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An auto body shop is like a day care center. People want their children well taken care of, and they want their cars well taken care of.

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Getting back to the basics was the focus of the San Diego Chapter of the California Autobody Association meeting on May 22 at Tom Ham’s Lighthouse Restaurant on Harbor Island in San Diego.

Presenter Robert Rick, VP of Sales and Consulting Services for Gates Business Solutions in Wisconsin and DuPont Performance Coatings Executive Facilitator for DPS Educational Series, addressed approximately 50 attendees with the topic, “How to Improve Some of Your Best Business Practices.”

“Think of a customer’s car as their baby,” Rick said. “Their cars are important to them and their second most expensive purchase.” He likens auto body shops to day care centers because “our cars are loved ones too.”

For some reason, refinishing is one facet of our business that we accept losing partial revenue on, or are content with our ignorance of how to properly be compensated. Unless you’re adding priming as a separate line item, you’re donating the time and materials to the insurance company. You need to make some very basic but critical changes to your estimating and billing procedures so you can start being paid properly for all the pieces of the refinishing process.

To view a pdf file of this article with photos, click HERE.

Have you heard the following from adjusters? “I’ll make up for it somewhere else in the estimate.” Or, “I’ll make it up to you on the next job.” They don’t want to be reprimanded by their bosses for paying out for procedures that they’ve been getting for free for so long. As an industry, we deserve to be paid for our work, all of it, and the supplies that go into it. This isn’t a cost like paying rent or your electric bill, and shouldn’t be considered overhead or a cost of doing business today. This is time and materials that are directly used in the refinishing process and should be billed properly.

Everyone has a reason why they use a dealer repair shop vs. an independent shop… These are a few of those reasons I’ve run into over my decades of independent service work.

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Customers come in a wide range of styles. There are my regular customers, occasional customers, price shoppers,referrals, and friends of the family. Some don’t bother to tell me how they happened to be at the shop; maybe they’ve read an advertisement, saw a billboard somewhere, or they’ve checked out one of those websites that evaluate businesses by way of customer responses. Perhaps they’ve heard of the shop through the grapevine, or they might have just driven by to check it out. But I’ve never heard of anyone refer to themselves as a “dealer customer.”

State Farm’s PartsTrader program, the use of shops’ estimating and other data, and how one state regulator oversees auto insurers, were among the topics at a recent board meeting of the Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS).

To view a pdf file of this article with photos, click HERE.

A number of participants at the meeting held on April 24 in Oklahoma City, OK, wore large buttons opposing “data mining” by the “Big Three” information providers, indicating they wanted the ability to “opt out” of having their shop estimating data aggregated and used or sold. The buttons were part of the follow-up to a joint statement that SCRS and two other trade associations sent in January to CCC Information Services, Mitchell and Audatex, voicing concern about collection and use of shop data.

I’ve been very busy the past three months working on a new project for Dan Weaver of the Bakersfield area and his 11-year-old son Brandon Weaver, a junior race car driver who is number #1 in California and #3 in the nation for his class, Bandalero Bandit Division.

To view a pdf file of this article with photos, click HERE.

Dan and Brandon wanted me to build them a junior motor sports vehicle and I’m excited to share this new project with you. I was pretty pumped up. I’ve built body kits for the Mustang, I’ve worked with Mopar, and built the polyurethane body kits for the Challenger. Now, it’s going from parts to a complete vehicle—I am all about that. This is a challenge for me. It brings on my creativity and I will be able to learn more in depth what it takes to build a complete vehicle.

Question: How would you like to be able to measure body structure, vehicle sub-frame movement, damaged suspension components and used BOF frame for damage or damaged parts in 20 minutes with a printout and the time of tear down?

To view a pdf file of this article with photos, click HERE.

OK, how about the added advantage of doing it anywhere in the shop? We’re not using any frame-measuring equipment, by the way. Let’s throw in another parameter and do all of these tasks and more with a camera. You say impossible? Up until recently you’d be right but it’s not only possible, it’s here. It’s called the Matrix Wand and it’s a game changer.

This month’s Autobody News distinctive dealership is Downtown Motors of L A. The parts manager is Jorge Valladares, and they provide parts for Porsche, Volkswagen, and Audi for the greater Los Angeles area. I spoke with Jorge recently, and found once again, the qualities that make a successful wholesale parts leader.

To view a pdf file of this article with photos, click HERE.

His dealership is a solid, dependable establishment, a fixture in Los Angeles since the 1960’s. A loyal customer base has always permitted this dealer to prosper, even in hard times. The people who work here are as dependable as the dealership, always available for the needs of their customers. Jorge started as a parts driver here, about twenty-five years ago. He now has been manager for over fifteen years. That seems to be a feature of all our best dealerships, leadership with a career, not just a job.

This month’s Autobody News’ featured dealership is Allan Vigil Ford in Morrow, GA. This locally-owned dealer has been in business for almost 30 years. The parts manager is Rusty Stewart and his parts department is one of the top Ford wholesalers in the nation. This is also one of the largest Ford parts departments in the nation, currently number 22 in sales, and on the rise. Rusty told me that they are the top power-train parts dealer in the area. Over $3 million dollars in inventory in a 60,000-square-foot warehouse assures his customers their orders will be filled the same day. Rusty knows that inventory alone cannot make a quality dealer, and backs up this impressive operation with the best personnel available. His parts department is staffed with 37 of the best people he can find.

To view a pdf file of this article with photos, click HERE.

If we’re only as good as the information we possess, people like Richard Forness are an invaluable asset to any collision repairer anywhere. As a highly-respected industry expert, national account manager for Audatex (a Solera company), Forness is a popular speaker who talks to body shops throughout the country about the current state of the industry and where it’s headed. On May 22, this 25-year veteran who ran a series of highly successful body shops in the Greater Minnesota-St. Paul area, shared his views and offered useful statistics with the 60-plus East Bay CAA members in attendance.

To view a pdf file of this article with photos, click HERE.

During the past 15 years or so, I’ve noticed that many body shops spend a great deal of time and money promoting to referral sources that never send  a single job. There is some logic to continually dripping on prospects in the hope that at least a few of them will send a job or two one day. And if the promotion going out isn’t too costly, it can’t hurt.

To view a pdf file of this article with photos, click HERE.