Hitting Your Mark: Accurate Estimators
Writing an accurate estimate takes precision and skill. Are your estimators up to the challenge? With knowledgeable and personable estimators leading your team, your shop will win customers and score profits.
Insurer-Relations Profile
The relationship between insurance companies and collision repair shops has, historically, been much like the relationship between a dog and a fire hydrant. (If you have to ask which role shops play, the moisture in your brain has short-circuited your thinking ability!)
Prepare to Paint
Paint preparation is more difficult and complicated than it was a couple decades ago. To keep your shop as productive and profitable as possible, keep yourself up to date on the latest paint products.
Let the Heart Surgeons Operate
Is the perceived shortage the result of too many shops using highly skilled technicians to perform low- skilled work?
DOIs: Help, Hurt or Hinder?
"Why don’t body shops have any rights with their state Department of Insurance?" — Walter Danalevich, owner, Santa Barbara Auto Refinishing, Santa Barbara, Calif. Over the years, collision repairers across America have looked to state insurance departments for help and assistance in dealing with unprofessional and unethical insurance company practices. The results have been disappointing
Busting at the Seams
Growth isn’t as important as retaining quality and, most importantly, profitability.
On Your Mark … Get Set … Go!: Benchmarking
Are your employees living up to their potential? Is your shop? One way to be sure is to use benchmarks. Benchmarking allows you to compare your business’ performance to other businesses so you can discover where opportunity exists.
What Kind of Repairs Do You Want to Do?
The only way to achieve consistent, quality repairs is to establish clearly defined goals and communicate them to your staff
Industrializing Your Shop
My article in the November 1999 issue of BodyShop Business discussed the factors involved in the industrialization of our industry. It focused primarily on the evolution of the repair process, the human factors and the breakdown of repair tasks. Going a step further, this article focuses on the "plant" or shop requirements. Keep in mind that plant requirements include products and equipment, since they go hand-in-hand with maximum efficiency.
Surviving in the Next Century: Your Role as an Independent Shop Owner
If you choose to buy into the media’s millennium hype, then nothing you do can save your business from impending doom. (Sorry!) If, however, you think the 21st century will bring with it a fast-paced business world, prepare yourself. Times are changing and so must your role as an independent shop owner.