“You’re Going On Vacation
How to make employee vacations less stressful for you, the vacationing employee and the remainder of your staff.
Why Must We Fight for Every Dollar: Paying the Prevailing Labor Rate
It’s happened again! Some insurance companies still think they don’t need collision repair shops to fix vehicles. After years of progress toward common ground, Allstate Insurance has taken a reverse tactic: not paying the prevailing labor rate as they see fit. Sounds like selective p-page operations, doesn’t it?
Getting Their Hands Dirty
Getting Their Hands Dirty, Charlie Barone, BodyShop Business, July 2001
The Word Track an Insurer Uses to Influence a Vehicle Owner to Go to a Preferred Shop
We have a list of five companies here …” Sound familiar? Like … oh, let’s say … the word track an insurer uses to influence a vehicle owner to go to a preferred shop? But what if the roles were reversed? What if, instead, it’s the word track a shop owner uses to influence a
Insurer-Relations Profile: DRP Arrangements
From DRPs to parts usage to insurers in general, you tell it like it is.
Market Profile: Overcoming Market Challenges
From dealing with insurer steering to getting on DRPs to trying to make a profit on current DRPs, shop owners are struggling to overcome market challenges.
Dealing With Mr. “I-Can’t-Pay-My-Deductible”
It may be tempting to do your customers a favor when they threaten to take their business elsewhere. But when you see how this adversely affects the industry and your own shop, you’ll realize that you’re a moron if you allow some whiner with a eductible problem to peer pressure you.
Should Have Known Betterment
Betterment. Sounds like a new flavor of gum from Wrigley’s. Well, to car owners and collision shop managers and owners, betterment might not be so sweet, and their attitude toward it hasn’t been so carefree.
Consent Decree: Enforceable or Forgetable?
In 1963, 265 insurers signed a Consent Decree drafted by the U.S. Justice Department and Attorney General Robert Kennedy. By signing, they agreed to abide by the Decree’s terms: no more demanding discounts, setting hourly rates, boycotting repair shops and using specific appraisers. It’s still a binding agreement today … but will it ever be enforced?
Operations Profile: Business Savvy
With all the issues facing today’s shop owners — increased insurer involvement, diminished value (DV) and aftermarket (A/M) crash parts to name a few — it’s tough to run a collision repair business. Making it even tougher is that a lot of shop owners used to be technicians. Today, however, they need to be business savvy to operate successful and profitable shops.