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Again, all this online buying could mean fewer cars on the road, fewer miles traveled, fewer accidents and less collision repair work.

Change In Shopper Preferences

Eventually COVID-19 will be beaten but, according to Rakutan, but what will remain is a “permanent change in shopper preference.” Many people will become more germ conscious. Many shoppers will prefer no-touch deliveries, while social businesses and outlets like communal buff ets may suff er a loss in popularity. Consumers may also be less attracted to using public keypads, something which will force retailers to switch to no-touch technology with more focus on general hygiene. Body shops may need to be “sanitizing” customer cars for some time to come.

Fighting Fire With Fire

It’s more important now than ever, especially since so many people are online, for businesses, including body shops, to have a prominent e-commerce presence so customers can fi nd them. Business owners should look at their website and Facebook or other social media presence, or better yet, have a disinterested friend look at it. How does it compare, not necessarily against other shops, but the presence of other businesses? I will expand on this in a subsequent article.

Looking To The Future

Rakutan suggests “consumer views on shopping in a new ‘socially distant era’ will likely remain beyond the pandemic.” Consumers must now deal with what is becoming a “longterm side eff ect” of the pandemic and a “new normal.” The pandemic acted as a catalyst for consumers’ swift transition to digital commerce and it will likely remain. Rakutan says the post-pandemic situation is similar to the eff ect of the 2003 SARS epidemic in China. Like the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., SARS caused the closure of shops, schools and factories, but opened the gates for e-commerce merchants. Alibaba, the Chinese

equivalent of Amazon, received a huge boost. According to GlobalData, a UK-based data analytics and consulting company, “COVID-19 will have a long-term positive eff ect on the e-commerce sector, with even the most skeptical consumers forced to abandon physical stores in response to restrictions on movement.” According to PaySafe, “winning in this new e-commerce environment means an even greater focus on consumer experience. To win and keep these new customers that want to shop online more frequently, merchants must off er a seamless product via both browser and smartphone app.” For body shops, this means they must make it easy for customers to reach them via the e-commerce experience.

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Nonprofi t Finds, Matches Living Organ Donors

MatchingDonors is the nation’s largest living organ donor nonprofi t organization fi nding and registering living organ donors for people needing organ transplants in the U.S. Twenty-two people die every day in the U.S. waiting for a kidney transplant, most waiting seven to nine years. The team at MatchingDonors.com is working hard to make sure that does not happen by fi nding altruistic living organ donors for people needing kidney transplants. Many patients get their transplant through MatchingDonors.com within only six months, or less. In conjunction with various health organizations, MatchingDonors has created a successful PSA campaign to help people realize they can save lives by being a living organ donor, to encourage them to register as an altruistic living organ donor, and to make them realize they can help save the lives of people needing organ transplants by donating other things. For more information. see MatchingDonors.com. Source: MatchingDonors

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Five Years of Data Shows ‘Who Pays’ Surveys Making a Difference

It’s been fi ve years since I launched the fi rst of our quarterly “Who Pays for What?” surveys, and I’ve been excited to see some of the changes in the industry I believe can be traced back to the industry’s participation. In the very fi rst “Who Pays” survey back in 2015, for example, less than half of shops reported being reimbursed on behalf of the consumer on a regular basis by the eight largest insurers for tinting color. That has crept up gradually ever since, with 58% of shops this year saying they are reimbursed on behalf of the consumer from insurers for that procedure all or most of the time. Five years ago, about four out of fi ve shops said they would bill for the labor to denib a vehicle if that procedure was necessary for the job—which it is on half or more of refi nished vehicles, according to more than 75% of shops. But also fi ve years ago, fewer than one-third of shops said they were regularly reimbursed from insurers on behalf of the consumer for the denib operation by the eight largest insurers. In fact, 44% of the shops that billed for it said those insurers “never” reimbursed them for it.

Now fi ve years later, shops are still not getting regularly reimbursed on behalf of the consumer by the largest insurers for the “not-included” denib procedure, but the situation has certainly improved. In a “Who Pays” survey this year, just 22% of shops said the eight largest insurers never reimburse them on behalf of the consumer when denib was necessary, exactly half of the percentage in 2015. And just 12% of the more than 750 shops that participated in the survey said they never bill for the procedure when required, a 40% reduction over fi ve years in the number of shops that had been doing the procedure “for free.” This is a measurable change on a very common repair procedure. I’m not the only one who thinks the surveys are having an impact. Among the shops that took our most recent survey, 88% said participating in the surveys has helped them improve their business. About twothirds said participating in the surveys off er a good reminder about “not-included” procedures they are doing but for which they may not be itemizing and billing. And more than three-quarters said they use the survey to train and remind their staff about such procedures. September is your next opportunity to participate in a survey. It can be completed by anyone in a shop familiar with the shop’s billing practices and the payment practices of at least some of the largest national insurers. We do not share information or individual responses with anyone. Visit this website to start: https:// www.crashnetwork.com/collision advice Here’s a bit more of what the surveys have shown us this year. About 57% of shops that bill for the time it takes to mask internal areas for refi nish or cut-in are reimbursed by the eight largest insurers on behalf of the consumer “always” or “most of the time,” yet nearly one in three shops (32%) never get paid for it. That’s because half of them (16%) acknowledge having never thought to charge for it, and the other half (16%) believe—presumably based on experience—the insurers never pay for it. The situation also has at least improved over time; in 2015, only 32% of shops reported being paid regularly for this procedure, and more than 40% of shops—twice the percentage as of today—believed the insurers “never” paid for it on

A “Who Pays for What?” survey earlier this year found more shops were being paid regularly for the “denib” procedure

behalf of the consumer. The surveys have also shown that some insurers are much more likely than the eight largest to reimburse shops on behalf of the consumers for “not-included” procedures when they need to be done. When asked how often they are paid to spend the extra time it takes to match the OEM paint texture on a repaired area, for example, shops said they are almost twice as likely to be reimbursed for that procedure by insurers like PURE or Chubb than they are by some larger insurers. Of the shops that negotiate to be paid for matching OEM texture, 74% said they are reimbursed on behalf of consumers “always” or “most of the time” by Chubb, compared to just 41% who said that one large insurer did. Even more mainstream insurers like Erie Insurance (No. 12 in terms of market share) pay shops for these same “not-included” procedures much more frequently than the eight largest insurers. Shops taking the survey reported the payment frequency for fi ve additional insurers (Acuity, Amica, Chubb, Erie and PURE) on four diff erent repair procedures (denib; feather, prime and block; mask for prime; and match OEM texture.) Across all four procedures, Chubb had the highest payment frequency, with, on average, 76% of shops that negotiate for the procedures reporting they are paid “always” or “most of the time” by Chubb on behalf of the consumer. PURE, which like Chubb, targets more affl uent customers, had the second-best payment frequency, with 74% of shops, on average, saying they are paid “always” or “most of the time” for the four procedures. The three other insurers—Acuity, Erie and Amica (No. 22 in terms of market share)—were not far behind, with averages of 70%, 72% and 68%, respectively. These averages are all far above the percentage of shops reporting the eight largest insurers reimburse them for these procedures on behalf of the consumer. For each survey you complete, you receive a free 65-page report with all the fi ndings, and resources and ideas to help you put them to use in your business. You can also use the link for the survey above to download previous survey reports for free. So if you’ve taken the surveys in the past but it’s been a while, make this the month you get back to it. It takes just a few minutes of your time, four times a year. If you’ve not participated, consider this my personal invitation to check it out. I truly believe it can help your business, which helps the industry as a whole. As I like to say, “Don’t delay. Do it today!”