Online OE Parts Ordering
The American Society for Quality Control, (www.asq.org) indicates that poor service is the reason 68 percent of customers choose to take their business elsewhere. Statistics show that one dissatisfied customer will tell – on average – 10 other people about their experience. Those 10 will in turn relay that experience to five others.
In the September 2008 Body Shop Business article "Customers for Life" by John Webb, "A customer has an accident only once every seven years. Customers aren't going to simply come back like they would to a fast food store, a clothing store or even a tire chain."
"The cost of creating new customers is very expensive, so retaining current customers and building loyalty is a must," explained Mike Smith, Shop Supervisor at Fox and Fox Body Shop and Service in Fort Wayne, Indiana. "And even though the national average of car accidents is about one every seven years, that doesn't include wives, husbands, kids – especially teenagers – parents, friends and neighbors. If you build customer loyalty with a family of five, you could see them once every eighteen months – assuming they're loyal customers."
So how can a collision shop take steps to ensure customers get good service – to get their cars back faster – to help build customer loyalty? Ike Herman, CollisionLink Implementation Manager, talks about customer feedback from body shops using CollisionLink online parts ordering: "Never before has one process improvement made such a difference. Hundreds of our shop customers have told our field reps that they are really repairing cars faster and calling customers before the promised date. And since that one survey data point – delivery date – is the most widely used response question by CSI survey firms, you can bet many of these shops are building more customer loyalty which is leading to improved shop revenue and profitability."
Mike Smith, or "Smitty" to his friends, went on to talk about how the mechanics of ordering parts online is impacting his shop's loyalty and revenue. He explained, "Using CollisionLink we're definitely fixing cars faster for several reasons. One, our parts returns have gone down, because CollisionLink parts orders are more accurate, so we have the right parts when we need them. Two, using CollisionLink our dealers price-match OE parts against aftermarket, and everyone knows that OE parts fit better and install faster. Three, the parts ordering process is much faster and streamlined, freeing me up to stop potential problems. And, I now spend more time in the shop with the technician helping them stay on track to repair cars that have short delivery dates. So in all, I'm spending less time on parts management, our shop is pushing car repairs through faster, were building customer loyalty, and that's all increasing revenue for the shop."
Click here to read the article "Customer for Life" in Body Shop Business
Click here to register for CollisionLink (dealer-provided service)
Click here to send an email to our CollisionLink Team so they can call you
Call a CollisionLink Specialist at (888)776-5792, ext. 1948.
