Five rules to guide your business into the app world

Nov. 1, 2019
Has your shop gotten into the app game yet? If your answer is “no,” it’s probably time to change course.

Lakewood, Ohio, which sits just 15 minutes from ABRN’s offices, recently passed an ordinance making cellphone use while driving a primary offense within its city limits. Using a cellphone while driving is a secondary offense under Ohio law, but now Lakewood police will be able to pull over drivers simply for using their cellphones.

Such are the steps many localities are taking to protect pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers. With data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration showing over 40,000 accidents a year (and 4,000 deaths) the results of distracted driving, legislators are doing whatever they can to separate drivers from their phones.

(Photo courtesy of Body Shop Booster) Working with an existing App like Body Shop Booster can boost your revenue $10,000 and more in just the first month, if you adopt product recommendations like follow-up.

Cellphones and driving don’t mix, obviously. But they do have their place in the automotive world, especially as communication hubs supplying directions and other information. In the repair world, smartphones are proving their worth as tools shops can leverage to build and improve their businesses. Mobile apps, in particular, are delivering both business and data repairers are turning into significant revenue.

Has your shop gotten into the app game yet? If your answer is “no,” it’s probably time to change course. Like any new technology being offered to you, apps require proper scrutiny. Knowing what they can offer and how is the key to deciding how to utilize them for maximum effect in your shop. 

Use the following five app rules to guide the direction you take.

But first, apps and mobile websites: Knowing the difference

Before diving into the world of collision repair apps, gaining an in-depth understanding of how they function work and differ from competing technologies like mobile websites is necessary.

Apps are, as their name indicates, mobile applications designed to work on devices like tablets and smartphones. They differ from mobile websites (which you shop likely already has) mainly because (1) they’re designed to perform specific functions and use a more-intuitive interface (2) they take advantage of available mobile features such as GPS, location and camera.

They’re also superior to websites in many ways. They tend to operate faster and offer functionality for better customer engagement. For example, they usually allow users to set up preferences and can be updated and customized as needed. Further, they offer a better platform for transmitting tailored communication to users based on usage, behavior and more.

If all that weren’t enough, Finally, apps have proven decidedly more popular with mobile users. Newzoo, a global analytics provider, released a study last year reporting the mobile app industry generated $92.1 billion in global revenue with a forecast predicting that number will grow by 50 percent in just three years.

Rule 1: Apps empower businesses 
Some of those billions of dollars already are driving revenue in collision repair. The most prevalent apps to first make their appearance in the collision repair industry were those created by insurance carriers. These were designed mainly help motorists report claims and locate shops. Shops have since taken the initiative to create their own apps with similar functionality, though theirs effectively bypass insurers, giving shops first contact with prospective customers.

In short, they’ve reenergized shops to command the marketplace.

“Apps are a democratizing force in business,” says Fredericka Barnes, a spokesperson for Marketscape Forecasts, a data analytics provider that assists small businesses, including shops, in using data to build Apps and other technologies. Barnes says apps are becoming key tools for many repairers.

“They’re helping shops grab more control of their markets because they’re engineered for personalized customer engagement, something small businesses are better geared for than large corporations,” she explains. “Apps possess the power to restore the one-to-one customer relationships many shops thought they had lost forever to the influence of insurance companies.”

(Photo courtesy of 1Collision) Shops like 1Collision have built their own Apps with features that encourage motorists to download the App before they’re involved in an accident.

Ironically, these shop apps tend to work very similarly to those that insurers provided. Namely, they allow customers to send in photos of accident damage to help start the repair process. Insurers engineered their apps for a more efficient customer service experience focused mainly on moving paperwork. Shops have one-upped these efforts with apps that use photos of damage to produce quick estimates.

By providing a service aimed at delivering pricing, along with transmitting other information such as time to repair, shops provide customers with a lot more useful information, says Barnes. She adds, “Plus, customers have the benefit of dealing directly with a shop who wants to work with them. Studies show drivers are fearful of how their insurers will respond to an accident claim. With an app, drivers can avoid what they see as a pitfall. Shops step in and quickly capture their business. It just makes sense.”

Rule 2. The right app can significantly boost your revenue 
Some apps are proving their worth in offering just that kind of efficient jump in business. Body Shop Booster, arguably the best-known shop app raises revenues anywhere from $10,000 the first month in use to the $90,000 monthly leap experienced by Big Sky Collision in Billings, Mont., says CEO Ryan Taylor.

