FenderBender - May 2019 by EndeavorBusinessMedia-VehicleRepairGroup

F E N D E R B E N D E R . C O M / M AY 2 0 1 9

THE DANGER OF UNCALIBRATED ADAS

PAGE 25

Strategies & Inspiration for Collision Repair Success

MASTER THE ART OF FEEDBACK PAGE 58

R AINS:

THE SECRET TO PUTTING OUT FIRES PAGE 37

Be part of the solution to the industry’s toughest challenges— and see your shop thrive

Speak Out Through her involvement with industry organizations, Selvi Rizk has both increased her experience as a shop owner and member of the industry.

PAGE 40

OVERSIZED

SOLUTIONS FOR HEAVY-DUTY TRUCK SHOPS PAGE 27

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0 5 .1 9 / V O L U M E 2 1 / N U M B E R 0 5

Close Team At Gould Body and Paint, new owner Brian Myers (right) works closely with his team to maintain the culture of caring and quality.

F E AT U R E

PROFILE

C A SE STU DY

S H O P TA L K

Becoming an integral, inspiring part of this industry comes down to finding your place—and capitalizing on it.

Maintaining the family feel of Gould Body and Paint—while also modernizing the business— was top of mind for new owners Brian and Heidi Myers.

At Jody Gatchell’s Arkansas shop, the use of a chatbot has helped navigate after-hours questions and updates.

From monthly team lunches to offering exceptional benefits, Brian Roach put a stop to the turnover he initially experienced at Alexander Body & Fender.

SUCCESS STORIES BY KELLY BEATON

THE NEW BOSS

JUSTIN CASTERLINE

BY MELISSA STEINKEN

CHIT CHAT BY MELISSA STEINKEN

TEAM FOCUS

BY MELISSA STEINKEN

Printed in the U.S.A. COPYRIGHT ©2019 BY 10 Missions Media LLC. All rights reserved. FenderBender (ISSN 1937-7150) is published monthly by 10 Missions Media, LLC, 571 Snelling Avenue North, St. Paul, MN 55104. FenderBender content may not be photocopied, reproduced or redistributed without the consent of the publisher. Periodicals postage paid at St. Paul, MN, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTERS Send address changes to: FenderBender, 571 Snelling Avenue North, St. Paul, MN 55104. May 2019 | fenderbender.com 5

TAB LE OF CONTENTS

MAY

QUICK FIX

Text your customers

Inside CCC’s 2019 Crash Course

SPECIAL CONTENT

Profit from 3-D measuring

Calibrating ADAS

ANALYSIS

NUMBERS

VIEWPOINT

Master vehicle technology

Solutions for heavy-duty truck body shop owners

SNAP SHOP

Apland’s Auto Body

Google’s SEO changes

LIGHT HITS

AWARDS INSIGHT

OVERSIZED

THE BIG IDEA Stop putting out fires by yourself

The Lobby Experience Recycled barn wood, greenery and bright lighting has all helped the lobby at Apland’s Auto Body to have a comfortable feel.

DRIVER'S SEAT Learn from your peers

BY KEVIN RAINS

Bodyshop equipped by Symach

1 SPRAYTRON + 1 ROBOT + 1 PAINTER

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Conventional Bodyshop 2 SPRAY BOOTHS + 2 PAINTERS

COURTESY APL AND'S AUTO BODY

PAST THE PAGE

S T R AT E G Y

Evaluate your marketing promises

How to update continuing education classes

How to better balance work and home life

The keys to an effective teardown area

Improve your hiring process and eliminate turnover

BY STEVE MORRIS

BY JASON BOGGS

IDEA SHOP

LEADERSHIP Offer feedbackâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; without sounding harsh

SALES+MARKETING

UPDATE

IN THE TRENCHES

OUTSIDE THE LINES

PROCESS DRIVEN The secret to effective load leveling

GET T Y IMAGES

BY RYAN CROPPER

May 2019 | fenderbender.com 7

TAB LE OF CONTENTS

ONLINE EXTRAS

CLICK ON THE LOGO BELOW FOR PRODUCT INFORMATION

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CAPA

Automotive Art Paints

Drew Technologies

LAUNCH Tech USA

Mitsubishi

ProSpot

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Auto Job Central

General Motors

SUCCESS Matrix Electronic O'Reilly Auto Parts You’re wired differently and we Measuring like that. America likes that.

Symach

Visit futuretechsuccess.org and find out how your hands-on talent is the key to an amazing technical career. Axalta Coating Systems

I-CAR

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Industrial Finishes

Midstate Tool & Supply

Polyvance

TechForce Foundation

FUTURETECH

SUCCESS

PPG

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READ WHAT THE PROS READ.

EDITORIAL Bryce Evans Vice President, Content and Events Anna Zeck Editorial Director Kelly Beaton Associate Editor Melissa Steinken Staff Writer Jordan Wiklund Special Projects Editor Jason Boggs Contributing Writer Ryan Cropper Contributing Writer Steve Morris Contributing Writer Kevin Rains Contributing Writer

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Jason Boggs Boggs Auto Collision Rebuilders Justin Fisher CARSTAR Yorkville Bob Pearson Pearson Auto Body

“I HAVE TO TAKE MY HAT OFF TO FENDERBENDER. IT’S DEFINITELY BETTER & ABOVE THE REST.”

Mark Probst Probst Auto Body Randy Sattler Rydell Collision Center Doug Voelzke Doug’s Custom Paint and Body

ART AND PRODUCTION Zach Pate Art Director

- Greg Lobsiger, Owner | Loren’s Auto Body, Bluffton, IND.

