Passion and Pachysandra: Metro Toyota Scion Accident Repair Center
As I glanced at the pachysandra planted in the landscape bed just outside of the front door, I knew I was about to enter a very special place. You see, I love pachysandra, having grown up in a house that had a huge bed of it in the front yard. Not only did it make
(Bed)Line up for Profits: Spraying Bedliners Is a Way to Boost Your Bottom Line
Spraying bedliners is a way to boost your bottom line — and is strictly a customer-pay upgrade (read: no insurer involvement). It’s not easy owning a collision repair shop these days. Business is down, costs are up (and continue going up), customers are pickier than ever, insurers are cheaper than ever … Bet you could
Standard Operating Procedures – Working Smarter, Not Harder
Maximize productivity by standardizing “best practices” across your organization. “Since we started truly implementing standard operating procedures, it’s a statistical fact that I only spend two hours a week in three locations and that we grew from five employees to 50 in a four-year time period,” says Troy Gates, owner of a three-shop operation called Gates
Heat Shrinking Metal
Lots of controversy surrounds heat shrinking, yet I’ve successfully used this process for 40+ years. It not only makes a damaged panel repairable (and can save a job from totaling out), but it’s also a less invasive repair.
A ‘How-To’ Guide for Increasing Labor Rates, BodyShop Business, February 2006
Rather than belabor the exhaustive list of reasons labor rates need to rise, let’s focus on what type of market conditions act to create higher – or more frequently increasing – prevailing rates in individual markets. By Tigger (from his view in the Thousland Acre Wood) No one in the collision repair industry would argue
The Efficiency Myth
Everything you’ve ever learned about efficiency is wrong. Individual efficiencies don’t
matter one bit. It’s the overall process — the process efficiency — that we need to
focus on.
State Farm Ups Ante: State Farm to Replace Its DRP with New “Performance Driven” Program
The headline read: State Farm to Replace Its DRP with New “Performance Driven” Program. The news spread across the industry faster than Ebola and was about as well-received. State Farm’s Service First and Select Service — which have been touted by repairers as the best direct-repair programs out there (for whatever that’s worth) — are
DRPs, Here We Come? ….Direct-Repair Programs
Some say be careful what you wish for. We wish our shop were on direct-repair programs. Part 1 of a year-long series.
Quality Is Not Subjective
So what if the guy down the road will do the repair the wrong
way for less money? Don’t fall into the “locally acceptable quality” trap.
Success with Single-Sided Resistance Spot Welding
Despite having tried twice, experiencing failed welds both times, I knew I could save myself time installing a floor pan by using single-sided spot welding — if I could just get it right. by March Taylor I, like most in the industry, believe that squeeze-type resistance spot welding (STRSW) aftermarket technology has finally caught up
Learn How to Treat Customers by Being One
How were the holidays for you? Did you enjoy some well-deserved time off? Eat too much? Drink too much “cheer”? Get overly annoyed with your relatives and in-laws and beat the *&%$ out of your Uncle Ed because he … oh, wait. I digress. Perhaps you visited a mall or two, or 20? Or, maybe
Better, Cheaper, Faster …
Vehicle owners and insurers want all three. You can fight these shifts in the market, attempt litigation, kick, scream and even call your congressman. But at the end of the day, you either give customers what they want — or someone else will.
