What we are building
One page, its own URL, six short sections, that lets a customer decide whether to claim before they decide which shop to use. Built properly it shifts your mix towards private work, which is the work worth having.
1. Write the six answers before designing anything
- What is an excess, in plain words?
- How do I work out whether claiming is worth it?
- What does a claim cost me beyond the excess?
- Can I choose my own repairer?
- Are you approved by anybody, and does that matter?
- What do I do next?
If you cannot answer any of those in three sentences, that is the one costing you enquiries.
2. Lead with the arithmetic
Not with a definition and not with your credentials. Open with the calculation the customer cannot do alone, using real numbers.
"If your excess is £400 and the repair is £520, claiming saves you £120 and puts a claim on your record for five years. Most people in that position pay us directly. If your excess is £400 and the repair is £3,000, claim."
Two examples, one either side of the line. That is the section people screenshot.
3. Explain the excess without assuming knowledge
That it is the amount they pay before the insurer pays anything. That it applies whether or not the accident was their fault, though it may be recovered from a liable third party. That some policies have separate excesses for different circumstances.
A surprising share of customers believe an excess only applies when they are at fault, and the misunderstanding drives bad decisions in both directions.
4. Be honest about what a claim costs beyond the money
The no-claims effect, the premium at renewal, the years the claim sits on the record, and the declaration obligation. Describe how it generally works, then hand the specifics to their insurer: "your insurer will confirm what it means for your policy."
That attribution is the whole of your compliance discipline on this page.
5. Answer the choice-of-repairer question directly
Customers assume the insurer decides. Depending on your market and their policy they often have more freedom than they believe. State the position accurately for where you operate, and add the practical line: what to say when an insurer pushes their own network.
6. Handle approvals precisely
If you hold manufacturer or insurer approvals, name them exactly and say what they mean. If you do not, say what you do hold — technician qualifications, equipment, the guarantee, trade body membership — and let that stand on its own.
Never imply an approval you do not have. Regulators in every market treat it as a serious misrepresentation, and it is the kind of thing a competitor reports.
7. End with one instruction and one button
Send four photographs and the registration through the estimate form and tell us whether you are claiming, paying privately or unsure. We will send a figure and then you can decide.
One button. Straight to the estimate form.
8. Structure it for skimming and for search
Question as a heading, two or three sentences beneath. No preamble. Most visitors read two sections and leave, and that is a success.
Give it a plain title matching the real search — should I claim on insurance for car body damage — and mark the questions up as FAQ structured data.
9. Link it from the three places that matter
Beside the estimate button. Next to the insurance question inside the form. In the estimate reply email, as one line for anyone who answered "not sure".
10. Review it once a year
Excess norms, no-claims practice and your own approvals all change. Put a date in the calendar and treat the page as live.
Where this sits
Our body shop websites include this page, structured for search and linked from the estimate flow, at a fixed price. The wider trade version is on the automotive page. The page that tells people not to claim is the page that brings you the private work.