Despite the software’s possibility to produce higher repair bills by reminding body shops about operations, insurers have expressed pleasure at the consistency the Blueprint Optimization Tool gives auto body estimates, the Society of Collision Repair Specialists said a week ago.
An external industry expert told the trade group he’d observed exactly the same response from carriers.
SCRS board member Robert Grieve told an open board meeting Wednesday that the organization survey found a wide variety of BOT users in the market. They include direct repair program, non-DRP facilities, OEM-certified repairers and uncertified shops, he said. Some facilities average more than $9,000 per repair order, while others average $3,000, he explained.
The BOT software allows a collision repairer to automatically apply the “SCRS Help guide to Complete Repair Planning” document to an estimate and identify work the shop could be performing but hadn't included around the sheet. The disposable “Guide to Complete Repair Planning” includes a lot more than 1,000 suggested line items. Grieve said SCRS plans to add one more 500 towards the BOT soon.
On the whole, shops in 38 states have added a lot more than 20,000 flagged operations because the BOT’s launch, according to Grieve.
Vehicle Collision Experts CEO Mark Olson said his company has begun to interview insurers about which shops that they like and why. According to Olson, the BOT has actually improved insurer-shop relations.
“There’s been a shift,” Olson told outdoors board meeting audience. Insurers reported calling certain shops “‘hard to deal with.'” However the insurers told VECO their opinion of these repairers changed following a shops’ BOT usage: “‘Now they’re so consistent, they’re simple to deal with.'”
“I didn’t expect that,” Olson said.
Society of Collision Repair Specialists Executive Director Schulenburg called Olson’s account in line with what the trade group had heard from insurers, “even at regional and national levels.” The carriers find the software produces “‘impressive'” consistency in estimators,
Schulenburg said. He explained one survey respondent also reported “that consistency breeds credibility” with insurers.
Olson said he was mostly referring to shops which weren’t even DRP facilities. Insurers thought it was easier to use shops that weren’t even their partners. “It’s a real benefit for both,” Olson said.
Grieve said even DRP facilities say they’re not encountering “the pushback that you would expect.”
Repairers are finding an economic benefit from the BOT’s reminders about legitimate repair work the store had didn't increase the estimate. A promotional video from OEConnection, whose subsidiary NuGen IT developed the BOT for SCRS, said repairers who effectively use the software recognize an 8:1 roi.
SCRS charges members $99 per month for a single estimating terminal and an additional $21.75 for each additional terminal.
Executive Director Aaron Schulenburg pointed out the “immediate ROI” for any member shop able to add $150 to some repair order or increase a $2,500 estimate by 10-15 percent, successes that real-world BOT users have reported. Another shop recognized a $15-$45 revenue gain per estimate, which Schulenburg noted would still pay off a BOT subscription quickly even at $15 more per RO.
One audience member observed that her shop’s “lowest week” since deploying the BOT saw the program flagging an additional $800 in overlooked sales. The record to date was one more $1,500 per week contributed by the BOT, she said.
One BOT adopter was found to possess 16 licensed users, based on Grieve. He noted that deploying the BOT would produce consistency in a situation where 16 estimators were disseminate across multiple locations inside a chain.
SCRS board member Tim Ronak said consistency among employees had “real value.” He gave the illustration of a shop with three estimators with skills ranging from weak to excellent.
“This can help develop a consistency among all of them,” Ronak said. He said this meant credibility for vendors or customers as everyone examines the vehicle on the “same level arena.” This represented “real underlying value,” he asid.
Audience member Domenic Martino, co-owner of Chicago, Ill.-based Gold Coast Auto Body , noted that his shop were built with a new blueprinter who had been already a “savvy estimator” but could be elevated to an even higher-level using the BOT. Ronak said the BOT might be customized to point out new items after estimators grow more consistent writing to have an initial set of operations the BOT had been told to flag.
