I've been writing articles trying to give my perspective on what I think would be good changes for our industry. This collision industry is a major part of my life. It provides a living, I enjoy doing what I do, and I love to repair collisions. But there are many things in my life that I value more. I'm also "Lee" the person; I have a life apart from this industry. If we ask about the most meaningful things in our lives, the answer is never going to be the collision industry. While it consumes most of our time, it is far from the most important aspect of our lives.

Amaradio

It is necessary to take a long look at how we do business - the human touch has certainly been lacking. The Golden Rule needs to be invoked. We need to treat the insurance adjusters the way we would like to be treated. They need to treat us with a little more love also.

We are all just trying to make a living, yet we act like we are enemies. Even though they are not the enemy we do have an enemy out there, a very sneaky vicious enemy that wants to pit us against each other. This enemy is the corporate executive that sits behind a desk somewhere counting numbers. Their knowledge of the collision industry goes little beyond a spread sheet. Yes, our enemies are the bean counters of corporate America.

Instead of developing business relationships based on trust and ethics, they become dollar based. It would be nice to see this change. I would like to go back to a time when quality and integrity mattered more than money - when giving someone a good value for their dollar was just as important as net earnings, or the stock value. Our industry has depersonalized itself. Instead of building relationships with people, we have become anonymous in regard to company spread sheets.

Today's world is one of urgency. Everything has a time limit and a number attached to it. Things should be different, but as corporate America continues to be driven by the almighty dollar, I see myself constantly worrying about things that are relatively insignificant not only to a quality repair, but also to the important things I value in life.

When will enough be enough? Never! We will never be able to make enough money for ourselves or produce the correct numbers to make the bean counter corporate executives happy. As soon as we reach one benchmark, they will raise the bar to keep pushing us toward a new one.

Enough was enough

Our already stressful industry is turning into one that's over the top on the stress meter. Recently one of our managers quit. As he handed me his rolodex I asked him why he was giving it to me. He replied: "I'm done with this industry. I'm tired of having four bosses." He went on to tell me that between the customers, the employees, the insurance companies and me, he found it impossible to keep everyone happy. I really understood his position and how impossible it must have been for him to feel like he was doing a good job because he always had someone mad at him.