Forbes.com
Jason Metz

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Even if you’re staying at home to help flatten the curve of the COVID-19 pandemic, you might get unexpected car damage and need to file a car insurance claim. For example, a large branch could fall on your car, or you could get into a fender bender on the way to a curbside grocery pickup.

What to do at the Scene of an Accident

If you get into a car accident, maintain at least a 6-foot distance between the driver of the other vehicle and their passengers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines.

You can verbally exchange information from a safe distance, or you can take a photo of your insurance card and exchange it through text messages. If you need to call the police to the scene, you can wait in your car and the police officer can help facilitate the exchange of insurance information.

If your car is undrivable because of the damage, you may need to call for a tow truck. If possible, try to arrange a ride home with a family member or someone you live with. If you need to ride home in an Uber or with someone else, be sure to practice the CDC’s guidelines to protect yourself and others.

How to File A Virtual Car Insurance Claim

In a typical car insurance claim scenario, an adjuster might come to your home to inspect the car damage and give you an appraisal.

But auto insurance companies are adjusting to new norms amid the pandemic. Many urge their policyholders to file and manage claims online or through the companies’ mobile apps. You can also call the insurance company to file a claim over the phone, but wait times may be longer than usual.

Many auto insurers were already investing in virtual-claims technologies before the COVID-19 pandemic. Here’s what some major insurers can offer.

Allstate has “Virtual Assist” to expedite car insurance claims. Virtual Assist allows body shops to create an initial estimate and get approved for additional repair as they work on your vehicle. You can submit your initial claim using Allstate’s “QuickFoto Claim” within its mobile app. Allstate can send you payments instantly through its QuickCard Pay. The company expects to handle 90% of its auto insurance claims using virtual tools.

American Family customers can access their accounts online or with the MyAmFam app to make a claim or check the status of a claim.

Amica’s app offers the ability to upload documents, photos and media to file a claim. You can enroll for text messages and email notifications for the claim’s status, and message your claim handler. You can also sign up for direct deposit for claim payments.

Auto-owners insurance customers can connect via the customer center app to upload and view claims documents.

Erie Insurance customers can monitor a claim through their online accounts.

Farmers Insurance has temporarily moved to a “technology first” approach in processing claims, according to Trevor Chapman, a Farmers spokesperson. Customers can file claims remotely through Farmers.com, the mobile app, or by calling their agent or the 24-hour call center.

You can also use Farmers’ photo-estimating tool to get an appraisal. If you need an in-person appraisal, you can remain in your vehicle during the inspection process and communicate via text and phone with the claims representative.

Geico encourages customers to check their claim status through the Geico mobile app or the company’s website.

Hanover Insurance offers online claim handling, and you can file and monitor a claim through their mobile app.

Liberty Mutual says its auto-repair appraisers will not be visiting customer homes or auto body shops except in emergency situations. If you need to file a claim, you can upload photos of your car damage online or through the Liberty Mutual app, which includes an assisted-photo tool and step-by-step guide for taking damage photos.

Nationwide customers can file claims and check status online.

Progressive says you can file a claim online, through the company’s app or by calling the company. Progressive’s website says they will be limiting in-person interactions as much as possible.

State Farm customers can file claims online or through its mobile app.

Travelers Insurance has several virtual options, including virtual inspection tools that allow adjusters to view damage without being on-site. You have the option to utilize real-time video chat and apps to guide you through the claim process. You can also upload photos and videos of damage at Travelers.com.

USAA customers can file a claim through its mobile app.

What About No-Contact Auto Repair?

If your car is in need of repair, you’re going to need to get it over to an auto repair shop. The good news is that many auto repair shops have taken steps to limit person-to-person interaction and reduce the chances of COVID-19 exposure.

“We have been able to quickly launch some new programs to our Carstar franchisees,” says Dean Fisher, president of Carstar North America, a network of independently owned collision repair facilities. Fisher says that these services include increased cleaning and sanitizing, vehicle drop-off and pickup guidelines, and photo-based repair estimates.

It’s a good idea to ask your auto repair shop what steps they have taken to limit in-person contact. If you’re not comfortable with the answers, consider a different shop.

To give you an idea of what types of questions to ask, here are some recommendations from VeriFacts Automotive, a company that offers guidance to collision repair facilities.

