Creative Recruitment
Your right arm. How important is it to you? An independent body shop owner recently said he would give his to find one good technician. If people are willing to give up body parts, you know things are bad!
Finders Keepers: Qualified Technicians
With a shortage of qualified technicians plaguing the industry, shop owners are asking, “Where’s the best place to find my next employee?” The answer: in your own back yard.
Lining Their Pockets with Profits: Profit Centers
With rising competition and declining profits, many collision-repair shops are adding profit centers to boost their sales.
Productivity Feeds Growth: Zara’s Collision Center
Ahhhh! The smell of a smoldering steak … The air is filled with its spicy aroma … You’re getting hungry, very hungry, aren’t you? This isn’t the description of a favorite restaurant or a backyard feast, but instead, of a once-a-month lunch at Zara’s Collision Center in Springfield, Ill.
Senior Service
The focus of automotive service – now and in the future – is to meet or exceed the needs of all customers. When it comes to a reality check, many of us would fall short of the mark when it comes to dealing with our senior-citizen customers.
Before the Booth: Saving Time
In a business where money hinges on your completion time for any job, the impetus to go fast is universal. And painters battle harder to beat the book time than metal men do. While painters are constrained by dry times between coats, metal men have only the suggested book labor time to beat.
Out With The Old
A good place to start when you’re considering upgrading is to take an inventory of your shop.
Paint and Go
If your paint department is bottlenecked, the first thing you look at is implementing new procedures. If you’ve tried this and the bottleneck is still there, what next?
Think BIG
The honeymoon was definitely over when Darryl "The Moose" Johnson returned to a demolished home. The Dallas Cowboys fullback, while vacationing with his bride, was having a tree removed from his yard. Taking the tree out in sections, a 195,000-pound crane picked up a hunk too large to hold, swung to the center of the
Insurance Involvement
The collision-repair industry has seen many on-going changes. One aspect of change has been the growing involvement of insurance companies in the industry. We asked body shop owners and managers across the nation the following questions: “How
do you feel about the growing involvement of insurance companies”.
in the collision-repair business?" and "Has it affected
your labor rates? If so, how?"