Shop Profile: Collins Collision Center
Shop Name: Collins Collision Center Location: Atlanta, Ga. Established: August 1998 President: Jeff Collins Shop Size: 17,000 square feet No. of Employees: 10 Average Repair Volume: 175 cars per month Average Repair Cost: $1,950 Cruising Right Along While shop owner Jeff Collins is only 42 years old, he says buying his PT Cruiser a couple
Point – Counterpoint
Are Double Standards OK, Depending Who’s Paying the Bill?
Can Your Shop Withstand the Scrutiny?
Shops producing poor quality repairs?
Not All Wheel Alignments Are Created Equal
The process of aligning a collision-damaged vehicle is much more involved thanperforming a maintenance alignment. If thecustomer hasn’t hit anything, the technician can make many assumptions.But making assumptions about a collision-related four-wheel alignment will put your shop on a crash course. Ever since rear adjustable suspensions became commonplace in our industry, the argument has raged
Flat-Out Fair: Break Up Labor and Pay Everyone Fairly
How do you break up labor and pay everyone fairly? While converting his shop from all combination techs to a departmentalized metal shop and paint shop (a process he refers to as “Armageddon”), this shop manager developed a system to pay techs what they deserve while motivating them to work as efficiently as possible. It
Are Double Standards OK, Depending Who’s Paying the Bill?
A double standard [where you write a different estimate if the repair is paid by an insurance company rather than a customer paying out of pocket] creates an image of what this industry is trying to defeat, which is that we’re crooks. I don’t want to present one image to one customer and another image
Air Care: Air Compressors
Your air compressor is the heart of your shop’s production, so it pays to give this often-neglected unit more than a passing glance.
Boosting Booth Production
Don’t let poor production processes hurt shop profits. Proper spraybooth placement, setup and maintenance could mean another $500,000 in sales per year. Interested?
If You Do It, Charge For It
It’s like the old saying, “Why buy the cow if the milk is free?” Insurers aren’t going to offer to pay for materials and procedures if you don’t charge for them. That would be crazy. It’s even crazier if you aren’t charging them.