• Limited interaction. Ask about discussing your vehicle using virtual methods, like Skype, Zoom or Google Hangouts. If you do need to visit the shop, ask to schedule an appointment during off-peak hours and maintain at least a 6-foot distance from others.
• A clean, sanitized environment. An auto repair shop should ensure that its visitors’ area is sanitized, including computer terminals, equipment, counters, entryways and bathrooms. Bring your own pen in case you have to sign any forms.
• Drop-off and pickup services. If possible, Verifacts Automotive recommends leaving the car in a secure location with the keys in a signed, sealed envelope inside the car. You can also ask your shop if they are able to pick up your car at your house and drop it off after repair.
• Sanitized vehicles upon arrival and return. Ask your shop if they plan to sanitize your car, including the steering wheel, dashboard, knobs, gear stick, door handles, armrest and cup holder.

Digital Dealer.com, April 2020
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For many collision repair facility owners and managers, they are not afforded the downtime to focus on improving their shop processes and operations because of the constant attention to cycle time, length of rental and vehicle throughput.

Today, as collision repair shop owners are evaluating their current car count and the estimated volume for the next month, there is an opportunity to retain valued technicians and team members while increasing the efficiency and performance of your facility when the vehicle volume returns.

“We are thinking of all of the collision repair shop owners, managers and technicians around the country as they deal with this health and economic challenge at work and at home,” said Farzam Afshar, CEO of VeriFacts Automotive. “No one wants to face declining car counts and repair volume, but if there is a silver lining to all of this, it does provide an opportunity to focus on how you can improve your business during the downtime.”

As the federal government has deemed automotive repair as an “essential” business, shop owners across the country are working hard to change their business practices to reassure customers of their health and safety when getting their vehicle repaired. Many of these practices, like shop cleanliness and customer service enhancements, will have a lasting impact on shop operations.

VeriFacts Automotive, which works with thousands of collision repair facilities and industry suppliers across North America and regularly coaches shop owners on their shop environmental health standards and operational enhancements, is offering shop owners guidance on improving their businesses during this downtime.

1.  Facility Maintenance and Spring Cleaning – With a lower car count, now is a good time for a thorough cleaning of the entire facility. Clean and sanitize all walls, counters, surfaces and floors. Consider interior and exterior painting to give everything an updated, fresh look – a project your team members may tackle while they aren’t as busy repairing vehicles. And now that the shop is clean, it’s an ideal time to explore opportunities to keep it that way, such as a dustless sanding system.
2. Equipment Maintenance – This is an ideal time to perform the annual maintenance on equipment and tools and make needed repairs. If it’s time to replace equipment, now is a good time to negotiate with equipment suppliers to make those purchases.  It is imperative that you research and purchase equipment and tools that are OEM approved based on the mix of vehicles your facility repairs.
3. Inventory Management – Conduct physical inventory of all of the supplies, parts and materials you have in stock and determine how to order and use more efficiently. Make sure equipment is correctly inventoried so you can accurately depreciate on your financials.
4. Organize Parts and Supplies – Tired of searching for parts or looking at a messy supply room? There are a variety of shelving, rack and cabinet system that make finding the products needed for each job easy and efficient.  It’s important to add a tracking system so as parts and supplies are consumed, they are re-ordered promptly, thus reducing delays on repairs.
5. Paint Department Improvement and Cleaning – The paint booth is the vital part of the body shop, but if it isn’t taken care of, breakdowns can be costly. Deep clean the booth and remove overspray, change filters, clean pits and update lighting. Reapply booth coating or sand down and repaint inside and out. Consider adding a booth wrap on the inside walls and floors to make future cleanup easier. Also look at improving air movement for waterborne paint conversion. This may be the time to consider upgrading from your current booth to one that is more efficient to operate. If the paint room and all of the equipment in it is splattered and spackled, that’s potential contamination and debris that could get in your paint and mar your paint jobs. This is a perfect opportunity to work with your paint partner to look at new paint systems that make it more organized and efficient, as well as adding wall containers for cups, lids and liners and counter surfaces that are easier to clean up. Reducing the painter’s time in the mixing room delivers more profitability in the paint department!
6. Shop Process Improvements – Are there bottlenecks in the workflow in your shop? Are you wasting time moving cars around rather than repairing them? An evaluation of your shop layout and repair process can identify new opportunities to improve how vehicles move through the repair process in your shop, increasing efficiency and decreasing unpaid time. From streamlining the workstations for each step of the repair process to vehicle tracking systems to implementing parts bins or carts, simple changes can add up to big returns. Most paint company provide this service and if your paint company does not please ask VeriFacts to assist you.
7. Employee Training – Technicians and team members frequently complain about lost work time due to training, so now is the perfect time to participate in online training and coaching programs. VeriFacts Automotive provides virtual coaching and support to shops, which complements online training classes and webinars from suppliers like your paint, equipment and materials partners.
8. Employee Reviews – A key factor in retaining and growing team members is feedback and career pathing.  Annual or ongoing reviews often get put on a back burner in busier times, so this an ideal opportunity to conduct reviews with your employees, get their feedback and map out how to grow together.
9. Year-End Financial Evaluation and Budget Planning – As you close your books on 2019, this is the time to conduct a thorough financial review with your accountant. If you’re part of an MSO, review your financial plan with your peers and field operations team. Together, you can identify where you could cut costs and spend more efficiently, as well as evaluate how you can recover typically lost revenue through better repair mapping and tracking.
10. Manage Your Parts Orders and Vehicle Intake – During this pandemic time, a collision repair facility is looking to take any jobs in.  Make sure you verify parts availability before you disassemble drivable vehicles to ensure you can get the parts to repair them in a timely manner.

