Dixie Dent is proud to launch our new direct marketing strategy. It’s just another application of our “win/win” philosophy. In short, it’s aimed at solving the following problems:

• Too many car owners opt not to have their hail damage repaired. The check from the insurance company is enticing, but they fail to recognize that they’ll end up “paying” in the long run if they opt out of the repair. If they don’t have the car fixed, they’ll sacrifice its resale value, and they stand a good chance of being refused on any further insurance claims for storm damage. In short, our direct marketing program helps to make the “pie” bigger by increasing the percentage of owners who opt to have their cars repaired.
• Most body shops and dealerships do not take full advantage of the profit-making potential of a catastrophic hailstorm. Those who are more competitive should strongly consider television, radio, and print advertising. (And we can help you with some talking points for those ads.) But all that aside, there is no better way to advertise than direct marketing---getting the message right to the customer who needs what you have to offer.
• It’s difficult to know the extent of the damage in a city unless someone is out actually counting damaged cars. This is exactly what we do as we walk the parking lots in your town, placing flyers on the windshields of the damaged cars. This helps us all to know all the sooner what to expect about the extent of the repairs.

Here’s how it works:

1. Within the first hours after a hailstorm, we put our flyer (below) on the windshield of every hail-damaged car we can find, keeping count as we go, and keeping track of the geographical footprint of the damage.
2. When a customer calls the number on the card, our friendly and professional staff tells them which body shops and dealerships we have already agreed to work with in your town. (If we already have a “standing agreement” with you, then your name will be mentioned from the very first phone call.) We will not favor one client over another, so we simply tell the customer the names of ALL the shops we are in at the time of their call, and we let them choose which one they’d like to go to.
3. We call the shop of the customer’s choice and schedule the appointment for them (whether for an estimate or a repair). Then we call the customer back with a time and date and we tell them what all they should expect from the repair. We also remind them to clean out the car of excess belongings, etc. Doing it this way has some definite benefits to you:
   
   
   • It keeps your busy office staff from having to make the customary small talk with the customer when they call to schedule. Instead, we make the small talk with the customer, and when we call you, we’ll get right down to the business of scheduling the customer.
   • It lets you know the source of that customer and just how effectively Dixie Dent is working on your behalf.
4. Then the customer comes in on schedule and the repair is done excellently!

Now here’s the text on the card, so you can see exactly what the customer sees. *Adobe Reader required.