Big Opportunities in Small Damage

Jan. 1, 2020
If you were to take a quick look at the next 10 cars you pass in any parking lot in your community, how many would have some "minor damage" – stone chips, brush scratches, minor gouges, dents or dings?

With the right tools, equipment and training, you can turn small problems into serious money

If you were to take a quick look at the next 10 cars you pass in any parking lot in your community, how many would have some "minor damage" – stone chips, brush scratches, minor gouges, dents or dings?

Three out of the 10? Five? Maybe even eight?

For a shop set up to repair such damage profitably, yet at a price that's attractive to vehicle-owners, small damage repair work can be a good revenue stream. Indeed, a few shops have cited monthly additional revenues of $10,000, $15,000 or even $25,000 for minor damage repair – without adding an employee and with relatively small investments in equipment and training. And while those shops may be the exception, the more common experience repairers have with this work still is enticing.

"It's worked pretty well," said Chris Perkins of Perk's Auto Body in Clearfield, Utah. His shop has offered small damage repair for about three years, most frequently as an up-sell to customers in for other repairs. "We repair about 100 cars a month, and I'd guess we do additional small damage repair on between 5 and 10 percent of those. It usually adds a couple hundred dollars to the job."

Perkins said that modest but not insignificant revenue impacts his bottom line.

Assessing the market

To help get an understanding of the potential of the small damage repair market, a paint manufacturer commissioned a study of about 1,900 U.S. consumers (plus 500 more in Canada), aged 18 or older who were the primary drivers of a vehicle and at least 50 percent responsible for the decision in a purchase of a vehicle.

That study found that about three of every 10 consumers perceive that their vehicle has minor damage. If 28 percent of all registered vehicles in the United States have minor damage that translates into 64 million cars with potential repairs.

About 12 percent of consumers in the survey reported having had minor vehicle damage repaired in the past 12 months. Of those, one in four spent less than $200 for the repair; about 12 percent said they spent more than $2,000, probably indicating they had a different definition of "minor damage" than the survey intended. Deleting those high-end repairs from the survey responses resulted in an average repair ticket of about $500.

As for those respondents who didn't have any work done, 58 percent said the damage didn't bother them; 22 percent said they were concerned or unsure about the cost of the repair.

Encouraging for repairers is a survey finding of what consumers said they expected or were willing to pay for minor repairs. Those surveyed were shown a photo of a front bumper cover with a scrape or minor gouge. About 40 percent said they expected repair of such damage to cost less than $299, but an equal percentage said $300 to $599. The average across all those surveyed (whether they'd had minor vehicle repairs performed or not) was $403.

Small damage repair systems offer shops the opportunity to capture some of this untapped market by offering repairs that are lower priced than the customer expects but still profitable for the shop.

Understanding the process and limitations

Although the survey data is encouraging, shops offering minor damage repair caution that "not all minor damage is created equal."

"It's a somewhat small percentage of damaged cars that are good candidates for small damage repair," said Clint Rogers of Triangle Collision in Morrisville, N.C., who has been offering small damage repair for about two years. "Depending on where the damage is, some colors and some high metallics can be tough in terms of color match."

The small damage paint system Rogers uses requires that the damage be less than two inches in diameter on a vertical surface. Rogers said the process works best on the lowest portions of the vehicle: bumper covers, lower door damage and some fender damage.

Although several companies offer complete tool kits or carts with everything needed for small repairs, only a few items differ from what most shops already have. A smaller 3-inch DA sander, for example, can help keep the repaired area small, and mini-jet spray guns with very small fluid tips narrow the fan of sprayed material. Infrared lights or "air accelerators" can help speed up a very targeted drying process.

The process also often requires a "spot blender" that allows clearcoat to be blended within a panel without the need to clearcoat the entire panel. This product, combined with the special spray characteristic of the guns, produces very smooth blend edge transition, keeping the repair area very small.

