ClearQuote SMART Repairs

In the world of car maintenance and repairs, the cost of cosmetic maintenance (body and paint repairs) of the car can be just as expensive or even more than the cost of regular maintenance, i.e oil change, filter replacements etc. And this is especially true in the case of car owners in the luxury/large car segment.

Dealerships tend to charge customers a flat rate for repainting a panel whether the scratch or dent has occurred on 40% of the total area of the panel or just 5%. Obviously, this doesn’t sit well with customers and as a result they look to independent workshops to fulfill their car’s cosmetic repairs.

To combat this problem of lost revenue opportunities, dealerships across the world have begun to implement a new methodology of repair known as Small or Medium Area Repair Technology a.k.a SMART Repairs.

Over the years Smart Repair has gained in popularity and has been adopted by dealerships of OEMs such as BMW, Jaguar Land Rover to name a few.

So what is Smart Repair?

SMART is a repair technology that allows for localized repair on a panel of the car. So if a car were to have a small dent or scratch on the corner of the door or bumper, the body shop technician will be able to use SMART repair technology to repair and paint only that portion of the panel where the damage exists. This allows the technician to complete repairs with lesser materials, effort and time spent as compared to regular repair thereby driving down costs.

The key factors in differentiating a regular repair from SMART repair are -

1. Size of the Damage — the damage, whether it be a dent or a scratch, should cover an area not larger than an ‘A4’ sized sheet of paper.
2. Location — depending on the shape and size of the panel, SMART repair can be done to damages that occur only in specific areas or what we at ClearQuote like to call Smart Repair Zones. This allows the body shop technicians to repair the damage such that the panel will look as good as new with no trace of it having been partially repainted!

Benefits of SMART Repair

For dealerships, implementation of SMART repairs means

• More vehicles for body shop repair work, which drives a large portion of dealer profits.
• Customers opting for SMART repairs will bring in more margins to dealerships since lesser cost of SMART Repairs incentivize customers to avoid claiming insurance

For customers,

• Opting for SMART Repairs means more savings while getting quality repair work done by their OEM authorized / certified dealership, who use prescribed methods, materials and equipment to ensure a job well done.
• Low cost SMART repair jobs will allow customers to save up on their insurance no-claim bonus which will reduce the cost of subsequent premiums

Challenges of SMART implementation

In most dealerships, service advisors or estimators need extensive training to provide repair estimates for body shop work let alone SMART repairs. As a result the estimation process can take time which doesn’t help the customer’s experience and not to mention, could be a potential lost opportunity for the dealership.

Save some paper; record data in a digital and structured format

ClearQuote is a solution that we’ve built using Computer Vision, that can help a customer facing service representative, with no body-shop knowledge, to generate instant SMART repair estimates, in under 2 minutes, and all they need is a smartphone or iPad.

A contactless form of inspection, no shared notepads and pens, paper saved.

ClearQuote for SMART Repairs

This is how ClearQuote works for SMART Repairs

1. The service representative enters all relevant details of the vehicle.
2. Captures images of the vehicle and uploads them to the ClearQuote app.
3. ClearQuote will now analyze all images and will identify the exact type of damage and whether it falls under the prescribed Smart Repair Zones.
4. If all conditions required for SMART repairs are fulfilled, the app will automatically output the price for SMART repair for that panel, which is typically 40–50% less than the cost of a regular repair and paint job.

Different stages in the app flow

With this level of automation we believe that ClearQuote will be a useful tool for automobile dealerships around the world to implement SMART repairs in an efficient and standardized manner. And not to mention, ClearQuote along with the SMART repair feature can be custom built as per the OEM standards and processes.

In the post COVID19 era, we firmly believe that dealerships will have to leverage technologies, such as ClearQuote, to improve customer experience and drive profitability.

Do drop us a few lines at hello@clearquote.io for an app demo. Looking forward to hearing from you!