Using Video to Sell and Service Customers

Video is a very powerful communication medium. It has been said that a "picture is worth a 1000 words". If that’s true, then a video is worth...1.8 MILLION words!

If you’ve seen the AC360° CNN video that outlines the issues between insurers, repairers and consumers, you know that video is a very powerful communication tool.

AC360° Video: CNN's Drew Griffin investigates claims that some insurance companies
are skimping on repairing damaged vehicles to pad their profits. 

Did You Know? 

• One minute of video equates to 1.8 Million Words (Dr. James McQuivey, Forrester)


• 59% of viewers will watch a video from start to finish that is less than one minute (Wistia)


• 92% of mobile video viewers share videos with others (Invodo)


• 65% of executives have visited a vendor's site after watching a video (According to Forbes, 39% have called a vendor after watching a video)


• 70% of marketing professionals report that video converts better than any other medium (MarketingProfs)


• When marketers included a video in an email, the click-through rate increased by 200 to 300% (Forrester)


• The average internet user spends 88% more time on a website with video (Mist Media)


• 64% of consumers are more likely to buy a product or service after watching a video about it (comScore)


• Visitors who view videos stay on websites an average of 2 minutes longer than those who don't view videos (comScore)


• Website homepage videos are shown to increase site conversion rates by 20% or more (ReelSEO)


• Using video on website landing pages can increase conversion by 80% (Unbounce) 

Top 5 Online Video Ideas
So what is your plan to incorporate video into your company's sales, marketing and customer service strategy? Here are five ideas to get you started. 

1.    Create, Share and Distribute Company Video Profiles and Customer Testimonials: Use video to share your unique story with your various audiences. This can include customer testimonials, employee spotlights, unique business processes or your company's culture and values. Brands like Papa John's and Samuel Adams® have fully committed to telling their stories this way.

2.    Company, Service and other Video Updates:
Consider delivering regular company or service information with staff, insurance partners, customers and prospects through online videos. Offer something new to inboxes by embedding a video in your emails to your partners and customers. You should also consider utilizing video as part of your company's DRP application process.

3.    Explainer Videos:
An explainer or how to video is usually a 1-2 minute video that a shop can use promote their business; educate the consumer on the repair process and/or to introduce a new product or service. Below is an example of a repair process explainer video.

 

4.    Behind-the-Scenes Repair Process Footage:
Provide your customers, insurers and other partners an inside look at your company's business and repair processes. Sharing behind-the-scenes footage offers a sense of inclusion rewarding current and potential customers.

5.    Document Events:
Enter the realm of "brand journalism" by capturing and sharing the events your shop is involved in or supports. Your customers will feel like they're part of the action, creating a stronger bond.

It doesn't matter if you’re an independent auto body shop, franchise, local, regional or national MSO or Repair Network. If you are able to utilize visual media better than your competition, you will come out on top.

Sharing what you and your company do through video builds an emotional connection with your audience in a way that's impossible to establish with just plain old text.

Next Steps
Mitchell’s Digital Marketing Platform has combined several powerful tools to effectively market your business online and drive more profit through increased sales. Contact us or call us at 866-639-7075 to learn more about how to attract new customers and manage your customer experience with the Mitchell Complete Digital Marketing Solution.

The Premier Achiever Awards -- Showing the Customer You Care

In today’s always-connected world your customers are much more than kings and queens. They’re masters of universe, judge and jury able to spread their opinions about your repair shop to millions with a couple of well-placed keystrokes. Or to put it another way, you aren't in the auto collision repair business, you’re in the customer satisfaction business. And you’re doing a darned good job, too! That’s why Mitchell is proud to sponsor the annual AutocheX Premier Achiever Award (PAA) program to loudly give credit where exemplary credit is due.

Since 2002, the PAA program has presented nearly 4,000 awards to the collision repair facilities that achieve extraordinary customer satisfaction ratings. Winners come in every size, from small family-run operations to large consolidations, and they’re located in 41 U.S. states and British Columbia.

This isn't a popularity contest, either. The customer satisfaction numbers are arrived at scientifically using Mitchell’s industry-leading RepairCenter™ Customer Engagement Tools (CET) powered by the AutocheX solution, either independently or as part of an insurance-sponsored repair program. That makes getting a PAA the equivalent of a collision repair industry Academy Award™ -- something the recipients earn through outstanding performance and are justifiably proud to win. As Sam Arvizu of Mike Rose’s Auto Body in Walnut Creek, CA said after winning last year, "It’s like winning an Oscar! We pride ourselves on our customer service and this award is our red carpet."

