Sleeves or Reinforcements - AutoPro Workshop Blog post - Where Professionals Gather for Better Business

Another great tip for the Database Enhancement Gateway.

Sleeves or Reinforcements - AutoPro Workshop Blog post - Where Professionals Gather for Better Business

Sidewalk Talk - Rhode Island Internet Marketing and SEO Blog: Maximize Discovery by Halting Stop-Word Usage

This is some great advice from my friend Chris Sheehy at the Sidewalk Branding Co.

Sidewalk Talk - Rhode Island Internet Marketing and SEO Blog: Maximize Discovery by Halting Stop-Word Usage: With so few precious characters to use for META Data - maximize your META by putting a stop to stop-word usage. Simple words such as: ...

How to Maximize Sublet Profits

Attempting to increase profit in any collision center is a struggle and I do not believe it is going to get easier anytime soon. I know most are looking at every opportunity to gain a nickel or dime in any area possible. That is what every shop should be doing to maintain profitability. One area that is often overlooked is sublet repairs. It is an area that is most of the time gray on an estimate with pricing based on an "average" for your particular market. If you look at sublet repair closely you will find it is an area with great potential for increased gross profit. There are two ways to increase your gross profit on sublet repairs – one is doing the work yourself and the other is through smart purchasing.  Just as insurance companies work to negotiate their best price for repairs you should also work to negotiate your best price on the sublet services you purchase. One of the best opportunities to stabilize your sublet profits is to develop vendor partners that will provide discounts for loyalty and volume. Even if the discount is only 10 percent or 15 percent, it will give you an edge towards increasing your profits. Remember it's the nickels and dimes that will keep you profitable, so no discount is too small and very valuable to your success.

For the complete article visit: http://abrn.search-autoparts.com/abrn/Training/How-to-maximize-sublet-profit/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/745384

Paint Manufacturer Involvement

Paint manufacturers becoming more involved with your business by expending a lot of effort and money to keep your collision center profitable.  Their sponsorship of NACE and SEMA is clearly evident in all the literature and without their assistance some of the programs at those events would not be possible.  When you see your jobber, thank them, their assistance is far deeper than a paint discount.  I was talking to a customer the other day who was asking some advice on marketing.  I asked him if he had checked his paint manufacturers value-added programs and looked at the tools available.  He had not so I googled his paint company and found a large resource for growing a collision business.  I also had meeting this week with a jobber and a shop owner who needed help reducing his paint expense.   Again, looking to the manufacturer we found a paint system that would meet his needs and allow him to grow into a more premier line.  All the paint major paint manufacturers have programs to assist you so I hope you are making good use of them.  Just send me an e-mail if you have trouble finding out about them, I will get the information for you and get you some contact information.

"Timely Upsell"

I know you have heard me talk about  upsells and right now is the best time to upsell Headlamp Restorations.    Soon we will be falling back in time, the amount of time we see daylight will be shorter with most people going to work in the dark as well as coming home in the dark.  Hazed headlamps decrease the available light and your customers will appreciate you brightening their path.  There are several headlamp restoration kits on the market but the one I have found to work most effectively is the 3M Headlamp Restoration Kit.  What I like the best about this kit over the others is there is no messing sealer or clear-coat you have to apply.  The kit is complete with everything you need to completely restore headlamps in about a dozen easy steps in 10 - 15 minutes.  Send me an e-mail if you would like the pdf file describing the process.  I think you will like it as much as I do.  Contact your local 3M or paint jobber to get your kit.

Perception - AutoPro Workshop Blog post - Where Professionals Gather for Better Business

Art makes some great points about educating the adjuster.

Perception - AutoPro Workshop Blog post - Where Professionals Gather for Better Business

Finding Your Market - Acworth, GA, United States, 30101 - AutoPro Workshop Blog post - Where Professionals Gather for Better Business

Finding Your Market - Acworth, GA, United States, 30101 - AutoPro Workshop Blog post - Where Professionals Gather for Better Business

Another Milestone

The JSE Consulting Blog has reached a milestone of 1700 hits with viewers reading over 78 blogs.  Below is the blog that started it all.

The Value of Production Meetings


Remember the body shop days when repair time wasn't a concern? Times have certainly changed, and cycle time is one of our primary concerns in the list of daily challenges. Production Meetings help control cycle time and alleviate challenges collision center managers face on a daily basis. I believe a production meeting has the same function as an orchestra conductor. The orchestra conductor sets the tempo and direction the music will go, he then relies on the orchestra members to carry the notes creating the harmony. Think of your staff as the members of the orchestra and you take the helm as the conductor. Gather your "orchestra" first thing in the morning and cover the particulars of work in process, tune the "music" where necessary to create the "harmony" you need to maintain forward progress with the repairs. You will realize that your staff will work like the orchestra members and carry the tune throughout the day allowing you to utilize you time more effectively on things like marketing.
Another helpful tip from John Shoemaker - JSE Consulting

Thanks for following, I will continue to do my best at bringing you the latest information and other links I find interesting.

