If an industry expert offered to answer one question for you, what would your question be? (The question must be collision-repair related.)
“Are there any topless female techs out there?”asked one shop owner. I’ll be the first to admit, putting together our annual April Readers Choice issue can be challenging. But it’s also a lot of fun, and the finished product is worth all the headaches that came before it.
While we try our best every month to bring you articles that you need – articles that address your questions and concerns – this issue is special: It’s our 4th-Annual Readers Choice issue, which means it’s 100 percent reader generated. You asked, we answered.
Last year, you had the opportunity to fill out an entry form that ran in BodyShop Business. On the form, we asked several questions, one of which was: “If an industry expert offered to answer one question for you, what would your question be? (It must be collision-repair related.)”
Though some of you got creative with your questions (I know, I know, technically, asking about topless techs is collision-repair related), most of your questions reflected serious concerns about industry trends and issues. In fact, we were up to our eyeballs in entry forms.
After sorting through the piles and disqualifying a few, we picked eight winners.
Before I discuss how we picked the winners, let me briefly explain why some entries got disqualified:
- 1. Your printing is lousy. Sometimes we can’t read an entry form. We don’t expect your penmanship to be perfect, but if it’s terrible to begin with, sending it through a fax machine isn’t going to improve on it. My head hurts just thinking about this. Be kind. Print legibly.
2. Every question asked was about how to eliminate the insurance industry. The operative word here is “eliminate.”I’m only half Italian, OK? I don’t have the right connections for that.
3. You completely disregarded our deadline. Yes, the deadline is there for a reason. Typically, it’s June 30. (One fellow faxed his entry in October. October!)
But enough about the disqualification process. Let’s move on to something happier: our eight winners.
Because no one sent in cash or a money order with his entry (I don’t take personal checks), everyone had a fair shot at winning. Our process for picking winners was simple: We drew eight names.
What did our eight winners win? Fifty dollars and their question answered by someone in the industry who has experience with that particular topic.
For example, one of our winners, estimator Robert Beene, asked: “What are the state-specific regulations regarding the legality of paint caps?”Good question. And who better to answer it than Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) Executive Director Dan Risley? Risley is currently updating SCRS’s 1996 study on paint capping and has the monumental task of trying to decipher answers from 50 state Departments of Insurance on the legality of paint caps. If anyone has the answers to Beene’s question, it would be Risley – which is why we chose him to write this particular article.
On the first page of each of the eight articles, you’ll see a photo of the winning BSB reader, along with his or her question. The article itself will address the reader’s question.
As for some of you other readers out there – and you know who you are – it’s probably for the best that your questions remain unanswered!
Thanks to all of you who participated. We couldn’t have done it without you!
Georgina K. Carson
Editor