The PAA is Recognition for Hard Work 
For some recipients, a PAA is validation of their efforts. From Darren Davis of Tyler, Texas-based Davis-Green Paint & Body, "Receiving this award validates all the time and effort we put into focusing on a first-class customer experience with our collision repair facility. This award will serve as a huge morale boost to our employees."  To Tom Fisher of Depew, of New York's Northeast Collision, "Validation by AutocheX in this consumer-driven world is a big feather in our cap and we will wear it proudly." And John Blanks of Paint & Body Perfectors in Nashville, Tennessee, a PAA "gives our staff a ‘pat on the back.'"

It's a Learning Tool
Many PAA award winners report that just participating in the process of measuring customer satisfaction is a valuable learning tool. According to Russell Freeman of Auto Exterior in Lancaster, South Carolina, "AutocheX has given us the opportunity to see our weak areas and work toward improvement." David Capps of Craftsman Auto Body in Chantilly, Virginia agrees. "AutocheX CSI reporting has enabled us to identify downward trends. This gives us an opportunity to coach employees and refine our processes before it becomes an issue."

It's a Business-Builder
Many recipients comment on the business-building value that comes from winning a PAA. "There's no better advertising for a business than providing an unforgettable customer experience,"says Al Bell of Willis Collision Center in Des Moines, Iowa. For Kirk Robinson of Service King #2 in Arlington, Texas, "the word-of-mouth is the most important advertising tool you can receive."

It Cements Relationships
For Preston James of Southaven, Mississippi's Service King #301, "It tells our…insurance partners we are doing things right for our customers." 

And everyone agrees that a PAA trophy or certificate in the lobby is reassuring to customers. Scott Cammisa of Cammisa's Auto Body, Inc. in Butler, Pennsylvania sums that up nicely: "Being an AutoChex Premier Achiever Award winner has helped our business in showing our customers that we truly try to help them the best we can. It's the proof that we try to make an unpleasant experience a great one. It is more than just words when have the award to show we stand behind our work and our word." 

Stay tuned. We'll be announcing the 2014 Premier Achiever Award winners this month and launching a PAA microsite where you can learn more about the program and the winners.

Collision Repair Analytics: How to Reduce Cycle Time with Scheduling Data

Blog post by Willis Colpitts |Senior Manager, Collision Solutions Training

One of the most important administrative pieces of a repair is the dates of the repair. The dates should drive production, and the measurement of cycle times for your shop. We all also know that insurance carriers look at Length of Rental (LOR) as a measure of your shop’s performance.

So how are you managing dates today? Do you drive the production based on the Out Date or the date you told the customer you would complete the repairs? Or maybe you use an Internal out Date to drive production? Or do you simply not enter dates?

How do you measure your Cycle time – Keys to Keys?


Manage Cycle Time at Every Stage of the Repair Process to Improve Performance 

RepairCenter Repair Analytics gives you the ability to automatically generate Due In and Due Out Dates. You can also auto populate your Start and Completed dates based on production status. This only leaves the Arrived and Delivered dates, which are normally entered by the CSR when the vehicle drops and delivery is made. Closed dates are generated and controlled by the accounting department normally.

So, using the dates we have, the calculations are pretty simple. Within each of these stages, there is room to improve cycle time.

• From Arrived to Start is controlled by your intake process. A good teardown or discovery process will help shorten this time.
• Start to Complete is the actual time spent working on the vehicle up until detail. A good process teardown process as well as ensuring that supplements are a priority will help reduce time in production
• Complete to Delivered is a product of cleaning and delivering the vehicle. Customer communication is key to get the customer into the shop in a timely manner.
  
  Delivered to Closed, or simply put, was the file completed and did you have the paperwork ahead of the repair process? If you have done the discovery and made supplements a priority this time should be reduced.
  
  Remember that all of these measures and suggestions will help you reduce your Keys to Keys time and help with LOR.

How to Pull Actionable Data from Production Reports

RepairCenter Standard Analytics:
Sort the Job Listing by Date Range report (Report #2) and apply the Due Out, Not Completed filter. This will give you a list of the most urgent jobs to review with the production staff and technicians on a daily basis. Doing this will help you deliver the vehicles on the date promised to the customer and identify areas that need immediate attention.