Your Friend in the Collision Industry

John

Do Damage Appraisers Need an Office?

It is not really a trick question, does your damage appraiser need an office is a legitimate query. Look around and see how often your damage appraisers are actually in their office.  Most of the time when I visit a shop it is easy to look around, check the offices out, and not really disturb anybody because the damage appraisers are out in the shop.....where they belong!  The offices looked great, but I would be scared to think how much was spent on them, especially when the appraisers have to run back and forth from the shop to use them.  I usually just wait for them return, attempt to write an appraisal from scratchings on a pad, watch them try to read their hasty notations, and when they can't remember something make a small exclamation and bolt out the door to take another look at the vehicle they are writing.  I imagine it is especially fun when the customer is waiting by the car, in a hurry and thinks you are bringing their appraisal to them only to find out you were just checking your notes.

As shops grow into Lean processes they will move to a more effective repair planning/blueprinting operation which is going to take more scratchings and notations, along with probably a few more trips back and forth to their "office" to complete the appraisal.  Here is where the questions comes in again, Do damage appraisers need an office?  I believe people are more effective when they are working where their work is and a damage appraisers work is not in their office, it is on the shop floor.  So the answer to the question is no and now you ask how you can fix it.

One of the best ways to do this is by using a mobile workstation such as a Goliath Cart but you can also create a fixed workstation on the shop floor using the appraisers current equipment or use a remote desktop function from a laptop or I-Pad, the goal would be to keep them close to their work, let them be more accurate and eliminate the wasted time going between the shop and office.  I believe if you ask an appraiser if they are behind, 9 out of 10 would say yes, so here is an opportunity to give them some of their time back.

You could then take that wasted appraiser office space and convert it to a nice customer lounge, clean storage for vehicle interior trim, or make it a training room.

Live from NACE - Day One - Repost

My first seminar to today was Ignite the Internet! Internet Marketing for Auto Repair Professionals.  A great seminar facilitated by Danny Sanchez, the CEO of Autoshop Solutions Inc presented some tools to move a business forward in the world of internet marketing.  I learned that there are basically three types of websites, A Corporate Website; a practical more matter-of-fact universal website, An E-Commerce Website; which main purpose is to generate on-line sales and are very busy, much brighter and eye catching, and a Marketing website is designed to cause a visitor to take action.  I will expand a little on the marketing website because I think that is the one most of use depend on to drive business to us.  The marketing website nees to create a positive professional feeling in a very short period of time.

• You have 8 seconds to show you are a relevant solution
• You have 30 seconds to establish your business as a local option
• Your website should hold visitors for 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 minutes

After that Danny went on to talk about visits, page views, pages/visits, bounce rate, average time on site, and percent of new visits.  All things we should be checking on our website to see if the site is actually effective. 

He covered Search Engine Optimization which is all about getting your website moved to a higher position in searches.  But, you don't necessarily want your website to be number 1.  You really just need to make sure you are in the top five.

I also learned there are five steps you should consider in a Internet Marketing Action Plan

1. Identify the services you offer, determine the specific services you want to market
2. Analyze your online competition, kind of like I have told you about walking around your neighborhood and seeing what the competition is doing, same applies here.
3. Establish a budget, use a specialist to help you understand what you need to invest to beat the competition.
4. Hire a professional, this is not a place for your nephew, the internet has grown beyond the reach of most novices.
5. Measure the results, use a phone number tracker, review the statistics I mentioned above.

The internet has become the highest source of new customers for many shops all across the country.  I have only scratched the surface of what you need to know to have a successful website. I hope I provided enough to get you thinking about your website, a strong website has become a necessity, make it the best you can.