“We are always here to help our collision repair customers, in good times and challenging ones,” added Afshar. “We want to help them set their business on the proper course for success as we emerge from the current situation back to more prosperous times.”

Autobody News
Stacey Phillips

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In addition to sharing their insight on how this will affect the industry, they offered some advice to business owners and employees.

Farzam Afshar, CEO of VeriFacts Automotive

VeriFacts Automotive is working closely with our customers, insurers and OEMs to adapt our practices in these challenging times.

We are conducting many of our coaching services virtually to ensure we are keeping our team members and the shop employees safe. We are following OEM guidelines on shop certification visits. Also, we’ve shared tips with our customers about how they can enhance their business practices to ensure shop cleanliness, follow social distancing rules and provide convenient customer service.

While there will be short-term declines in repair volume as fewer people are on the road each day, we will see business return to previous levels as this challenge subsides.

We may also see daily driving trends increase, as people may be reluctant to return to air travel, trains and public transportation.

In addition, people may hold on to their vehicles longer rather than investing in a new car, which will translate to more repair needs.

We always advise shop owners and managers to use the good times to prepare for potential downturns, and to use the downtime to productively plan for the future. This is the ideal time to conduct your facility and equipment maintenance, participate in employee training, complete your annual financial review and planning and do your employee reviews.

Scott Biggs, CEO of Assured Performance

Assured Performance is taking bold action to support our certified repair network.

We’ve created a special subsidy and stimulus program for our certified repair providers we hope will help in the short term and actually reinvent and turbocharge their businesses for the long term.

For immediate relief, we have instituted a payment program, discount incentives and accelerated rebate redemption for the cost of certification. As a stimulus, we have introduced a new program to help drive sales and re-engineer business operations to save money and manpower.

Through an agreement with Bodyshop Booster, certified network shops can offer consumers and their insurers a hands-free estimating and repair process that protects the shop employees, the consumer and the insurers.

The new process combines photo and remote virtual estimating with a fully documented and/or certified repair. The process eliminates the need for the consumer or the insurer to come to the shop by using a pickup and delivery system, centralized appointment setting with an active calendar and special tools for the shops’ websites.

These combined with full electronic visual documentation will enable consumers and insurers to interact with shops in a new and far better way of doing business.

Programs like this can save repairers hundreds of thousands of dollars each year and save insurers millions. The process is far easier for consumers and offers a “hands-free” solution during this time of social distancing and quarantining. Consumers do not have to come to the shop and they will have higher confidence than ever before because of the repair documentation.

Our certified repairers’ survival is essential to all of us. It may be the perfect solution for these uncertain times and become the new norm in the future.

Since this industry is directly impacted by miles driven and employment, people NOT driving and forced to stay at home will be significant and could be devastating if the shutdown lasts too long.

In the short term, it is a great time for shops to implement new systems, train staff and refine their sales, marketing and production processes. We can all be far better businesses coming out of this crisis if we do this well and execute a smart business improvement plan.

Dean Fisher, President of CARSTAR

The safety of our customers and team members is always our first priority, and we are taking steps to protect the health and wellbeing of our team and customers.

We have implemented a number of precautions based on the advice of the Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization and other health authorities to minimize the risk of the transmission of COVID-19 for both team members and customers alike.

Following the municipal, provincial, state and federal guidelines for health and safety that are local to the repairers remain paramount during this COVID-19 pandemic. Increased rates of cleaning frequently touched surfaces, spaces and property is a common directive as well as making hand sanitizers and disinfectant wipes more available to both customers and employees.

Jim Keller, President of 1Collision Network

1Collision has addressed our locations as a group in regard to safety precautions by issuing bulletins, holding group web meetings and conducting discussions with shops about the ways they are protecting employees and customers.

To help capture traffic to your door, educate consumers on the vehicle disinfecting measures they can take, as well as the policies and procedures your repair facility has implemented.

