By our guest writer Bob Winfrey
I am writing this to help some of you guys
improve your estimating processes to help you catch those jobs that
we seem to pass paper on and they never seem to return. Alot of the
time when insurers do not inspect a drivable car they tell the
customer to go get three estimates. Well 9 times out of 10 unless
that customer is sold on you and your shop, they are going to go
with the cheapest of the estimates. Sometimes it is hard to manage
customer's expectations as far as price. Some people hear over a
thousand dollars and shock sets in! With higher deductibles,
peoples fear of turning in claims and a tight economy some people
are just trying to get the claim money and not fix the car!
In order to avoid being the highest estimate
you have to be a little creative. You don't want to miss anything
important and look like you do not know what you are doing. I have
found a few little tricks that can help you and I am going to share
them here.
This works well for drive up estimates, tow
ins are a different situation.
I always ask if they have an insurance estimate or an estimate
from another shop. If they have an insurance estimate I explain
that we have to work off of their estimate to get started since
they are paying the claim. I usually know what my competitor's
write so it is not critical I see the estimate, it is nice to know
the total price. If I can't get near the total of the other shop I
will definitely ask to see it to see what they missed and explain
that to the client. I know some people are hoping the shop will be
cheaper than the Insurer, but that is really tough in today's
economy. If you can beat an Insurer's estimate you are usually
selling yourself short unless you are a shade tree body shop.
You also need to manage your customers
expectations, are they ok with used parts or aftermarket? Sometimes
on a few year old car it can be saved from being a total loss that
way. If they are adamant about OEM parts on an older car it is
going to be a tough battle. I usually tell them to read their
policy and it may exclude OEM parts or require used or aftermarket.
I will write what they want but sometimes that will definitely make
you the highest estimate.
If there is obvious unibody damage you make a
note on the estimate that there is possible structural damage and
the vehicle will need to be measured to identify the degree of
damage. This way you are not guessing and this will usually knock
several hundred dollars off of the estimate. The same thing
works on suspension damage, hood hinges, trunk hinges and some
scratches and scuffs.
We do not write sand and buff on a drive up
estimate although we do write tint color and blend, explaining to
the customer why we have to tint and blend color. There are
hundreds of variants for some colors and we explain location of
assembly has a lot to do with which variant color we have to
use.
Some of you may or may not know of me but I am
a 33 year veteran of the auto body trade. I have a ton of I-Car
certifications; I am ASE Master certified and too many others to
list. I currently own my own shop and teach I-Car part time. I also
do diminished value claims and have made myself available as an
expert witness.
If you would like to contribute to Web-Est blogs by writing an
article of your own, please feel free to contact JR Seidel at jr@web-est.com
