In April, the Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) released its first public edition of the Guide to Complete Repair Planning to the collision repair industry. Two notable features of this guide were the extensive amounts of operational reminders listed in the 800-plus items, coupled with the significant factor that it was offered to the industry free of charge in a digital format. Now, SCRS says the guide boasts additional functionality thanks to a co-branded effort combining the data in the SCRS Guide with the estimate "scrubbing" functionality developed for EstimateScrubber.com, a product produced by VehicleOwnersGuide.com.
"We view this collaborative project as the objective tool that can identify commonly missed estimating items needed for a complete repair blueprint, while providing common descriptions and procedures developed by collision repairers," said Steven Siessman, founder and president of VehicleOwnersGuide.com. "The newly launched version of the SCRS Guide, which can be found at www.estimatescrubber.com, is a robust tool that mitigates many of the deficiencies in how estimating systems handle non-included items. Because omitted items are not a part of the estimating system databases, their descriptions are left up to the shop to define, making it harder to standardize the nomenclature. Using standardized descriptions makes it easier for individual shops to justify non-included items in their repair plans, by pointing to a standard description and procedure for including items."
In addition to providing added functionality to the thousands of collision repair shops that have been accessing the repair guide since its initial launch, the enhanced version continues to maintain the same open access that SCRS and EstimateScrubber.com were both premised on, with this version of the product remaining free of charge for any user.
"The more we looked at the similarities between the objectives of our two organizations, the more it made sense to try and bring these two products together," said SCRS Chairman Aaron Clark. "Since releasing the original version of the guide in April, we have fielded numerous and ongoing stories from collision repairers all over the country sharing the ways they’ve put the information to use. This guide was always envisioned as a ‘living document’ that would grow in both information and application, and this seems like a great logical next step to make it even more user-friendly. We have actually already begun steps to take the combined program to another level, adding more customizable features and profiles for shops, and we anticipate announcing that new variation hopefully in the next few months."
Added Siessman, "We are very excited to be working with the SCRS to provide a set of tools to collision repairers developed by collision repairers independent of the estimating system or other information provider. Many of the other review tools in the market rely on getting a big insurance account to drive their systems to collision repairers, often leading to multiple estimating, communications and auditing systems in shops, along with the increased costs associated with redundant systems. The website can be used with any estimating system using only a printed estimate and web browser, and is free for collision repairers to use."
This audit service was developed by SCRS and EstimateScrubber.com to allow repair facilities to audit for completeness of the estimate to the repair facility’s standards, rather than to audit for program or external KPI compliance. It is also important for collision repair facilities to feel confident in their use of these tools, knowing that the information will not be used in the future to their disadvantage, SCRS says. EstimateScrubber.com adheres to the SCRS philosophy of confidentiality of repairer information and is adamant that no information is shared with any thirrd parties or stored in a database for further use, according to SCRS.
More information:
SCRS Guide to Repair Planning
EstimateScrubber.com
SCRS