Taylor further notes that a shop in a balanced market (one with a combination of DRP, walk-in, fleet etc. business) can expect to see an increase in the average capture rate of 56 percent to 65 percent. Taylor adds that these numbers are contingent upon, and can grow even further, with correct follow up (more on that momentarily).

Considering the ROI Body Shop Booster can deliver, shops interested in an app would be wise to turn their attention there. But utilizing the app comes with some restrictions. The app is free to customers, but shops pay a fee to use it along with additional capture software used on-site. In addition, Taylor says his company limits the sale of the app to a specified number of shops in an area to reduce competition among its customers.

If a shop doesn’t want to go with Body Shop Booster or similar apps, it also can create its own. That’s what MSO 1Collision has done. President Jim Keller says his company went that direction because it wanted an app with features the company couldn’t find elsewhere. Namely, it includes information on what to in the event of an accident, which helps convince customers to download it, and the app allows customers to find the nearest 1Collison shop using their location.

Keller says shops using the app (in combination with the business’s website) write on average an additional three to four estimates a week. The potential to turn those opportunities into work should be attractive to any shop.

Also appealing are the money-saving features offered by both apps. Since shops can analyze the damage, along with information such as the vehicle model and year, they can notify interested customers that a vehicle is a total loss, simply too old to fix or beyond their financial means. Thus, they can head off wasteful damage analysis and in-shop estimates for work they either can’t perform or customers won’t purchase.

Notable here is the fact many times customers will still need to bring a vehicle in if the shop believes there is significant hidden damage. Taylor says only forty percent of customers transmitting photos get a quote. The other 60 percent have total losses, vehicles too old to repair, etc. or need a thorough damage analysis. 

Still, these apps help capture this business since the shop can set up an appointment for this task to be performed. Since the customer already has contacted the shop, the repairer is in a prime position to Get the work.

Rule 3. You’ll have to have a marketing and customer service plan in place 
Taylor says the follow up for these incidents or when an estimate is delivered through the app is the most important part of using the app. He notes, “I tell our customers, follow up will change your business.” To help with this chore, Body Shop Booster provides shop software that handles follow-up emails, texts, calls and other chores. Because the software handles these tasks, shop personnel are freed up to perform other work.

Of course, none of this part of the process matters if customers don’t have the app. This is one of the reasons Kelly’s company wanted an app with other features, to convince customers to download it before an accident occurred. His company and Taylor’s use a variety of strategies to market their app, for example, by placing the app on a shop’s website or informing customers who call for an estimate that the app can perform this task. Kelly’s company also makes extensive use of social media and search engine optimization. Body Shop Booster white labels its app so a shop can personalize it with a logo and branding. 

Rule 4. Apps have a role in your offices and work bays 

Outside of bringing in work, apps also can find their ways into other parts of your operation. 3M now offers an app that provides process guides, user videos, SOPS and product information on its offerings. Mitchell and CCC have created apps for using their services remotely.

Want to save time filling out estimating forms, repair orders and other paperwork? A form-creation app from GoCanvas promises to do all that with features that perform calculations and capture both images and signature.

(Photo courtesy of 1Collision) Simply creating or adopting an App isn’t enough. 1Collision (staff pictured) and Body Shop Booster say marketing and customer care are keys to making this technology work for you.

Down the road, apps have the potential to transform collision repair in other areas. Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia and Tradiebot Industries (an Australian software, robotics and automated applications company) are partnering on a project that combines 3D printing, augmented reality and an app for the collision repair industry. The app will allow repairers to scan broken plastic parts and then generate a replacement. Someday soon, shops could be creating their own plastic parts using their smartphones or tablets. Imagine the other possibilities.

Rule 5. Apps appeal to customers of all ages
If you believe an app isn’t right for your customer or employee demographic due to age, you may want to reconsider. Barnes says recent studies show apps are growing in appeal to people 40 and over (in other words, they’re not just for millennials or Generation Z). 

She points to a 2017 report from the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) showing seven in 10 people over 60 now owing a smartphone. Numbers from the Pew Research Center note four in 10 people over 65 own smartphones, more than doubling the number who did five years previously. Further, Barnes says shop apps provide the type of functionality most older users seek — they provide basic communications that produce real value.

Kelly says the convenience these apps offer, with most users keep their phones on or near them at all times, should be irresistible for repair businesses. Considering an accident or need for collision repair work is one of the most inconvenient experiences a motorist can deal with, apps arguably have a natural place in the repair industry. It’s up to you to adopt and nurture the ones that could be helping you and your customers, including insurance companies and fleet owners.

Bringing together shops, insurers, DRPs, dealers and manufacturers — that’s the power of the mighty mites you carry with you every day.

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