Creating an In-House Paintless Dent Repair Department

Creating an in-house paintless dent repair department can help shops easily and efficiently manage an increasing amount of hail damage work.

In 2012, the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) reported that the total number of insurance claims resulting from hailstorm damage increased 84 percent in the U.S. from the levels reported in 2010.


Much of that increase, according to the NICB, was due to personal auto claims resulting from hail. In fact, the NICB reported that auto claims rose more than 600 percent from 51,345 total claims in 2010 to 322,719 claims in 2012.

Contributing to this increase in claim numbers is an increase in severe storms, the NICB says, which have occurred with more intensity in recent years, affecting more areas of the country.

And as a result, shops are producing more dent-repair work than ever, meaning paintless dent repair (PDR) is becoming an increasingly appealing profit center for shops.

There’s no shortage of PDR-focused companies available for outsourcing these repairs, says Cory Chapman, body shop manager of Zimbrick Body Shop in Madison, Wis., but shops with on-site PDR capabilities are able to produce that work with higher quality and efficiency—and for a better profit.

“The more we can keep things in house, the better off we are controlling our costs and our grosses,” says Chapman. “We have a better control over the vehicle than if we were to send it out to a third-party vendor or even have a third-party vendor come in house.”

There are four simple steps any shop can take to create a profitable on-site PDR department.

1. Evaluate the Advantages

When Zimbrick started offering on-site PDR capabilities in 2006, the goal was for the PDR techs to help recondition vehicles coming in from its dealership’s used-vehicle lots. Since then, the technique has proved so successful that the shop has expanded the department to include hail damage and upsells on customer cars.'

“We, as a company, were looking at what we could do to give our customers a bigger bang for their dollar,” Chapman says.

The shop had pre-existing relationships with outside PDR companies, but the time it took shuttling cars to an off-site location was inefficient and costly.

“We don’t have to pay a third-party vendor to come in. We don’t need to be put on an appointment log with a third-party vendor,” he says. “A lot of times, those guys are just as busy as everybody else. We can also control it as in, ‘Is this dent PDR-able?’ If it isn’t, we can go right from PDR into the body shop. It’s more of a control factor for us.”

According to Jeff Herman, the CEO of TopTech Finder, going with an outside vendor can also produce potential quality issues.

“When a hailstorm hits, the mobile techs that chase the storms come around and knock on a shop owner’s door. The shop owner is wondering, ‘I don’t know you, you’re from out of town,’” Herman says. “If [the work is outsourced] and something gets broken, your shop manager might not become aware of that issue as quickly as they would want to, or the PDR tech might hide that it occurs. That can cause a bad customer service issue.”


Read More about Creating an In-House Paintless Dent Repair Department by Anna Zeck on FenderBender.com.