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SHOP PROFILE: Smile for the Camera

A twice-retired Florida businesswoman moves a 25-year-old body shop into the modern era with technological gizmos designed to ‘wow’ the customer.

By Hannah Schiffman
10/5/2009 10:29:17 AM

 

Nissen's CARSTAR Autobody Shop

Location: Palm Bay, Fla. Established: 1983 Square Footage: 8,000 Owner: Barbara Morgan No. of employees: 10 (1 estimator, 1 production manager, 5 body/paint techs, 1 detailer, 1 IT person, 1 administrator) Repair Volume/No. of Cars Per Month: 40 vehicles per month Average Repair Cost: $2,500 DRPs: 16 (Allstate Pro, Progressive, The Hartford, Wheels, Liberty Mutual, Amica, California Casualty, Esurance, AIG and several small companies)

Barbara Morgan, owner of Nissen’s CARSTAR Autobody Shop in Palm Bay, Fla., has never fixed a car in her life, but she sees that as a good thing. She says she has more important things to worry about, like making the customer experience modern and memorable. And the way she’s done that is with technological innovations such as live, online video feeds from the shop floor, customer e-mail notifications and more.

“Between the production manager and the technicians, there’s nine employees with probably 150 years of body experience between them, so I don’t have to worry at all about a good, quality job on the cars,” Morgan said. “It’s just me carrying the banner saying, ‘OK, if you want a good, quality repair and a ‘wow’ customer experience, we want to make it as painless as possible for you – here we are.’ I couldn’t even turn a screwdriver, so it wouldn’t do me any good to worry about learning at this point.”

Morgan, who has an MBA from Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., draws on her years of experience as a project manager for Bell South and her second five-year career as an insurance salesperson to continually improve and advance the customer experience at her shop, which was established in 1983 and is well-known around Palm Bay. Morgan purchased Nissen’s from current production manager Dave Levinthal and his ex-wife in April 2008. Levinthal, who agreed to stay on and work with Morgan, purchased the shop from the Nissen family in 2003 and soon turned it into a CARSTAR franchise.

Hello, How Are You?

The first step in improving customer service at Nissen’s was as simple as saying hello.

“I told my employees, ‘Whenever a customer walks through the door, no matter how busy you are, look up, make eye contact, smile and speak to them,’” Morgan said. “You only have five seconds to make a good first impression.”

But after that, things got a little more complicated. To keep customers involved in the repair process, Morgan took a cue from other service providers such as daycare centers and dog kennels that offer similar services for clients and created a unique electronic system that informs them of exactly what’s happening to their vehicles and even lets them watch their cars being repaired.

Morgan has eight video cameras installed in the work bays, paint prep area, paint booth and detailing station. Footage from the cameras, or “Carcams” as Morgan calls them, started streaming live 24/7 on Nissen’s CARSTAR Web site, www.carcollision.net, in October 2008.

“My focus is keeping customers apprised of where their car is in production to where it’s going every step of the way, from the minute they walk in the door to the minute they pick up their car,” Morgan said. “Why not have cameras? For some of these people, the car’s their baby.”

The camera system is bolstered by e-mail and voicemail notifications integrated into Nissen’s shop management software. When technicians update a vehicle’s repair status by using the shop clock feature in Mitchell ABS, customers are sent an e-mail or voicemail telling them what step of the repair process their cars will go to next and also can log in on the Nissen’s Web site to check for updates.

“If a customer gets an e-mail saying her car’s in paint, she can go to the Web site and look at the Carcam and watch it being painted in the paint booth if she so desires,” Morgan said. “And it’s totally automated, so it doesn’t create any extra work for the techs.”

Morgan may have come up with the idea, but it was her “IT guy,” Raymond Boettcher, who built her computer and phone systems. She said the entire project – installing cameras, upgrading phone and computer systems and purchasing materials – cost between $5,000 and $10,000. At $45 apiece, the cameras were one of the system’s cheapest aspects. Morgan attributed much of the project’s cost – at least $1,000 – to the hundreds of feet of cable that connects cameras to computers and the computer upgrades necessary for streaming the live video feeds online.

Morgan’s customer notification system, which can be integrated into existing shop management systems, is available for purchase. Call (888) 211-5190 for more information.

Customer Is King

The next phase of Morgan’stechnological overhaul is two services she plans to offer on Nissen’s Web site: online customer satisfaction surveys and the option to pay deductibles via Paypal.

In a culture where instant access to information is the norm, Morgan says her system is a worthwhile investment that has struck a chord with her customers – so much so that they’ve given Nissen’s plenty of word-of-mouth advertising. She recalls one happy customer who called in December to thank her for being able to keep tabs on her beloved Chevy Camaro.

“She said it was so thrilling that she could watch her baby being worked on thanks to the video cameras,” Morgan said. “I have no doubt that, for the next four or five Christmas parties she goes to, this woman will be telling everybody about her car and those cameras.”
    
Cooperative Crew

Morgan wouldn’t have been able to integrate her high-tech customer service system into the shop without the support of her employees, the stars of the “Carcam” experience. Although some people might feel self-conscious working on camera all day, Morgan says her crew doesn’t mind.

“They don’t care at all,” she said. “As long as I’m getting cars in the door, they’re happy.”

However, on one particularly cold day – for Florida, at least – her crew was having trouble performing for the cameras in the open shop.

“It was about 50 degrees, and there were about three of my guys huddled in the paint booth,” Morgan said. “I said, ‘Well, at least
go over there and look at that bumper so that the people online watching think you’re doing something!’ We had a good laugh over that.”

Open to Opportunity

Morgan’s camera concept didn’t  materialize out of thin air. Since she’s not preoccupied with the repairs in her shop, Morgan says she has more time to fine-tune her operations by observing what works for others and implementing those ideas in her own shop, all while seeking out more work.
“I’m all for stealing good ideas,” Morgan joked.

Morgan also looks for extra work through every avenue she can think of. Almost immediately after purchasing the shop, she applied for minority business owner status with the state and federal governments (which she qualifies for as a female business owner). She’s now using that
status to get on DRPs that the shop had difficulty getting on in
the past.

“I’m able to go through the back door of all these large insurance companies like State Farm, Nationwide and MetLife – basically the ones I don’t have – and say to them, ‘Look, I should get consideration,’” Morgan said.

Morgan is also hoping to get fleet work from nearby Patrick Air Force base and any other entity that’s willing to give her a chance.

In spite of her hard work, the industry newcomer says she sometimes feels like the “Maytag Repairman.”

“No matter what I do, here I am still waiting for somebody to have an accident and need my services,” Morgan said. “You’re still in the waiting mode.”

But when she slows down to catch her breath, Morgan feels proud of what she’s accomplished thus far.

“Since April 24, 2008 to now, it’s been full speed ahead,” she said. “It’s not moving as fast as I’d like, but if I step back and look back at the first of the year to now, I can definitely say we’ve made leaps and bounds in improvements.”

Behind the Bays

Estimating System: CCC

Management System: Mitchel ABS Enterprise

Spraybooth: 1 Carolina-Virginia; 1 DeVilbiss

Lifts: 2 Forward lifts

Measuring/Dimensioning System: Shark2

Welding Equipment: 2 Miller MIG welders; 1 Black Hawk Spot welder

Paint Mixing System: BASF

Paint: BASF

Future Equipment Purchases: Frame rack & welder

Hannah Schiffman is the managing editor of BodyShop Business. She can be reached at hschiffman@babcox.com.