We wear so many hats these days that I’m not sure which business we are in. With all the effort my office staff puts into collecting money, we work as hard as a small finance company. We spend so much time processing claims that you could say we run a small claims office. I know that we operate a “Collision Concierge Service” because we handle everything for the customer, except we take it one step further and handle everything for the insurance company as well.
    The concierge service in the auto collision industry is as old as the DRP networks themselves. We handle everything from drop-off to delivery, including making car rental arrangements. Although we haven’t figured out how to install the infant seat in the rental car without waking the baby, we do everything they offer and more.
    We earned a license to repair the vehicles we bring into our facility. We have allowed them to take the credit for something that we have been doing for years. They have moved themselves ahead of us by marketing something as if they are the only ones to offer it.
    We could all learn a lesson in marketing from this. What about the lifetime guarantee? Shouldn’t we be advertising that? We are the ones that ultimately guarantee the repairs. We should learn from this and start advertising what we really do. Why should we do all of the work and let someone else take the credit. Once again, my hat goes off to the insurance companies. They have succeeded in outsmarting us again.
    We should advertise the fact that we have a repair license and they do not. We should speak up so the unsuspecting consumer realizes they are better off staying involved in the repair process. This is our right. We can market our businesses much in the same way they market theirs.
    As I have said before, we need to mimic the insurance companies and learn from them. We should advertise our “Concierge Service” along with our BAR license and our lifetime warranties. We need to take our customers back and it will take a strong marketing campaign to do so.