There is no greater time than the present to be a part of the collision repair landscape, there is so much to look forward to from a perspective of vehicle technology further advancements in electrification, and the opportunity to earn more volume by pleasing work providers and clients through performance. However, client expectations, people inventory and capacity can create issues along the path of execution. The strategies that I will share with you revolve around three pillars that can be executed in any industry; they are the concept of Customer Service vs Client Experience, having a Strategic Mind Set for growth, changing your Paradigm, and Compressing Time Frames in your Business. You will find that these strategies will not only show collision repairers how to succeed, but to develop a promising future for their shops, staff and their legacy.

Customer Service vs Client Experience

Before we deep dive into the fundamental differences between Customer Service vs Client Experience I think it is important for us to define, “Who is the Boss of your company??” When asking this question, there is no one more suited to provide us the answer than the Founder and CEO of the World’s largest retailer. Sam Walton of Walmart, his response is “the customer is the Boss. They can fire anyone in the company, from the CEO down, just by choosing to spend their money elsewhere.  Everything we do must be to deliver a great level of customer service and client experience.” Thank you for those insights, Sam, with that said what is the difference between customer service and client experience? And how can collision repairers use these soft skills to improve your business?

Customer Service is a reactive approach to engaging with your clients, engagements like, welcoming a customer, having a “client-based” waiting room, and communications early and often throughout the repair process. When engaging with your client, at the moment of truth, the first three seconds of entry into the office, having a system for engaging with clients that is taught to all front-line staff is a sure way of making sure that your customer is always welcomed properly, and with a consistent message.

Client Experience is slightly different than Customer Service but is extremely important to your business. Client Experience is a proactive approach to supporting your client’s needs while doing business with you. For example, providing your client with email or SMS updates throughout the repair process is a masterful way of being proactive when communicating updates, in addition, another strategy to show your client that you and your collision centre is the “moral authority” for car care; is by using your OEM data at the point of First Notice of Loss (FNOL) to check and inform your client if there are any warranties or recalls on the clients vehicle. Imagine informing the client at FNOL that there is a recall on their vehicle, an OEM-specific repair that the manufacturer or the dealer has not informed the client of. Who is now the “moral authority” of car care in the client’s mind? You are of course.

Strategic Mindset for Growth

To have a Mindset for growth, we need to change what is going on between our two wonderful ears, your paradigm, and what is transpiring with your Mindset. I use the example of Pioneers vs Settlers when discussing the change of mindset and Paradigm. The Pioneer is recognized as the first person or group to meet an objective or, to change their paradigm to do what some thought was never possible. Let’s use Length of Rental (LOR) as an objective for improvement; if everyone is managing a vehicle in a collision repair shop the same way, we will experience the same results. However, if a collision centre, or a group of collision repairers, strategised on how to remove waste from the system, with a particular focus on decreasing LOR, over long period of time, at any rate of progression, they will decrease their LOR. But, the first step, is ensuring that all members of the repair process have dedicated themselves to the cause, the cause in this case is reducing LOR. Without investing in any new tools or technology, the idea of a few, executed by the many, will create a shift in Mindset and will change the Paradigm that “this is just the way it is in our market” to one that is dedicated to high performance and a reduction in LOR

Compressing Time Frames in your Business

Compressing Time Frames in your Business is the easiest path to improving Throughput, Efficiency and Net Profit in any Business. I want to share with you examples of how improving performance and compressing time frames is being done daily by some of the biggest  companies that actually, have very little to lose.

Ferrari, the pinnacle of vehicle performance world-wide, has been working on compressing time frames in their vehicles travelling from 0-60 for the past sixty years, the data to prove this as is as follows.

• 1964 Ferrari GTO performed 0-60 in 8.1 sec. (note that the 2014 Toyota Prius does 0-60 in 7.1 sec.)
• 1984 Ferrari 308 GTS performed 0-60 in 6.7 sec.
• 2004 the Ferrari Modena performed 0-60 in 4.2 sec
• 2024 Ferrari SF90 is performing 0-60 in 2.1 sec.

Over sixty years Ferrari has improved their 0-60 performance by almost four times.

Collision repairers could also find exponential improvements in reducing time frames by following some of the strategies listed below:

1. Identify a process to improve
2. Outline all the steps currently needed to complete the process
3. Remove all unnecessary steps to completing the process
4. Streamline and educate the company on the process changes
5. Test and Evaluate the changes
6. Adjust as needed
7. Continuously improve process

There are so many challenges for collision repairers, work providers and supply chain on a day-to-day basis; however, by focusing on, and training our people on the difference between Customer Service vs Client Experience, developing a culture that encourages Mindset shifts and changes in Paradigms, while using a team approach to compress time frames, can improve client advocacy scores, culture in a business and net profit for every company.

Domenic Prochilo
COO and Founder
Simplicity Car Care