How does your website perform?

Was your website developed by a friend of a friend, or is it a couple of years old? Ever wonder if it was still performing its magic or if it ever did? If you can answer yes to either of those questions I want to introduce you to two of my friends, Crystal Stangeland and Chris Sheehy. Crystal is the National Sales Manager forAutoshop Solutions Inc. where they have a website tune-up program where they will analyze your website, just ask them at tuneup@autoshopsolutions.com. The last time I talked to Crystal she was explaining the difference between Google AdWord™ and AdWords Express™ and I tell you unless you work with these things all the time it is a foreign language. It is really best to leave it up to the professionals; Crystal told me that three years of our time is ten years in internet time. We have all have had to upgrade our computers every 3-5 years because of changes and upgrading your website isn't any different. Chris Sheehy, CEO Sidewalk Branding Co. is what I call an SEO guru, and through his company he can do an On-Page Website SEO Audit where he can report on the elements of your website that are bringing you value as well as where changes could increase your visibility. He tries to talk to me about META wording relevance and character/word length, GEO location indicators and anchor text usage and again it is a foreign language. That is why I need these people and you probably do also, internet/social marketing has become very specialized. I have clients that ask me to look at their websites and I do, but to know for sure I call Crystal or Chris. With more and more people turning to the internet to locate a body shop your website has to be top-notch, Crystal and Chris have both told me that you must grab an internet searcher's attention in a few seconds or they will move on.

Is it time for waterborne?

I was invited to attend a waterborne workshop a couple of weeks ago by my friends at PROFINISHESPLUS. They were holding the workshop to show the benefits of DuPont™ Cromax®Pro waterborne basecoat. Like others I always thought of changing to waterborne was for EPA reasons, but after attending this workshop I found many other benefits, especially time!  Forget about the EPA regulations, the date for mandatory use continually moves and I believe people have put going to waterborne on the back burner.  After attending this workshop I can tell you that is a big mistake.  Going to waterborne will speed up production.  Terry McDaniel, DuPont paint technician and John Santiago PROFINISHES PLUS paint technician set up the paint both with some mock front ends and a couple loose fenders.  Manned with a stopwatch John timed the different processes and believe it or not they painted a complete front end with waterborne in the time it took to paint a fender in solvent.  With the wet-on-wet application process of the waterborne product they were able to paint the front fenders and hood on the mock frontend in just less than 15 minutes.  It took just over 15 minutes to apply a basecoat of solvent, let it flash and apply a second coat of base product.  It also took less time for the waterborne to flatten/flash so clear could be applied than the solvent. If that is not a reason to go to waterborne, I certainly do not know what is!   I encourage everybody to ask their paint jobber to show them the benefits of going to waterborne, or better yet, open your shop to a workshop.  Seeing this first hand made me realize there are many more benefits than EPA requirements.  To me EPA now stands for Extra Production Achieved! Your jobber can also help you with an audit to see what you will need to do to get ready to convert to waterborne and my article in ABRN will give you some additional insight.

Positive and Profitable Marketing

Marketing plans are only as effective as their reach. You can't successfully market your collision center without understanding your target. Marketing has many facets that require research to determine the correct message, the right resource and the intended receiver. Determining where your marketing is successful and where it is not working as well as knowing the differences in the market areas prepares you to restructure your marketing program. One of the differences might be ethnic based, your marketing is not effective because of wording used in your advertisements, or it could be a college area and your marketing message is directed at an older audience. Regardless of the market you have to ensure you generate awareness of your collision center, motivate potential customers to drive to your facility, create an acceptance of what you offer, identify your brand as unique, explain the processes that make doing business with you attractive and capitalize on your customer satisfaction index.

Follow this link to read my entire article in ABRN.

Call Tracking

I had a great conversation with McKay Allen and Bryan Pocock from ContactPoint LLC.   They have a new product called LOGMyCalls which is a unique program that tracks, records and scores phone calls online.  We all wonder how our people perform when people call into the shop asking for information.  Do they sell the shop on the phone or just answer the questions?  LOGMyCalls will record the calls, score them and provide coaching on how to improve the conversations our people have with customers.  They also allow you to have key numbers for each advertising program you use so you can see how effective it is.  I know shops are spending advertising money on ads, websites and mailers to get customers to call their shop and do not see any growth from that advertising.  Many times the problem is the person answering the phone is not handling the call properly.  Check out www.logmycalls.com if you think you have this problem or if you just want to know you don’t have the problem. 

Shout out to my friends

I have been developing a best practice series over the last few months and as some will say it has taken a village as well as traveling to some to make this series complete and accurate.    It is well on its way to completion and I need to give a few shops a shout out for allowing me to hang in their shops and take pictures of them performing the best practices.  Many thanks to First Team Hampton Chevrolet Collision Center,  Casey Collision Center, Hampton Collision, Hutchens Chevrolet Collision Center and Bay Custom Auto Body.

Chief EZliner Express

I talked  with Mike Ramey of M.R.E Inc recently about my theory of replacing an aging frame machine with a new one or purchasing several small pulling platforms similar to Chief Automotive's EZLiner Express instead.   You can purchase about three of the small pulling platforms for the price of one frame machine.  The design of new vehicles utilizes a crush zone type construction so mostly what is happening in shops now is jigging vehicles, doing slight pulls, removing the damaged metal and replacing the structure with new pieces.  There isn't much heavy pulling going on anymore and having one or two frame machines in a shop has always created a choke-point or a retraint in production flow.   Having small pulling platforms which allows a vehicle to have the affected structure removed and replaced right in the technician's stall is a definite time saver.  There is no longer a need to move the vehicle to the frame machine.   You will still need one full-size frame machine for pick-ups and SUV's but your techinicians will enjoy having pulling capabilities right in their stall with their individual platforms and you will notice a decrease in your cycle time

Looking for Good Help?

I know finding good technicians is difficult however, it is not impossible.   The number of available technicians is very low and most are content in their current employment.  Ads have not proven to be fruitful in most markets, there is no rhyme or reason why, they are just not working and they are very expensive.  For the same money you can generate some very valuable leads by giving incentives to the people around you.

Using people around you as recruiter’s works well because you generally get a higher quality applicant.  Technicians know other technicians and will tell you about ones they would want to work beside.  Offering your technicians a bonus for bringing you a technician benefits both of you.  They work to find a technician that they respect and you get a good technician. 

 Another source is the tool man, they are in shops all the time and you would be amazed on how well they will recruit for you for a little cash.  Unlike a paint jobber who has loyalty to the shops they support, the tool man works for the technicians and he needs them to be employed.  This gives him an added incentive to assist you. 

It is hard to offer technicians a higher hourly rate as a lure, our industry has polluted those waters by offering technicians a $1 more to a point where most technicians are earning 50% of the door rate.  Using a sign-on bonus is a way to provide the appeal without costing you a decrease in labor gross profit. 

I recommend phasing in the bonus, 25 - 50% at time of hire and the remainder after six months.  I would create bonuses equal to what you have been paying in employment ads, but even if you end up putting out a little more it will be because you have actually hired somebody, not just paid for ads.