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
Even ‘Know It Alls’ Need Training
Take it from a reformed Mr. Know-It-All: You don’t know what you don’t know — so training is vital to staying ahead in an ever-changing industry.
DRPs: Our Business Skills
Stop the finger pointing. How well we do in this trade has a lot more to do with our business skills than with how “bad” insurers are. In fact, direct-repair programs have, dare I say it, made many shops more efficient and profitable. It was more than 40 years ago, but I still remember sitting
Is Your Shop Sick? The Preventative Approach
If you want your shop to have a long (and profitable) life, it needs to periodically see a shop doc.
Send Me Your Best Student – Partnering with Vo-Tech Schools
Looking to take the local vo-tech school’s best and brightest? Fat chance – unless you’ve been partnering with that vo-tech school all along. If you’re all take and no give, don’t expect instructors to do you any favors when you suddenly need to hire.
Training Techs – A Guide for the Do-It-Yourselfer
Our workforce is incredibly knowledgeable, skilled and talented. But this didn’t just happen. Someone had to train them; someone had to be their instructor or mentor. The ways people learned the craft are probably as varied as the number of techs out there. Schools trained many, but probably not as many as you might think
Scaring Off New Recruits
n on their business. Much to my encouragement, I’m seeing a slowly increasing trend toward addressing these issues by some of the best shops in country. And that’s good for this industry because a slowly rising tide lifts all boats. Scott Irwin – the BodyShop Business reader who asked about our industry’s viability – is
You Could Put An Eye Out with That
I’m going to tell you about things that could hinder your business.
Head of the (Training) Class
As I-CAR’s new executive vice president and CEO, Tom McGee is responsible for developing all of the technical training programs and services. Big job? Absolutely. But it beats the heck out of bussing tables at Big Boy.
Image is Everything
You might perform top-quality repair work, but if your shop or employees look bad, smell bad or seem bad, your image is alienating potential customers and perpetuating negative stereotypes that the 20/20s and Datelines of this world so like to exploit.
