I often think of a great line that I once heard, artificial intelligence beats natural stupidity, when I think about the smash repair industry and the void between those that have joined the internet age and those who have chosen to remain fixed in time somewhere in the 1980’s.

Like any industry you must move and change as those you deliver a service to increase their expectations and become more and more time poor.

This has proven to be a challenge for all participants in the smash repair industry and has seen many false starts and a few brilliant ideas brought to market. The brilliant ideas have made it easier to find a repairer, provide more efficient vehicle quoting and assessment and allow the customer / repairer relationship to evolve online.

It is amazing for me to realise that for a non electronic business, let`s face it we fix broken cars; we have a website that is attracting over 25,000 hits per month.

Our workshops are internet based for almost every single thing we do in a day. We quote online, we send & use digital images, we buy our parts online, our approvals and assessments are often carried out via the web and each vehicle is bar coded and scanned through the repair process.

At any one time we can see who is working on a car, find out what process they are completing, track this against set time targets and use this information to update our clients of their vehicles progress.

This pivotal shift in our industry is a result of customer expectations and either we will all get on the bus together or we will experience the industry rationalization that the UK and American markets have undergone.

Whilst I don`t think we have all the answers, we are enjoying the positive feedback we are getting from our clients and business partners and believe this is a journey we have only just begun.

I challenge you, as our and your insurers` customers, to tell the repair industry what it is that you require to interact with us as better business partners.

We will continue to be open to change as we firmly believe if you do not listen to your customers, then they will soon be someone else`s!

What do you think?

 

Panelcorp Group