Car repair marketing to insurance?
I’m working with my group on a marketing project for school. It’s our job to market a car detail shop to insurance companies. The ultimate goal is to have insurance companies recommend the car detail shop for fixes. How do insurance companies even get a list of that kind of information and who qualifies as someone on the recommended list?
Automobile detailing shops are too specialized to be on a direct-repair shop list for an insurance company. You wouldn’t market the detailer directly to the insurance company. You’d market the detail shop to the body shops that are on the direct-repair shop list the insurer has.
Many body shops sub-contract a dozen or so specialties out to sub contractors. These can include detailing, glass removal and installation, pin-striping, installation of large decals or graphics, complex wiring repairs, trim (seats and convertible tops), “paintless” dent repair work, and rental cars. Smaller body shops many sub-contract things like mechanical work, alignments, tires, airbag work, and frame work. Other than the glass companies these sub-contractors are generally considered too infrequently needed to bother with maintaining any sort of list. On the occasions they are needed the insurance claims adjuster either knows someplace directly or calls his local body shop to ask them.
Insurance claims that require detailing (in the sense that they need cleaning beyond a normal wash and vacuuming) are relatively uncommon. The two that come to mind are flood and extensive blood cleanup, both of which are normally associated with total losses. On rare occasions detailers are needed for things like a bunch of cars parked down-wind of something large being painted that were covered with over-spray, cars that ran over aerosol paint cans or wet road line paint, or damage done by wild animals that get into the car likes skunks or mice, but these are pretty rare.
Insurance companies develop their repair networks largely on word-of-mouth. A need is recognized by the insurer for a type of shop in such-and-such a place and they ask their local field appraiser who he would recommend in that area. The nearest local claims office then puts the shop on a list. Large insurers develop relatively complex tracking systems that “rate” each shop based on things like customer satisfaction surveys, days-to-repair times, and costs.
If you’re able to change your marketing project plan then direct the detailers marketing efforts to smaller car dealers, auto body shops, limousine services and places like that. Most of the time these places will be able to handle most of their own detailing needs but they would need specialty shops for extreme or time consuming cases. Detailing is generally for people with lots of disposable income so marketing at places like marinas, tennis clubs, and golf courses would likely also pay off.
