"How to score!" Okay, before some of you get too excited, I have to disclose this article is about how do you score with your customers...while this article may not be as exciting as you thought it was going to be, it could be the most profitable article you read for your auto body shop. So please read on...

In a recent article in Body Shop Business Magazine, a story pointed out how the average consumer only has a collision once every 7-years. With this in mind, it makes all the more important for a collision repair shop to score big on customer satisfaction, more pointedly, to make a customer more than satisfied, but to make them a huge fan of your body shop; the kind of customer who will gladly tell a friend in need of your service "You really should go to this shop, their service was the BEST!" It's what many business savvy people now call a "Promoter".

A "Promoter" is more than a satisfied customer; they are customers who will go out of their way to send you new customers. When a body shop makes customers Promoters, it not only ensures customer loyalty, it means your shop is likely to be in the top tier of growing collision repair facilities in your area. There is solid research to prove this to be true and is more than just a feel-good thing for you as an owner or shop manager, it will add to your bottom line if you can grow the number of Promoters your body shop builds. Companies such as Dell Computers, e-Bay, Marriott Hotels and many other big name companies saw their profits grow once they started measuring how many Promoter customers they were adding. And here is the best part for all small, locally owned businesses out there; it doesn't cost any meaningful expenditure to start measuring and building your collision repair shops "Promoter Customers".

Many body shops conduct customer satisfaction surveys and like most well intended surveys, they get way to long and understanding the results can be even more trying. When one measures their "Promoters", the results are referred to as the "Net Promoter Score (NPS)". It's a process where you use a 2-3-question survey and add and subtract the results based on those whom answer that they are absolutely willing to recommend your shop to a friend or colleague. Here's what we would suggest for your survey:

Ask your customers to rate your shop on a scale of 0-10 on how likely they are to refer others to your shop, then ask them why they scored you the way they did. Lastly, ask them how they heard about you. These three questions (visit: our Shop Profit Training Section for sample surveys and a scoring process) gives your shop all the information you need to measure how many Promoter Customers your shop is building, what you do well and or where you need to make changes. It also let's you measure how much business is coming from Promoters and will tell you just how profitable your efforts in referrals are growing. This is very important for an owner or shop manager to know if this program is really building your business.

The average firm sputters along at an NPS efficiency of only 5 to 10%. In other words, Promoters barely outnumber Detractors. Many firms - and some entire industries - have negative Net Promoter Scores, which means that they are creating more Detractors than Promoters day in and day out. These low scores explain why so many companies can't deliver profitable, sustainable growth, no matter how aggressively they spend to acquire new business. Companies like Dell are seeing their score at 40+, which explains their continued growth.

At Web-Est we have been using this program as our road map to improving our Collision Estimating Software and the results have been growth of over 300% in one year. Selling body shop software or collision repair software is really no different than selling repair jobs. The best way to grow ones business is to build the number of sales people you have out in the market place. Think about it, every customer could become a sales person for your body shop.... and you don't even have to add them to your payroll. Now that is building good profits for everyone involved!

To learn more about "Net Promoter Score" go to the Web-Est home page and click on the Profit Center tab.

About the Author:
Eric Seidel is the President and CEO of Web-Est, LLC an online collision repair estimating software provider. Mr. Seidel has served as CEO of a publicly traded company that grew from a start-up to a multi-million dollar operation and he is considered a serial entrepreneur. He has studied Internet marketing and the affects on small businesses whom embrace the new media and he is certified as a Google® Adwords Professional. Mr. Seidel is an elected public official, serving as City Councilman in his hometown of Oldsmar, Florida; the community is located on the top of Tampa Bay Florida.

eseidel@web-est.com