I was asked an interesting question the other day: What is the average closing percentage of website leads for collision shops? I did some calling around and from the numbers I was given I could tell they were developed quickly and not an actual metric. I soon realized there are shops that do not know how the work they get in the shop is finding them, nor where new business is coming from.
I looked at the websites of some of the shops I called and saw some good sites created by respected website designers. I know for a fact that these sites have the capability to track clicks, phone calls and several had ways to schedule appointments. So how is it that people don’t know their average closing percentage of website leads? I am predicting that because work is coming through the door shops are not paying attention to the metrics. Unfortunately, if you wait until the work stops, it is too late to be concerned with where the work came from.
Having work coming through the door is great, while it lasts. Knowing where it is coming from, how people are finding you and how to manage that is what keeps your shop busy. Many of the shops I visit have a spot on their Customer Information Form to identify how customers heard about them. They also have a section within their management system that can record the referrals by source. Reviewing these with some shops indicated that most referrals were from “other.” Someone is taking the time to click a box, it is just not the right box. Even the smallest referral should be tracked.
I was doing some production flow training in a shop and noticed some little league baseball stickers on some vehicles being repaired. I asked the shop manager if he sponsored a little league team. He replied, “You know the story, the husband of a friend of my wife is a coach and one thing led to another.” I asked if he was tracking it, but he said no because he was just doing it as a favor. I showed him the three vehicles. He said, “I guess the favor is paying off a little more than I thought.”
There are many ways to track the work coming to your shop. Setting up your management system to help you is an important step. First you need to determine what you want to track; most management systems already populate the insurance company information but maybe you want to keep track of which agents are referring to you. If you spent some money on advertising in a certain area you might want to see what zip codes your work is coming from. Tracking by zip code does two things -- first is seeing where your work is coming from and the second is finding out from where you are not getting work.
You might find that you are not pulling from a zip code near you but work is coming from several others around that area, which should cause you to ask yourself why. We started this discussion talking about websites, the metrics the developer can provide are very valuable in determining the website’s reach. When you match those metrics up with referral codes in your management system you will have a pretty good idea of where your work is coming from and how to monitor it.
By reviewing the website metrics and the management system referral reports you can monitor the workflow from your different referral categories. It is important to know if an agent stops referring work or if work suddenly drops off from a zip code or when you begin repairing vehicles owned by little league ball players’ parents. As you detect a fluctuation in workflow through these reports you can address it immediately to keep your shop running at optimum capacity. Most will think this is a better alternative than waiting for the work flow to stop and then asking why. Is “other” one of your most popular referral sources?
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