Don’t You Be the Judge
What do you do when an insurer only wants to pay half of what it actually costs to repair a vehicle? Charge for all the necessary procedures, educate your customer and take the insurer to small claims court.
E-Commerce Has Arrived
Can e-commerce solutions truly improve dispatch, load leveling and cycle time to impact throughput and profits? In a word, yes.
Love (to Undercut) Thy Neighbor
“It seems like shops are more obsessed with competing than with working and sticking together, so how will we ever better the industry for ourselves?” – Dennis Terry, technician, Hilltop Auto, Cabot, Ariz. The fact that insurers work so hard to control the consumer explains one of the reasons why shops don’t “stick” together. Shops
The Case of the Disappearing Tech
The talk about the lack of the human resources in this industry.
There’s a Right Way … and There’s a Wrong Way
Paint-shop best practices.
This Month’s Ailing Shop
Shop size: 12,500 total square feet Equipment: two drive-on frame racks, two booths (one downdraft) and a lift for tear-down estimates. Employees: 12 Annual Sales: $1.5 million Quality of work: Good Problem overview: Husband and wife shop owners want to grow their business, but they don’t know how – they’re close to burnout as it
Say You Don’t Want a Revolution
If you label your customers as “nuts” to brush off their repair complaints and tell them to “just bring it back” withoutaddressing the actual problem, your comebacks are costing you cash.
Putting Our Heads Together
Want more claims dollars? Strive to standardize your business.
Scheduling Labor Effectively
Take a systematic approach to scheduling labor. I’ve been in the collision repair industry for 21 years, and one challenge that’s a constant is effectively scheduling production staff. Scheduling in this business is difficult because you have different repair jobs coming in every day and no two jobs are exactly the same — so you
When Does Insurer Steering Become Illegal?
Every day, insurers tell customers: "They’re not on our list of shops." "We can’t guarantee their work." "We may not be able to help you as much as we’d like if you take your car to that shop." Fed up, a few shop owners across the country have gathered evidence that insurer actions are depriving them of their right to compete and have filed tortious interference lawsuits. The result: multimillion-dollar settlements.