It's a question I occasionally get from a reader: "How do I get on a DRP? Every insurer I ask has the same reply: 'Sorry, we're not looking for any more shops at this time, but shall we have a need in the future we will contact you.'"
My normal reply is that he or she should try to wow a local agent not with complimentary doughnuts or pens but Key Performance Indicators. Put together a PowerPoint presentation that illustrates why your shop is different: your state-of-the-art equipment, your astronomically high Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI), cycle time, touch time, and closing ratio, your clean and professional-looking building, your professional accreditations and high-level training, your community involvement, etc. Then, get some local agents over for a lunch buffet and show them this presentation. That should wow them. But you can't just make stuff up. Your business really has to shine, and it takes establishing a culture and living that culture to accomplish this.
So, it was interesting then that a repairer I recently met at a Sherwin-Williams A-Plus Vision Group meeting in Los Angeles offered one more bit of advice: "Make sure your bathroom is spotless." He claims an agent told him that a dirty bathroom has turned him off to a shop more than once. Who knew?? Valley Motor Center, the shop I visited while in LA, had a bathroom that looked like a Roman spa, and they're on 13 DRPs, so maybe that guy is on to something...