By CRM Staff
Atlanta, Georgia – August 10, 2018 – Technology is taking over the business model of how collision repair shops communicate and operate with their customers.
During the Collision Industry Conference on Tuesday at NACE Automechanika, Matthew McDonell, owner of Big Sky Collision, presented “Future proofing collision repair” discussed how technology is evolving the industry’s way of operating.
Smart phones are in the hands of 80 percent of the population in the United States. These devices give repair shops an advantage to improving their customers repair experience.
With the ability to take pictures and video’s, repair shops can use mobile phones to let customers know how their repair is doing. It can also help shops complete a final damage assessment faster.
Although, there are some drawbacks with this type of system.
These devices and applications can cost a lot of money to fully equip a shop with.
With technology, there is always technical difficulties. Poor photo and video quality defeats the purpose of the whole system. The staff needs to be able to operate the system properly, otherwise customers will not be satisfied with the service.
Another topic of discussion was large “off retail” locations. Technology has allowed collision repair shops to expand without having a ton of locations. Large off retail locations can use crowd sourced pick-up and delivery to reach a large amount of people while providing the right customer service.
Cheaper costs and more consistency are a couple of the advantages to this system. There also wouldn’t be as many employees in the office or locations for part distributors
“From a cost perspective it is one of the best ways to expand your business without expanding that expense, headcount and that footprint. It is a great way to service the customer in today’s market,” saidpanelist and president/CEO of AccuracyDriven4Dave Irish.
However, there are some cons to this. Larger towing expenses and additional new costs could go along with the valet pick-up and delivery program.
Repair shops would experience work in terms of walk-ins and customers wouldn’t have as much insight on the repair process.
