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Page 1 of 4 The old Eagles song, Hotel California, has lyrics that once heard, reverberate in the brain for days. It’s ironic how well the lyrics of Hotel California describe the corner into which so many in the collision industry have painted themselves, how they got there, and how they can possibly get out.
Mirrors on the ceiling, the pink champagne on ice, And she said, We are all just prisoners here, of our own device…
Deep down inside every sane, reasonably intelligent one of us, we know that we really are “prisoners of our own device.” No matter how many twists and turns our pasts may have taken, we have no one but ourselves to blame for our circumstances. This is all the more true in the crazy world of collision repair – we are where we are by the whim of our own device. And yet I’ve heard, ad-infinitum, shop owners reasoning that they had no choice other than to go with the flow and sign the Direct Repair agreement, lest they be starved out of business.
From my own personal sour experience, I know the actual motivating forces that encourage otherwise reasonably intelligent shop owners to “do DRP.” The mirrors on the ceiling and pink champagne on ice are the lure of fast cash and canned customers.
Three deadly sins
Cutting through all the crap, greed is the major motivating influence involved in shops’ decision to take the path of least resistance -- direct repair. Greed to put those around you out of business and take their customers for your own.
Fear is the second motivator to “do DRP” -- fear that is so eloquently implied, yet may not be explicitly stated, by insurers. Fear that if you don’t do DRP your competitors will, leaving you to repair rustbuckets.
Pride is another strong compulsion to “do DRP” – the pride of having the biggest operation in your area.
One shop owner I spoke with had DRP contracts with 30-some insurers. How can a shop owner with more than one DRP honestly promise each insurer its policy holders will take precedence over the repairs to all other insurers to which they are subservient?
Insurers have made direct repair programs into their current cartel-like state appear to be a panacea for all your and your customers’ repair woes. Direct repair has lowered shops to a “take it or leave it” position. The mirrors on the ceiling have lost their luster and are in no way reflecting what insurers had induced shops to anticipate, as shops find themselves to be in the position of the prostitute. The pink champagne on ice: the enticing benefits of doing DRP which insurers had promised, has gone flat.
There is a far better way of conducting business.
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