Lean 3.0 - Flow = A practical path to using Lean to improve process flow.  The very first thing I learned was that if you are not blueprinting properly and completely you should not even think of trying to create true flow.  To have complete-true flow you need to have all the questions answered before you start the repair process or "flow".  In reality that is the purpose of blueprinting, to answer all the questions that may arise during a repair.  The more thorough you are in blueprinting the less obstacles you will have in the repair process.  The more obstacles you eliminate in blueprinting the faster the flow process will move.  Once an obstacle occurs during flow you cannot go past it, you need to eliminate the reason for the obstacle...permanently!  A band-aid repair will only cause the obstacle to occur again and again and again, create a resolution that will eliminate the obstacle completely.  If you can, think of flow as a river, and the obstacles are rocks.  To make the water flow down the river with the most speed possible the river must be free of rocks.  Using pull production you would need to eliminate obstacles at the beginning of the flow process, not the middle and not the end.  Leaving an obstacle at the beginning but removing a obstacle in the middle will create a "lake" in your river where flow stops and production ends.  Remove the first obstacle and then the next in order of production to eliminate "lakes" in the process to ensure steady flow. There are three rules of flow tht must be followed, No reversing; everything must move forward, once it leaves a production position it cannot return, First in - First out; nothing should be passed over in flow, each vehicle should move progressively through the process, Must move forward without defects; this is the most important rule, do not pass an incomplete repair to the next station, you will create an obstacle at the next process because of the incomplete repair.  Once you begin using the flow process you will find it is another continual improvement concept.  Problems/obstacles will occur and removing the first obstacle is only a starting point, flow will change constantly, your job will be to adjust to the changes and reduce the "rocks" to keep your river flowing.

During lunch I met Brad Weisberg, Founder and President of Body Shop bids a unique website based business that allows vehicle owners to solicit estimates for vehicle repairs online.  The process is quite simple, the vehicle owner takes pictures of the damage, e-mails them to a participating shop and then waits for the estimates to be submittes.   As a shop provides an estimate to the vehicle owner they are bidding for the repair. 

My last day at NACE

The last day of NACE, it has been a busy week with one class left, a quick walk of the convention floor and then the airport.

My last class as How to Build Bulletproof Estimates, it was facilitated by Peter Kennedy from Collex Collision Experts, Inc.  As we went through the material I found the name of the course was a little different than the course content.  The course was really how to created and document an estimate to get it through the insurance company.   Peter presented some good tips on what insurance adjusters were looking for, what is important and what isn't, and gave a little insight on virtual reviews.  He said one of the important things we need to remember is an insurance appraiser is generally over loaded, never feels like they are caught up, has to deal with internal audits as well as CSI complaints.    Understanding the adjuster and their goals is paramount to having them on your side.  Their goals are

• Accuracy
• Efficiency
• Manage Cost of Repair
• Customer Satisfaction
• Demonstrate his ability to improve performance
• Build Relationships

Who would have thought building relationships was one of their goals! 

By understanding the insurance appraisers goals a shop can win them over by making their job easier, by making their job easier your negotiations with them will be easier and you will be rewarded by fully paid supplements.

Accuracy:  Creating complete damage appraisals with each line item supported by pictures and notes.  The thought should be that in a review six months from now the line item, line notes and pictures would support the repair.  One of the first thing an insurance appraiser looks for is all the admin data.   How many of you submit a supplement with just the customer's name and the rest blank?

Efficiency:  Creating a damage appraisal that looks the same every time.  If the insurance appraiser does not have to search through your estimate to find what he is looking for he will be much happier about approving it.  If you give the appraiser three estimates to review and they all look the same imagine how happy he would be.

Manage the Cost of Repairs:  This is sometimes tricky but if you are making sure you are using the most cost effective methods to  to repair the vehicle you will be in good shape.  Document your parts searches so they know you looked, make sure you try their vendor to compare, price match parts when possible and communicate through notes why you made the decision.  If you document your decision you will seldom be questioned.

CSI:  If your CSI is good, their CSI is good.  If you keep your customer happy, you are keeping their customer happy.  Pretty simple process!

Improving Performance:  The insurance adjuster is graded on your shop performance.  If after all his efforts you stay mediocre, you will probably not be on his best side.  He will have to justify why you are still on the program and without your improvement you will lose.  Ask them about diagnostic reviews, if you have a low spot or maybe two ask them how you can get your score up.  Making them part of the solution will ensure you make the correct adjustments.

Building Relationships:  Insurance adjusters are looking for people that work with them.  If you continually work against them you will lose quickly.  Peter wasn't suggesting you give in to them, but work with them in achieving their goals.  It is a win-win situation.  You need cars to repair and they need people to fix them.  Look for the common ground that will make your arrangement fit both of your goals.

The last thing Peter hit on was virtual reviews.  Insurance companies are using them more and more.  The best way to get by a virtual review is through good documentation, quality pictures and accurate line items.  Answer their questions before they ask them and you will be making positive steps in passing the review.  Leave them with questions and your supplemnet and payment will have to wait for a manual review.  I always tell people to write an estimate like your mother would understand it, I think that is all Peter is trying to tell us also.

