Sell the job to get customer-pay work

Jan. 1, 2020
Take extra steps to sell customer-pay work.
Eber customer-pay work

In reviewing some our shop's numbers recently, I saw that a full 30 percent of our jobs are privately paid by customers rather than insurers. A lot of that, I think, is fueled by higher deductibles and people's fear of higher premiums that could result from actually using the insurance for which they've paid.

There's certainly some pros and cons to customer-pay work. There's far less administrative work, and it's great to not have, for example, an insurer pushing us "to just try" some parts we know are only going to slow down the process. You can charge appropriately without hearing a "You're the only one . . . " or "We don't pay for that." The jobs tend to be smaller but are often the type that can breeze through the shop the most efficiently.

On the downside, some customers are looking to scrimp and save every way they can. There's always that concern that even if they are satisfied with a "budget job," someone else looking at the car and asking where it was repaired might not know that customer didn't ask for or expect a top-quality repair. And while insurance company checks generally don't bounce, we've occasionally had a little more trouble collecting from a private party.

But a few minor issues aside, we like having customer-pay work account for such a significant portion of our business. Here are some of the things we've done to try to capture more of this work:

  • SELL, SELL, SELL. If you've ever hired an estimator whose experience was at a business that did primarily insurance direct repair work, you may have found they're good at "processing orders" but not as good at "selling the job." Capturing customer-pay work requires being able to read and relate to people, being able to explain why our shop is the place to have the work done, being able to ask for the job. It's a very different trait than what's required to just write a good estimate, and it can be hard to find those who are good at both things. If you have someone doing both well in your front office – and you've given them some selling tools like testimonials, photos and props, and customer service indexing reports, chances are you're capturing customer-pay worth that other shops are not. Consider hiring someone with these traits and skills or train one of your employees to help capture this work.
  • BE THOROUGH IN THE PROCESS. Though customer-pay work may not require all the photographs and paperwork insurance-paid work does, it can be labor-intensive in other ways. You need to be able to write a thorough damage assessment. Customers aren't thrilled if you end up having to call them for a "supplement." You'll need to spend some extra time explaining everything to them so they are comfortable with the process.
  • OFFER SOME PAYMENT OPTIONS. Like a number of shops, we stopped offering the 90-days-same-as-cash option as the fees charged by the financing institutions increased, though I know some shops still find it a worthwhile option. But accepting credit and debit cards is almost a must if you seriously want to attract customer-pay work.
  • EXPLAIN CUSTOMER-PAY WORK AS AN OPTION. Some customers may not think about paying for a job themselves when it's not significantly more than their deductible. We walk people through the options to help them consider which route actually makes better sense for them financially.

Before looking to capture more customer-pay work, I'd first suggest measuring how much you're doing now (as a percentage of your overall sales) and how profitable it is compared to other work. If the numbers look promising, implementing the steps above should help you add more of it to your mix.

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