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I agree wholeheartedly that discounting is not the way to go.  It hurts all the shops in your area, and you end up cutting your own throat.  It's a dangerous road to start down that is very difficult to recover from.  Educating your customer is the best practice.  I keep a sign posted in my customer lobby that explains that they can take their vehicle to any shop they choose.  There are a number of explanations you can give them, the challenge is figuring out which one works best for your customer.  "Remember, the insurance company only insures your car, you actually own it, so you get to repair it at the shop you choose, not their choice" seems to work pretty well, but you often have to adapt to the customer depending on what their main concerns are.  I have the good fortune of having worked for the insurance industry for a couple years, and I can tell you that in areas where shops work together and fight back, the insurance companies become powerless to stop them.  That is why some areas of the country are working for $52.00/hr and others are working at $34.00, with no discernable reason why other than the fact that the shops started cutting each other's throats and then got caught up and couldn't stop.  In areas where the shops unofficially raise their labor rates at similar times, they have a great deal of power against the insurance companies.  The best advice I can give you is to make peace with your competition and start working together with them.  They stand a good chance of regretting their insurance company DRP's after awhile and could even join you in turning them away.

Best of luck.

championpryor, 1 day ago | Flag

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The steering issue seems to be a hot topic. What I have been seeing and hearing in our trade area is shops are starting to drop the DRP program do to the program providers (insurance companies) continue to ask for more and more concessions. Maybe someone out there can enlighten me? If we the shop owner organize to create more competitive pricing, that is considered an illegal trade act. But when the insurance companies through there DRP programs steer there customers “THAT” is considered legal and "just plain good business practice". Makes a person scratch there head in wonder!!

Vetteman1, 1 day ago | Flag

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I totally agree with what you people have written, in no way shape or form do you ever give special discounts in that manner.  It is a short term gain long term loss proposition for all of us.  Take the time to educate your customers I have had lots of people that have never filed a claim before and didn't know what to do to even get things started.  Make very sure that they know that they have the right to choose what shop will be repairing their vehicle!!!!!   When it comes to haggling price w/ the insurance company tell them no that any price haggling will be done with the customer and you will furnish them a list of insurance companies the you don't have to put up with this type of thing with when it comes to getting a claim paid for.  That usually helps bring the adjuster back around, if it doesn't then you look like the good guy with YOUR CUSTOMER.  I take the stance that I am working for the people’s best interest not the insurance company's.  Even though my shop is in rural Wyoming and the nearest DRP facility is 70 miles away I still get lots of Companies trying to steer my customer into their own repair shops and guess what when you talk to the owners or management of the DRP's and talk profit they are barely making it work.  We as shop owners need to band together more than we do and we can all help each other fight back.

Bccautobody, 1 day ago | Flag

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One thing we do is educate the customer exactly why the insurance companies want them to go to their DRP shops. That is to save the insurance company money. PERIOD. Yes, they wrap it up and sell it to the customers that the shops will take better care of them and give them great service. I have never had a customer tell me they were told by the insurance company it will save money. Once they learn that, some have a different opinion of the insurance company. We also tell them that the shop may be more interested in keeping the insurance company happy as opposed to doing what's right. That may be a worse case scenario, but you can't tell me that doesn't happen. We write 100+ estimates a week, so we get to educate a few customers. I also have a hand out sheet that describes the customer’s rights, and in VA they can choose their body shop.

As for dropping prices, I'd rather offer the customer great service and value than be considering cutting into my profits. I've done this a long time and if I can't make money, I'd rather not do it. The one thing that really gets me going is shops that offer a discount to get DRP work. If we were to stick together and not offer insurance companies discounts they'd have to pay us retail. But of course, they'd cry we were price fixing. Then there would always be the shops that willingly whore themselves out to get the work. But you have all heard it before.

maacodale, 1 day ago | Flag

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You have to dedicate somebody to take the time to educate your customer. The most important factor is reporting any claim with your customer in your office with the customer already aware that their insurance company is going to "STEER" them to one of there locations. Start the report for your customer introducing your shop to the insurance company on behave of there insured, get a name of the agent taking the report, we record all conversations and we tell the agent that this conversation is being recorded, and this is my customer and please don’t try to STEER because that is illegal.  They will still try and give the insured all choices but they tend to not push as hard knowing that the conversation is recorded. Find out from the insurance company what is the rental coverage’s and get your customer into a rental "NOW". The chances of losing your customer to the insurance company DRP are greatly increased with follow up phone calls to there insured if they are still in there damaged car, then they are if the car is in your shop waiting for an adjuster.

THIS HAS TO BE DONE EVERY TIME.........IF YOU LET THE CUSTOMER THAT YOU KNOW FOR YEARS MAKE THERE OWN REPORT “YOU WILL LOSE THEM TO DRP" 

We were a DRP for 2 major insurance companies for years. We gave it up when one of them began "STEERING' them away to their express shops, even knowing I was on their DRP list..