and rolling up and down windows, etc.,” Potter says. “It eliminates a lot of re-dos if I catch things first. And we walk them (customers) out to the car and go over the repairs with them with the paperwork in hand.”

Making the connection

For Kelly Whitlock, customer service begins with making some type of connection with the person.

“I’m interested in a lot of different things, so I can usually relate to just about anybody who comes through the door,” says Whitlock, who, along with his father William, operates A Master Touch Body & Paint in Portland, Ore. “We find something to talk about, something to connect with. It keeps us standing out in their mind.”

That connection could be based on some of Whitlock’s own interests – snowmobiles, motorcycles, hunting, fishing – or his calendar of family photos hanging in his office.
In one case, a box of bullets on a shelf near his desk was the catalyst for a connection with a customer.

“She was a single-mom with a teenage son who’d never shot before,” Whitlock says. “I’m vice president of the Portland Gun Club down the road, so we went there after work and I spent about an hour with the kid, teaching him some gun safety and how to shoot. Little things like that can make a personal connection and do pretty well for our business.”

As a smaller shop – just five employees – with no direct repair agreements, going the extra mile (sometimes literally) for a customer is what builds their largely word-of-mouth business. Because Whitlock and his father each own homes within a block of the shop, they’ll happily meet customers in the evenings or weekends as needed. Whitlock offers mobile estimating, even to suburbs up to 20 miles away, as well as pick-up and delivery of customer’s cars.

“We fixed a car for a guy (30 miles away) in Hillsboro right around Christmas time who wanted us to do the job, but didn’t want to drive over here,” Whitlock explains. “So I rode my motorcycle over there, left it in his garage, and when we were done with his car, I drove it back over there and rode my motorcycle back. We do about whatever it takes to make people happy.”

As J.D. Power and Associates points out, the industry overall does a pretty good job in terms of customer service. But that means some shop owners who think they excel at customer service actually are just hitting the baseline.

Taking a little extra effort to focus on stepping up your shop’s service can help set you apart, and boost your shop’s chances for a customer’s referrals and repeat business.