With the latest data from CCC Intelligent Solutions showing a continued decrease in claims frequency and a record-high percentage of those claims resulting in a total loss, collision repairers need to respond to these trends to keep their businesses moving forward.
Owners and managers are responding in different ways, including tightening cost controls, rethinking how they track leads, analyzing which jobs generate the most profit, and looking harder at operational waste.
Plug the Holes Before Pouring More In
For Jesse Parks, collision director for Freeman Collision Center in Santa Rosa, Calif., it's become all about capture rate.
Parks said the industry is in broad decline, with little shops can control. Two years ago, a surplus of work meant losing a job hardly mattered. Now, he sees shops throwing money at advertising, DRP discounts, and new partnerships to generate volume, without addressing a more fundamental problem.
"We're not plugging the holes," Parks said.
Rather than chasing new work, Parks argues shops should focus on converting the potential customers already reaching out. He estimates about half of all first contacts never make it through the door. That means marketing spend is largely wasted if shops aren't maximizing the opportunities already in front of them.
"We don't need to pick up another partner, we don't need to brainstorm on how to bring on a new OEM," he said. "We just need to look at how we manage the people who are already coming through our door."
Management systems are good at tracking jobs sold versus estimates written, Parks said, but too many potential customers fall off before even reaching that point.
"We can 100 percent control that without spending one more dollar except maybe for some training," he said.
A new look at capture rate, gross profit
Kena Dacus of Dacus Auto Body and Collision Repair in McPherson, Kan., is also focusing on capture rate, taking it to a more granular level.
Dacus said her shop had long tracked capture rate using CCC reports, but she recently realized leads were arriving through far more channels than the report captures: calls, social media messages, Google and website forms, and emails. That means the shop's real capture rate was likely much lower than it appeared.
To get a clearer picture, she started conducting call audits, grading staff on tone and the information they provide, and tracking referral sources more carefully.
"To get an idea of your real capture rate can be heartbreaking, actually," Dacus said. "But I think you need to know so you can make it better."
Dacus said she is also focused on various breakdowns of gross profit as repairable claims have declined.
"I like to look at it per insurance company, and the gross profit per vehicle make or brand," Dacus said. "If our gross profit on this brand is much higher than this brand, maybe these are the jobs that we want more of, and we can also focus our marketing efforts there.
More ideas from shops
Christian Bogden, owner of A.U.T.O. Collision in Sandy, Utah, said his company saw an 11 percent decline in sales last year.
"We ramped up our marketing and cost controls, including letting one helper go," he said.
The owner of a San Francisco Bay Area shop said he's responding to a 5 percent decline in gross sales last year compared to 2024 by focusing more on fleet work and customer-pay clients.
"We run specials for direct pay on our website and Google ads, and on Yelp," he said.
Michael Giarrizzo, CEO of DCR Systems, which operates 10 collision repair shops under partnerships with new-car dealers, said a slowdown can also be a good time to focus on throughput.
Giarrizzo said his shops are tracking defects coming off the line and identifying what's stopping cars from moving through the process without interruption, then brainstorming solutions, making adjustments, and remeasuring.
The company is also looking for ways to move borderline total losses into the repairable column and pursuing customer upsells such as batteries, wiper blades, and headlight refurbishing.
Amber Alley, manager of Barsotti's Body & Fender in San Rafael, Calif., agreed that looking for potential waste within the shop can be worthwhile.
Alley said the idea first hit home when someone pointed out that leaking air lines and leaving compressors running overnight could cost a shop hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year.
"Although those things may seem trivial, it can save a tremendous amount of money and [reduce] maintenance on your equipment," Alley said.
Moving Forward
The data from CCC makes clear that the collision repair market has fundamentally shifted. Shops that thrived on volume alone are being forced to recalibrate.
But operators like Parks, Dacus, Giarrizzo, and Alley say the path forward doesn't require a dramatic reinvention, but rather a sharper focus on the opportunities, efficiencies, and profit margins that were always there to be captured.
John Yoswick