By Mike Davey
Hamilton, Ontario — January 10, 2017 — Our most recent survey examined the customer service experience. Most of the participants in our latest survey were facility owners and managers or collision repair executives employed at a banner, network or chain. The survey they filled out asked a number of questions focused on the customer service experience in their business.
We also had participation from a number of insurers and OEM representatives. Those who work outside of the collision repair industry were directed to a somewhat different survey that looked at how they would rate the customer service experience at the body shops with which they do business. They were asked to rate these shops on a scale from one (Extremely Poor) to five (Extremely Good). We can report that while no one indicated that customer service was “Extremely Poor” or “Poor,” no one indicated that the shops they worked with were “Extremely Good” either. The majority of respondents (75 percent) indicated that the shops they deal with are “Average.” About 25 percent of respondents indicated that customer service was at “Good” levels.
Respondents who were directly employed in the collision repair as owners, managers or executives were asked to rate the relative importance of five items: in-person customer service, digital customer service, repeat business, word-of-mouth and online reviews. Those surveyed were asked to rate these from one to five, with one indicating that the item was “Not important at all” and a five indicating that it was “Extremely important.”
The results gathered from this question were remarkably consistent. In-person customer service, repeat business and word-of-mouth were all rated as “Extremely Important” by our respondents. These are the traditional ways to improve and solidify the customer base. However, the other two items, digital marketing and online reviews, were only seen as slightly less important, with the vast majority of respondents rating them with a four for “Very important.” While the collision repair industry as a whole may focus on the “brick-and-mortar” approach to customer service, it seems obvious that the importance of the digital realm is widely understood and accepted.
Next our survey asked how customers can get in touch with their chosen collision repair facility. Every respondent indicated that customers could use phone and email. It’s in the other categories (text messaging, fax, social media platforms and company website) that we start to see some differentiation.
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Of these, text messaging was the lowest. However, a majority of respondents (64 percent) indicated that customers could get in touch via text message. Faxes may have fallen out of general use, but 86 percent of respondents still maintain the capability to receive faxes from customers. The final two categories, social media and company website, are about the middle of the pack, drawing response rates of 71 percent and 79 percent respectively.
The phone still rules the roost when it comes to staying in touch with customers when a repair order is in process. Every respondent indicated that they stay in touch with customers this way. Email, however, is increasingly popular, with about 79 percent of respondents indicating that they use emails to stay in contact. Text messaging is also fairly popular, with 64 percent of respondents telling us they use text services to communicate with customers. Faxes are much less popular, at only seven percent. However, they still rank above using social media to inform customers about repair status. Literally no respondents indicated that they use social media to communicate with customers once the order is in process.
Finally, we asked respondents to indicate if they used some form of automated software to stay in touch with customers. The majority of shops surveyed do not use one of these systems, but about 28 percent do.
Our next survey is on staff compensation systems. You can check it out here!