In the sales process, especially during a shrinking market, it’s critical to educate consumers about making the proper repair facility choice. By using effective sales and closing techniques, and writing a complete and accurate repair plan, it will likely be the difference between breakeven and a respectable profit.

On the financial side, I recommend managing your numbers daily; close more sales and manage all costs, especially labor and parts.

With monthly building payments, whether you are in a lease or a mortgage, have conversations with the bank or building owner to delay a payment or two to help weather the storm. Analyzing all expenses to cut costs and being more efficient is always a good exercise.

Also, grant programs are becoming available on both a federal and state-by-state basis, that are potentially beneficial to collision shop owners.

The most critical issues I see for shops are the early reports that have indicated lower claims volumes, which will mean lower WIP (work in progress) and sales volumes. Parts availability will likely become a challenge, with manufacturer supply chains weakening internationally and the within the U.S.

Talk to your employees, and most importantly listen to what they are feeling…be compassionate, and assure them they are being heard and you will help in any way you can. Always remember, without our employees, there is no business.

Collision business owners must be strong, smart, courageous and lead their organization by taking calculated risks.

Henry Ford once said, “The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time.” The leader that does nothing will certainly lead to failure.

Aaron Schulenberg, Executive Director of SCRS

The Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) recognizes many collision repairers are being inundated with emails and information surrounding the current events unfolding, and many of our members are reaching out trying to understand what it means to their businesses.

As an association, we are largely relying on those with specialized expertise to offer guidance, and then finding ways to share that guidance through our free channels of communications. These include Repairer Driven News and a new resource page we have set up.

The resource page is continually updated with information about workplace preparation and help, as well as financial aid and relief to help small businesses and citizens across the U.S.

As essential businesses, we know the critical role collision repairers are playing right now for customers and employees. We’ve seen many examples of businesses taking enhanced precautions against COVID-19, ranging from zero-contact interactions with customers at drop-off and pick-up, that allow for adherence to social distancing policies surrounding personal contact.

We’ve also seen examples of businesses promoting services to “clean,” “sanitize” or “disinfect” customer vehicles. SCRS urges caution with the language used in your promotion of services. For instance, your facility can assure that you “apply disinfectant,” but there is no testing protocol to ensure that you “disinfected” the vehicle.

In our interaction with other industries, this has been a repeated caution; describe only what you performed, rather than a promise of what it accomplished.

The information is constantly evolving, the situation changing, and the best advice we can offer is to make ample use of the resources available to you to stay abreast of the current events.

But most importantly, remain positive.

We are an industry that fixes broken, seemingly unfixable incidents every day, as we restore safety and peace of mind after unexpected tragedy.

While the conditions are unchartered territory for us all, as an industry we will find our way through to the other side, using our professional experience to serve the motoring public as they turn to us in their time of need.

Body Shop Business
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Body Shop Business
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Protecting Shop Employees and Customers from Coronavirus

As the challenge of the coronavirus expands and local, state and federal authorities implement new rules for business operations and personal interactions, the collision repair industry and the many people who work in it are faced with new considerations for how they perform their job.

Body Shop News
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The 11th VeriFacts Symposium was held last month, focusing on the future of the collision repair industry, the coming impact of advanced repair requirements, converging technology, and commitment to providing the safest and most cost-effective collision repair for consumers.

The symposium featured two days of discussion on the changes ahead for the collision repair industry, collaborative solution development, exhibitor clinics and keynote speakers.

“We are sailing in changing seas,” said Farzam Afshar, CEO of VeriFacts Automotive. “The OEMs and insurers are partnering on insurance policies embedded in the car purchase/lease, consolidation is continuing, OEM certification is starting to replace DRPs, and we are shifting from the first notice of loss to the first notice of need, thanks to advanced technology.”

The three key topics that presentations and panellists focused on were:

• Repair Process and Standards – how the collision repair industry addresses them today and prepares for changing repair processes tomorrow
• Converging Technology – how all of the advanced technology from artificial intelligence (AI) to augmented reality, robotics, blockchain, quantum computing and more will converge, impacting all areas of the industry
• Industry Consolidation and Collaboration – how consolidation of insurers, OEMs and collision repair shops will continue to drive change, and how new collaborations, like joint insurance/OEM offerings, will create new opportunities

“The 2020 VeriFacts Symposium was an exclusive gathering of the premier collision repair industry leaders for two days to gain clarity on how we can collectively deliver the highest quality, safest, cost-effective collision repair for consumers throughout the country,” said Afshar. “The VeriFacts Symposium is a safe place for like-minded colleagues to discuss the changes ahead for the collision repair industry. Looking ahead, we are collectively working to chart the course for success and navigate the future of collision repair together.”