Despite the limitations on the type and location of small damage that can be repaired using the system, Rogers is convinced the relatively minor investment he made to offer small damage repairs was worthwhile.

"It's a good up-sell tool when you have something coming into the shop already and they want to fix a little nick on the edge of fender or bumper cover," he said. "Whereas the traditional repair would cost $350 or $400, you may be able to do one end of the bumper cover for $125 or $150. It makes the customer happy, and you make a few extra bucks while you have the car in."

Getting started

As with any new service, small damage repair requires some training and marketing to make it successful. Several paint manufacturers offer technical training and certification for painters that allow shops to fully warrant repairs using the manufacturer's system. Rogers said he has sent several painters to the two-day training sessions, the fee for which included a pair of mini spray guns.

Since the small damage repair process differs in some ways from conventional repairs, it's important that all production staff know when it is – and is not – to be used. Getting your front-end staff to understand and buy-into the opportunity small damage repair offers also is important.

As with the production employees, the front-end staff also needs to understand what types of damage can be repaired successfully using the system. They need to understand the best time to up-sell customers is right at the start, when you can show them the damage and not risk having them say it was something the shop may have done. The front-end staff needs to be able to understand what motivates customers to get such damage repaired, whether it's concern about corrosion, end-of-lease responsibilities or even just how their vehicle reflects their personal image.

Pricing or quoting small damage repair also should be made quickly and be easy for the staff. Most shops use a flat fee or menu of fees based on the size and type of damage.

Rogers said his shop charges $125 for the equivalent of a one-hour ding or scratch and adds his regular hourly rate for body repairs for larger damage.

Tony Thomas, manager of Pennsylvania Body & Frame in St. Marys, Pa., said his shop's base fee for a small repair that may require primer but no filler is $100, with a $25 uptick for the extra time and materials if filler is needed.

The paint companies also offer some tools – such as posters and brochures – and ideas to help shops market small damage repairs. Some tools they – and shops offering the service – say are effective include:

  • Offering estimators a small "spiff" – for example, $10 – for each small damage up-sell;
  • Offering discount coupons and information to insurance agents who may refer customers unsure of whether certain damage warrants filing a claim;
  • Inviting past shop customers back for detailing or a "post-repair check-up" in order to have an opportunity to spot the need for minor damage repair; and,
  • Marketing the service to mechanical repair shops, to fleets and to dealerships without body shops.

Conclusion: Shop experience

So what else do shops offering small damage repair have to say to those considering adding it to their shops' services?

Thomas said his shop's location in a mostly rural area probably limits the number of consumers concerned about minor damage to their vehicles. For many, he said, a small bottle of touch-up paint is a sufficient way to address some minor damage. He looks at the service much like accessory sales – a way to generate additional revenues for those customers interested in investing just a bit more in their vehicles.

Rogers said the key to making small damage repair work for a shop is successfully identifying which vehicles and damage are good candidates for the process. While paint manufacturer training provides good information about this, there's no substitute for experience, he said.

"At the beginning, you may lose money on it because you're going to try to fix things that are bad colors or not in good areas and the repair is going to be noticeable," Rogers said. "You really have to learn which damage, which colors, which areas can be done. Sometimes the only way to learn that is the hard way."

Perkins agrees.

"You just have to be really careful with it as far as sticking within the recommended criteria," he said. "There's been a couple times when we've tried to do it on a job that was just too big. By the time you're done, you might as well have done the whole conventional repair."

But despite its limitations, Perkins and the other shop owners like the opportunities that small damage repair gives their shops.

"We mainly have used it as an up-sell, but there have even been some times when someone has come in with a scratch and we've gotten the job because I've told them we can do it in one day and we're not going to have to take the whole door apart and paint the whole thing," Perkins said. "It works very well."

About the Author

John Yoswick | Contributing Editor

John Yoswick is a freelance writer based in Portland, Ore., who has been writing about the automotive collision repair industry since 1988. He can be contacted by e-mail at [email protected].

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