The Business of Steering
Every day, insurance companies steer vehicle owners away from shops they consider “troublesome” and toward shops they don’t. Sometimes, their steering is perfectly legal. Sometimes, it’s not. When it’s not, they’re often betting that neither the vehicle owner nor the shop owner will be knowledgeable enough of the law to know that they’re breaking it.
“I Can’t Make Money on Paint!” (a.k.a. Why Johnny Kicked the dog.)
Many shop owners think their problems would be solved if they could just get their paint cheaper. But paint materials profitability problems are often just a symptom of larger troubles – paint labor profitability issues, lack of standard operating procedures, sales shortcomings, etc.
Building a Business vs. Building a Car
Employees inside a truly “lean” enterprise don’t consider themselves production workers. They’re problem solvers. The reason they get paid each day isn’t to perform a specific task, but to improve a specific process. Every small business owner or top-level manager out there shows up to work every day focused on getting the job done. You’d
I Lost My DRP!
State Farm’s recent announcement that they’re testing a new direct-repair program and that they’ll be reducing the number of shops that participate has left repairers scratching their heads and pondering the same question: Is there life after Service First?
Profits: Not A 4-Letter Word: State Farm’s New Pilot Direct-Repair Program Impacting Shops
State Farm’s new pilot direct-repair program is impacting shops large, medium and small. And the bigger the shop, the bigger the hurt. Canada’s Boyd Group Income Fund — operator of Boyd Autobody & Glass and Gerber Auto Collision & Glass in the United States — recently announced that they expect to be impacted $431,555 to
Perplexed by Paint
Turns out this topic is much like the famous Bill Clinton quote: “It depends on what the meaning of is, is.” Paint brand popularity and exact market share are touchy subjects among the refinish paint companies. No one wants to be quoted in print as having less market share than the next guy, and there’s
Going Head to Head
Collision repair consolidators seem focused on customer service as opposed to offering insurance companies even lower repair costs. They’re also concentrated on honing their operations to a razor sharp state of efficiency (which, incidentally, will lower repair costs).
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.
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
Strategies to Stretch Profit Margins
Your options for increasing profit margins are limited when a vendor supplies you with the part, material or service. Instead, focus on improving the one profit margin you do have direct control over: labor.