All in all NACE was a great show, I talked to people I converse with all the time on line or through blogs.  I saw new equipment, updated programs and had conversations with shop owners, managers and techs learning different ways they tackled today's problems.  I travel quite a bit, but it probably would have taken a year of traveling to meet up with all the people I saw in four days.  The trip was well worth the time and money it took to get there, I also was able to receive my Accreditied Automotive Manager diploma from AMI through their graduation program.  NACE will be help in New Orleans next October, look into it and make plans to go.

Live from NACE - Day One

My Friday at NACE

My seminar today started at 7:30, kind of early to begin learning but days are pretty full at NACE.  Ron Kuehn presented Simple Cycle Time Solutions beginning with repair planning.  Seems that is the major theme in our industry right now.  To move vehicles through the shop you must first know what you need to move.  The key function in repair planning is blueprinting, 100% disassembly to locate all the vehicle damage, and itemizing all the items found in a damage appraisal.  There are three main areas of cycle time you can measure, APR; the time between the vehicle arrival and when the vehicle is ready for production, Repair Cycle Time; the actual production time, and Delivery; which is the time between when the repairs are completed until the time the customer picks the vehicle up.  Arrival time to production is a critical area and the time line is determined by the amount of repair.  A repair that is $1500 or less should only spend one day in APR, repairs between $1500 & $4000 should be in APR no more than two days, and repairs over $4000 should not exceed five days.  Now that does not mean you have five days to blueprint a $4000 repair, all vehicles should be disassembled the day they arrive.  The five days accounts for vehicle dissassembly and supplement creation, parts  procurement, pre-pulling, and any part pre-finish work.  There are two important questions to repair planning, where do you do it and who does it?  Do you have a designated area or a non-designated area?  Do you have a specific disassembly technician or do you pull a technician off a job to to disassemble a vehicle?  There are pros and cons to both and generally the pros for one will be the cons for the other.  You will have to look at your shop operation and see what fits the best.  If you are just starting you might pull a technician off a job for disassembly, as you get deeper into repair planning you will probably determine that having a dedicated disassembly technician is best.  But this is a growing pain and the best way to realize what you need is to work through the process.  There are many things to consider when deciding between dedicated and non-dedicated, pay plans, technician buy-in, impact on production flow and space considerations.  All shops are different and there is not one plan that will fit all shops.  Ron suggested you start with the big jobs, the non-drives, and disassemble and blueprint those jobs.  The bigger jobs will show the true benefit of repair planning and is a good way to get employee buy-in.  You can take that one job and follow it thorugh and see how your cycle time changed in comparison to similar jobs that were not repair planned.    As you go through the repair plan process measure how long repairs are staying in the three separate areas, this will help you understand where improvement is needed and what action you need to take to maximize your production potential.

 

At one o'clock today I watched the National Auto Body Council present five Recycled Rides to five very deserving families. Chuck Sulkaka an NABC Past President and the man with the vision for Recycled Rides opened the ceremony followed by Michael Quinn from 911 Collision and the Recycled Rides co-chair described the program.  I watched as each family's story was told and then saw the expression on their faces when they were handed the keys to their new vehicle.  These vehicle were repaired by local collision centers through the coordination of the National Auto Body Council.  If you are a vehicle repairer I encourage you to get involved with this program.  I talked to a couple of technicians that worked on the vehicles and found that they donated their time, suppliers donated parts and paint jobbers provided paint.  We have all heard that it takes a village to raise a child, well that saying is very true in the repair of these recycled vehicles, it was a great team effort.  You can become a part of that team by completing a quick application.

Why NACE?

I had a customer call me this morning and ask me if I could spend a couple of days at his shop this week to help him with some Lean initiatives.  Told him I would love to but I would be at NACE.  He then asked me why I was going, that he heard not many people go to NACE anymore.  I told him that besides being the only collision repair event our industry has, there were three and a half days of classes to go to a majority of which give either AMI or I-CAR credits,  NACE is the only venue that has a long list of vendors showing their products, a car show, the list is growing daily and it is in Florida!  My question to him was, Why Not NACE?  Where else can you find a large group of people from all different parts of the industry all together in one place that you can network with?  It is great to talk to people in your local auto body association, but you are hearing about the industry from your same market area, hearing about how shop owners and managers are managing in other markets is very valuable to continued success.  I will be attending several classes but I bet I will learn just as much in the hallways between classes as I do in the classes themselves.  Going to NACE keeps me up on the current initiatives, lets me touch the latest tools and I get to see the collision industry from a different perspective.  I think the people that are joining me this year are ones that want to be successful in our industry and know what they learn, hear and see will help them move their business up a notch.  If you haven't signed up yet there is still time, hope I see you there!