Parking lot Chip Repair protocol

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20twenty
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Parking lot Chip Repair protocol

Post by 20twenty »

Hey there.
I am currently looking at setting a parking lot tent for chip repair and have a couple questions for anyone that may be doing this. They may seem silly but I can't find a parking lot vendor to question:-/

1. Is it customary to have paper receipts/invoice on hand or are vendors using phones/iPad's,etc for business these days? Kind of seems like a pain to have to go home at the end of the day and input to quick books etc...

2. When they want to go through insurance do I make that call right then and there, or do they?..... this seems time consuming on busy days if it's me??

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated:-)

THANK YOU!!!
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Brent Deines
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Re: Parking lot Chip Repair protocol

Post by Brent Deines »

If you have a phone with a hotspot, in case you do not have access to Wi-Fi, and a tablet for getting signatures, invoicing, and running credit cards, you are good to go. Actually you can do just about everything on a phone now but a tablet is easier for most of us. You can still use paper of course but in my opinion the time you save using a phone and/or tablet is well worth the price and is more professional. You can email the invoices, which most customers really like but you can also use a portable printer for those who prefer a hard copy.

I prefer to initiate the call then put the phone on speaker if the insurance company or TPA wants to talk to the customer, making sure the person on the other end knows you are listening to every word. This minimizes steering.

Not everyone will agree with me on this but if you have a bluetooth headset or just put your phone on speaker you can call the insurance company or TPA while you start the repair, which almost completely eliminates any chance of steering and saves a lot of time. Most customers will agree to pay cash in the rare event their insurance company does not pick up the tab but for the most part you have a pretty good idea whether or not their insurance will pay before you make the call so the worst case scenario is that you give away a free repair, but that is extremely rare, and if that does happen you will probably get a ton of free advertising out of it.
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RCRNR
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Re: Parking lot Chip Repair protocol

Post by RCRNR »

Just curious Brent the insurance companies wont get mad if the repair is being done during the call? They ask almost every customer if the repair has been started or completed I always assumed we must wait til after the insurance call. If not this will save me tons of time as well as my customers time.
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Re: Parking lot Chip Repair protocol

Post by Brent Deines »

I'm sure the TPA would prefer you wait in some cases but in my experience they have never indicated it was a problem. As far a I know by law the customer can still choose to go wherever they wish to have the repair completed as long as the company that does the repair is willing to accept the standard payment. You just want to make sure the customer is present in case the TPA asks to talk directly with the customer.

The one exception to this that I am aware of is if the TPA requires someone to inspect the repair prior to the work being performed, which has never happened to us but it does happen in some areas and with some companies, usually those who do a much higher than average number of repairs daily. You'll know if you are on that list.

I would really be interested to hear if other forum members have ever had a TPA or insurance company say they would not pay for the repair because it was already in progress.
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Re: Parking lot Chip Repair protocol

Post by ghost rider »

SGC is the only TPA I've had a problem with. I ask the customer to tell a little fib and say the repair hasn't been started yet. Never had a problem with that. A couple times the customer screwed up and said the repair was already done, they will still pay but they want a faxed invoice and charge an extra $12.00 service fee. Just a way for them to make more money from you.
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Re: Parking lot Chip Repair protocol

Post by RCRNR »

I had one recently had them wait to approve a customer they made the customer send them a photo of the damage first. Is that the inspection or a fluke? Other than that they always ask the customer if the work is complete or started already. I do not want them taking 12 a repair from me would add up to way too much .Also would feel extremely uncomfortable lying or asking a customer to lie. I will call Safelite and ask them exactly what the policy is, so far Safelite has been straight forward about what is acceptable to them when I call. Being 80 percent of my business is insurance and Safelite accounts for 70 percent of the insurance I get I need to do this exactly right. I will post what they tell me after I contact them.
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Re: Parking lot Chip Repair protocol

Post by FixitFelix »

Brent Deines wrote: April 4th, 2019, 10:15 am
If you have a phone with a hotspot, in case you do not have access to Wi-Fi, and a tablet for getting signatures, invoicing, and running credit cards, you are good to go. Actually you can do just about everything on a phone now but a tablet is easier for most of us. You can still use paper of course but in my opinion the time you save using a phone and/or tablet is well worth the price and is more professional. You can email the invoices, which most customers really like but you can also use a portable printer for those who prefer a hard copy.


I prefer to initiate the call then put the phone on speaker if the insurance company or TPA wants to talk to the customer, making sure the person on the other end knows you are listening to every word. This minimizes steering.

Not everyone will agree with me on this but if you have a bluetooth headset or just put your phone on speaker you can call the insurance company or TPA while you start the repair, which almost completely eliminates any chance of steering and saves a lot of time. Most customers will agree to pay cash in the rare event their insurance company does not pick up the tab but for the most part you have a pretty good idea whether or not their insurance will pay before you make the call so the worst case scenario is that you give away a free repair, but that is extremely rare, and if that does happen you will probably get a ton of free advertising out of it.
Brent,

Could you elaborate on what steering is?
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Brent Deines
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Re: Parking lot Chip Repair protocol

Post by Brent Deines »

Steering is when you our your customer calls a third party administrator to get insurance claim approval, and they try to steer your customer to another vendor. Often they do this by telling your customer that if you go to Competitor X, the repair will be covered by a nationwide lifetime warranty. This sometimes prompts the customer to ask what your warranty will be, so you have to be prepared for that conversation. You can offer a lifetime warranty, and many of us in the industry do, but not in hundreds of locations across the USA. I'm not aware of this ploy ever resulting in a resulting in the loss of a sale if we are on the phone with the customer and the TPA, but I can see how it could if it is just a conversation between the customer and the TPA, particularly if you have not yet arrived to do the repair.
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