RepairCenter Standard Analytics, Production Report

RepairCenter Premium Analytics: 

If you are using RepairCenter Premiere, you can find this data under Analytics > Performance Indicators > Cycle Times. Filter the screen by Date type, normally Closed and Carrier, and apply the filter. Now select the date range to look at the data in summary for all repairs. You will also have the ability to see each individual job and remove jobs like Total Loss.

RepairCenter Premium Analytics, Production Report

Getting control of your production dates allows you to improve production, drive a sense of urgency on repairs, and reduce cycle times.

You may also be interested in…

• Learn more about RepairCenter, Mitchell’s Shop Management Solution
• Which RepairCenter Package is right for you? 
• What does RepairCenter Analytics offer for shop owners, production managers, and technicians? 
• New Research for Insurance and Collision Repair: Industry Trends Report Q1 2015 

Ford F-150 Repair Labor Estimating: Mitchell Gets It Right by Getting It Right from the Source

Even before the first Ford F-150 all-aluminum-body trucks started rolling off the production line and into showrooms late last year the buzz was BIG. Sales so far are living up to expectations--in January 2015, Ford dealers moved 54,370 units (Source: Fortune.com).  They are, as Ford CFO Bob Shanks told AutoNews.com, “flying off the lots.” (Source: AutoNews.com)

Although we won’t have a realistic handle on how successful the new Ford F-150 is until later this summer, it’s probably safe to say it will continue Ford’s decades-long run as the top-selling U.S. truck of all time. That means, before long, every body shop in America will be dealing first-hand with the unique repair protocols aluminum-bodied vehicles require.

One of the biggest challenges will be accurately estimating labor for a process that is new to for most technicians.  To make sure our customers have the most accurate labor times available, Mitchell went straight to the source, drawing on the long, close relationship we enjoy with OEMs like Ford.

Getting it right included several learning sessions for the entire team of Mitchell labor content specialists, a group of collision industry veterans with years of body repair experience:

• The team visited the ProSpot factory, one of only two Ford approved manufacturers of the specialized welding and riveting tools needed to join aluminum panels. While there, they made repairs using the ProSpot equipment.


• The team attended and passed an eight-hour F-150 training program developed by Ford and I-CAR.


• After meeting with Ford engineers at the 2014 NACE trade conference, a representative of the team was invited to spend a day at Ford’s Paint & Body Technology Center where all F-150 labor and repair procedures are developed. They learned Ford recommended techniques for aluminum repair and did more hands-on practice repairs.

(Images above courtesy of Ford Motor Company)

Members of the team continued to correspond with Ford, collaborating on different repair scenarios and getting clarification on repair procedures, a process that yielded invaluable insights.

According to Greg Horn, Mitchell’s Vice President of Industry Relations, the high level of collaboration with Ford was one of the company’s most comprehensive ever, and right in line with Ford’s philosophy for the F-150. “Ford spent over five years developing this vehicle. It’s designed to be repairable, in such a way that there will be minimal impact to disrupting other parts of the vehicle to replace a single component. They’re very proud of the results and they wanted to partner with Mitchell to ensure that our efforts translated into fair, equitable labor times for component replacement.” said Horn.

Horn pointed out that Ford has done something else that is unique in the industry. “When you order any major structural component for the new F-150 it comes with a sheet of instructions that essentially tell you ‘cut here, don’t cut here.’ Each sheet includes a detailed list of consumables down to the number of rivets needed. Our team had access to all those repair instruction sheets when developing labor times. There’s nothing else out there for this vehicle that’s as well researched or as accurate.”

Mitchell has released three TechAdvisor collision repair articles for the new F-150 Regular, Crew, and Extended Cab models. Ford F-150 technical information including graphics, labor times and part pricing are currently available in the February release of Mitchell Estimating.

Blog Post Contributors include:
Greg Horn - VP of Industry Relations, Mitchell International
Jerry Gastineau - Manager, Technical Writing, Mitchell International
Rick Hodawanus - Collision Labor Content Specialist, Mitchell International


If you enjoyed this blog post, you may also be interested in:

• Mitchell Estimating - Easy-to-use estimating software improves accuracy and profitability


• When will America embrace diesel passenger cars? by Greg Horn


• Mitchell's Q1 2015 Industry Trends Report (PDF)