location in Oregon this year, said he sees too many shops operate based on fear. “Fear is an emotion, and good business decisions aren’t based on emotion,” Reichen said. “We’ve al-
Oregon shop owner Ron Reichen said he sees too many shops making business decisions based on fear
ways believed that calculated risk is important. But the first part of that is ‘calculated.’ Do your research. Do your homework. Is it a good fit for you? “I think the insurance carriers have leveraged fear: ‘We’re going to shut you off and you’re not going to have any of our work.’ That’s a fallacy,” Reichen said. “Even if you’re a DRP model, you’re building relationships with that client base. Those
clients are still going to come back to you. They may change insurance carriers two or three or four times in their driving history. So [the insurer] doesn’t own that customer, but you do. Even if you are a DRP model, work at owning that customer. Then you can wean yourself off of [DRPs] and not make decisions out of fear. “Would you [be happy with] 20% less work if you made 20% more on the remaining 80%? Of course. That’s a calculated risk,” he added. Andy Tylka was operating a six-location MSO in Indiana until recently, when two MSOs in other markets chose to sell their businesses to Tylka rather than to a national MSO. That expanded his company to 15 shops in 2.5 years. He acknowledged his choice to stay with a DRP model is, as it is for many shops, based to a degree on fear. “Because, obviously, growth results in loans,” Tylka said. “So if I’m not having customers come into my shops, I’m not paying these loans, and I’m responsible for 185 families.” He said collision repairers
should recognize the current backlog the industry enjoys “won’t last forever.” All that said, he acknowledged he’s using this time to make some changes. “Those with the DRP model should be re-evaluating what relationships they do want to keep and which ones they don’t, even if they stay with a DRP model,” Tylka said. “That’s pretty much what we did.” Schulenburg said SCRS works to highlight collision repairers, like some of those on the panel, who have the confidence to operate in a model of their choosing, such as without DRPs. “I think there are a lot of businesses that I speak to that don’t realize there are businesses that operate that way,” Schulenberg said. “It’s not a matter of saying one model over another. But there are businesses that operate successfully in ways that may feel foreign, but it’s their degree of confidence that drives the success.”
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Mercury Adds Digital Claims Processing Mercury Insurance announced a new web-based application to help policyholders file a claim digitally immediately following an accident with ease and security. Through a series of recognizable prompts, the software allows drivers to submit their claim with the help of maps and emoji-driven questions. Policyholders will be able to step through every part of the accident with a series of easily understood questions without being asked for repetitive information. Drivers can indicate precisely where their vehicle was damaged by dropping a pin on a map highlighting their location and even the weather at the time of the incident, along with photos submitted from their smartphones. While filing a claim, policyholders will be given access to connect either through the app, web portal, an integrated URL link or by telephone that will match their information. Source: Mercury Insurance
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