Hail season in a PDR workshop — how to organise work during a surge of claims

Hail season needs preparation before the first storm arrives: a set price list, a single standard for inspections and photos, a clear division of roles and one place where every claim lands. During the surge, the key is carrying out inspections quickly, handling jobs waiting for the insurer and for parts in parallel, and keeping customers regularly informed. A workshop that does this on paper and in messaging apps loses jobs exactly when it has the most of them.

What to prepare before the season

After a big storm you have a few days in which claims come in faster than you can handle them. That is not the moment to be setting rules. Prepare them in advance:

• Repair price list. A single, up-to-date one used by all technicians. Different rates from different people mean difficult conversations with customers and insurers later on.
• Inspection standard. What we check, in what order, how we count dents and in which size bands (e.g. up to 40 mm, 41–70 mm, above 70 mm).
• Photo standard. Which shots must be in every claim file — from general shots of the car to close-ups of panels.
• Team roles. Who takes in claims, who goes out to inspections, who talks to the insurer, who orders parts, who schedules repairs.
• Bays and working hours. How many cars you can realistically take in per day and on which bays.
• Message templates. Confirmation that the claim has been received, an appointment reminder, notice that the car is ready.
• Partners. Paint shop, glass, part replacement — who you work with when a panel is not suitable for PDR.

If you run several locations, also decide which one takes claims from which area and how you hand cars over between you.

Taking in claims: one place, minimum data

The most common problem at the peak of the season is scattered claims: some on the phone, some in email, some on a sheet of paper at reception. Any one of them can get lost.

The rule is simple — every claim goes straight onto the shared job list, even if you have little information about it. To start with, this is enough:

1. The customer's name and phone number.
2. Registration number or VIN.
3. Make and model.
4. Date and place of the event.
5. Whether the car has comprehensive cover, and the claim number if the customer has already reported it.

Hail damage is usually covered by comprehensive (own-damage) cover, not by third-party liability — when taking in the claim, it is worth asking about the policy and asking the customer to check its policy terms. You will find more about how the claim proceeds in the article Hail damage claims under comprehensive cover.

Watch out for duplicates. At the peak, the same customer sometimes calls twice or the car is reported by two different people. Searching by registration number or VIN before creating a job saves a lot of confusion later.

The inspection queue and setting priorities

Until you have done the inspection, you do not know what damage you are dealing with. That is why, in the first days after a storm, inspections take priority over repairs that can wait.

When setting the order, take into account:

• Risk of a total loss. An older, badly battered car may turn out to be a total loss. The sooner you establish this, the sooner you free up space in the schedule for cars you will be repairing.
• Panels to be replaced. If it is already clear at the inspection that a part needs replacing, it is worth placing the order as early as possible — parts can be a bottleneck during the season.
• Damaged paint and glass. A cracked windscreen or a roof with damaged paint is more urgent than a dozen shallow dents on the bonnet.

Enter inspections booked by phone straight into the calendar. In the WE-PDR workshop calendar, inspections booked during a call with the customer can be saved straight away as a job with a date, and the planning panel suggests jobs that are still waiting for a date.

One documentation standard for all technicians

During the season, several people carry out inspections, sometimes including temporary staff. Without a common standard, every claim file looks different, and the office wastes time chasing missing photos and numbers.

Set and enforce:

• counting dents separately for each panel and each size band;
• recording the material (steel or aluminium) and paint condition for each panel;
• a list of removals needed for the repair;
• a full set of photos according to the agreed list;
• recording the VIN and mileage for every car.

You will find detailed checklists in the articles Inspecting a car after hail — a technician's checklist and What documents do you need for a hail damage claim.

A good test of the standard is the question: can the person in the office prepare an estimate from the claim file alone, without calling the technician? If not — something is missing from the standard.

Scheduling repairs when jobs are waiting on one another

After the inspections, jobs split onto different tracks. Some are waiting for insurer approval, some for parts, some are ready for repair, and some go to the paint shop or another location. That is when it is easiest to lose track of which car can go onto a bay tomorrow.

A few rules that help:

• Only schedule cars that are ready for repair onto a bay — approved and with parts on site. A car waiting for a decision blocks the space without any work being done.
• Split the repair into stages. PDR in one place, painting in another, glass at a partner — each stage has its own contractor and date.
• Track jobs waiting for external decisions. Once a day, go through the list of jobs waiting for the insurer and for parts.
• Leave a buffer in the calendar. During the season there will always be a car whose repair turns out to take longer than you expected.

In WE-PDR, every job has a progress bar and repair stages with location, contractor, date and status, and you can filter the job list by stage, location and technician. This way the manager can see what is stuck and why, without ringing round the team.

Keeping in touch with customers at the peak of the season

A customer who does not know what is happening with their car calls. With dozens of jobs, such calls can keep someone in the office busy all day.

Update the customer yourself at three moments:

1. After the claim is taken in — that the job is registered and what happens next.
2. Before the appointment — a reminder of the date of the inspection or of bringing the car in.
3. When the car is ready — with information on when it can be collected.

If the customer is waiting for the insurer's decision, tell them so plainly. “We are waiting for approval” is better than silence.

Monitoring the season as it goes and after it ends

During the season, the manager should regularly check a few things: how many jobs are waiting for an inspection, how many for the insurer, how many for parts and how many are in repair. A sudden increase in one of these groups is a sign of where a bottleneck is forming.

After the season, it is worth putting together the data from all jobs and checking where jobs sat the longest, which panels were most often replaced and how the workload was spread across technicians and locations. This is the best material for preparing the next season — from the price list, through the number of bays, to the list of partners.