Does your body shop pass the “Sniff Test?” Find out in 3 simple steps.

You have about seven seconds to make a first impression with your body shop customers. Seven seconds -- that’s it! That means that what you do with those seven seconds is extremely important. Today I’m going to share a crazy story from the collision world that I have used as a “sniff test” for my body shops over the years.

Years ago, one of my regional managers and I were going to speak with an insurance company executive to try and work out a partnership. Now, I knew this guy had a bit of a sweet tooth so I invited him to meet us at a fancy ice cream shop, thinking it would help “sweeten” the deal. When we got to the shop, however, I opened the door and immediately pulled back. The whole place smelled like sour milk. It was disgusting. 

We still had to meet this insurance executive, so reluctantly the manager and I went into the store and sat down. I looked around the shop and was surprised to see that the employees didn’t seem to be aware of the horrible smell, even though customer after customer coming through the door made the same disgusted face I did. Many even turned around and left. When the insurance executive arrived, we intercepted him outside to tell him about the smell and made our way to a different store for ice cream. 

As the day went on, though, I couldn’t stop thinking about the employees who didn’t seem to realize anything was wrong. What if I was like them when it came to my body shop? What issues or turn offs at my shop had my employees and I become so accustomed to that we no longer noticed them? 

What I came up with in response was a “sniff test” for your body shop -- three simple ways to tell if there is “sour milk” in your shop that could be affecting that first impression you are making on customers within the first seven seconds of them walking through your door.

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1. Get an outside business person’s perspective. Have them take a look at every element of your business from a customer experience perspective (the way they’re greeted at the shop, the design of the website, etc.) and ask them for brutal honesty. Their fresh and unbiased feedback will let you know where you have room for improvement. You can even offer to do the same for their business in return. PRO TIP: At least 50% of your customers are women. If you don’t have many women working at your shop, I’d encourage you to use this as an opportunity to seek out someone who can speak to the perspective of that demographic.
2. Survey your customers. You might be thinking, “We’re already surveying our customers!” The truth is, a lot of us survey for the sole purpose of showing insurance customers positive reviews. That’s important, but if you subset your process and use a different survey for every tenth customer -- one more specific and focused on feedback for internal purposes -- you can discover some interesting information that will help you improve your business. PRO TIP: Phoenix Solutions Group out of Chicago has some really great resources available. If you are looking to upgrade your survey process, I suggest you check them out. 
3. Incentivize Employee Feedback. At my shops, when I gathered employee feedback I would frame it as a contest. Every quarter the staff was asked to recommend an improvement we could make to the business, and whoever’s suggestion we chose to implement that quarter would receive a prize.

As owners and managers, we’re busy. It can be hard to keep that constant 360 degree awareness of the business you need to make sure things don’t slip through the cracks. That’s why leveraging other people is so important. By creating feedback loops between us and our staff, customers, and even unbiased third parties, we can make sure we stay sharp and keep our body shops passing the sniff test. 

Hope you found this helpful -- Keep crushing it!

Ryan