Mitch Bradford Graphic Designer Fue Vang Graphic Designer Lauren Coleman Production Assistant

SALES Chris Messer Vice President and Publisher 651.846.9462 / cmesser@10missions.com Andrew Johnson Associate Publisher 651.846.9459 / ajohnson@10missions.com Nathan Smock Sales Manager 651.846.9452 / nsmock@10missions.com Ross Kirgiss Regional Advertising Sales 651.846.9485 / rkirgiss@10missions.com Shayna Smith Customer Success Representative 651.846.9460 / ssmith@10missions.com Jen George Client Service Specialist 651.846.9465 / jgeorge@10missions.com

10 MISSIONS MEDIA Jay DeWitt President Mariah Straub General Manager and Production Manager Meghann Moore Bookkeeper and Client Service Specialist Katie Cornet Event Coordinator Tiffany Fowler Senior Digital Media Strategist Josh Jaskulka Digital Media Strategist Kasey Lanenberg Marketing Communications Specialist Amanda Nicklaus Administrative Assistant HOW TO REACH US 571 Snelling Avenue North, St. Paul, MN 55104 tel 651.224.6207 fax 651.224.6212 web 10missions.com The annual subscription rate is $72 (U.S.A. only) for companies not qualified to receive complimentary copies of FenderBender. BACK ISSUES Past issue single copies are $8. Go to fenderbender.com/backissues LETTERS TO THE EDITOR editor@fenderbender.com ARTICLE REPRINTS For high-quality reprints or e-prints of articles in this issue call 651.846.9488 or email reprints@fenderbender.com. Opinions expressed in FenderBender are not necessarily those of 10 Missions Media, and 10 Missions Media does not accept responsibility for advertising content.

TO SUBSCRIBE OR RENEW FOR FREE TODAY, VISIT

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PAST THE PAGE DISCUSSIONS, FEEDBACK, CONTENT AND MORE FROM AROUND THE WEB

REPORTER'S BLOG

SMS MESSAGING WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS

FACEBOOK Messages

11:00

76%

Car Repair

Contact

Message Today 11:00 PM

For the website’s weekly blog post, FenderBender recently spoke with Brett Steele, the regional sales director for Podium, about how a body shop staff can utilize SMS messaging to communicate with clients. After all, Steele notes that 89 percent of customers want the ability to be able to direct message a business. What’s more, 36 percent of customers want the ability to connect with businesses after typical business hours. Message Send Using chatbots for marketing activities such as ad targeting, lead generating, and SEO is becoming increasingly popular. According to a report by the Digital Marketing Institute, the future of digital marketing will be heavily directed by artificial intelligence (AI) applications such as chatbots. A chatbot platform allows users a simple, single option—simply type in a message and get a prompt response. “We kind of see this as a larger ecosystem,” Steele says. All told, Steele sees five main benefits of text messaging management systems, namely, that they usually: 1. Reduce no-show appointments by setting appointment reminders 2. Answer customer product and service questions quickly 3. Send messages like “Happy birthday” to keep a business top of mind with clients 4. Answer questions quicker than it would take in a phone call 5. Replace customer surveys with SMS-based surveys You can read the entire blog entry at fenderbender.com/sms.

PODCAST PRIMER

Tips for Retaining Young Technicians COLLISION

PIXABAY, STAFF PHOTO

C A S T

FenderBender produces four podcasts per month, with topics aimed at offering collision repairers insight into their industry at large. Recently, the magazine spoke with Matt Dozois, to gain the perspective of the talented young technician from Nylund’s Collision Center in the Denver area. In the conversation, Dozois explains what steps he feels shop owners can take to make sure that their young technicians remain at their shop at length. In his opinion, the collision repair industry’s technician shortage isn’t impossible to fix. “Any time is a good time to join the collision repair industry,” Dozois says. You can listen to the entire conversation by accessing the podcast page at fenderbender.com/mattdozois.

Let’s Get Social In the age of social media, FenderBender is as active as ever on platforms like Facebook (you can access the magazine’s page at fenderbender.com/facebook). The magazine aims to take readers behind the scenes, like earlier this spring, when members of the magazine visited the Charlotte area to tour both the Axalta Customer Experience Center and Rick Hendrick’s auto museum across the street. As FenderBender associate editor Kelly Beaton noted, seeing Hendrick’s vast collection of auto racing collector’s items was both eye opening and entertaining. “Seeing some of Hendrick’s antique vehicles—some nearly 100 years old— was educational to say the least,” he wrote in a Facebook post. And the magazine is charging ahead to travel to more auto industry events across the country in the coming months. Stay up to date and get behind-the-scenes snapshots by following us on the numerous social media pages listed below.

JOIN US ONLINE fenderbender.com fenderbender.com/facebook twitter.com/fenderbendermag fenderbender.com/linkedin instagram.com/fenderbendermag

May 2019 | fenderbender.com 13

14 fenderbender.com | May 2019

BY THE NUMBERS THE TOPIC S, TRENDS AND METRIC S DRIVING YOUR OPER ATION

THE MERITS OF 3-D MEASURING While it stands to logic that 3-D measuring systems would aid body shop efficiency, the statistics are downright eye-popping. Findings from the 2018 FenderBender Industry Survey jump out at you. More than two-thirds of responding shops (69 percent) indicated that they currently possess a 3-D measuring system on their shop floor. And, of that group with the innovative machinery, 51 percent boast a yearly sales volume of $2.5 million or more. And, shops with 3-D measuring systems tend to enjoy far better technician productivity than those that don’t. Here’s a look at 3-D measuring system metrics from virtually every angle. YES, HAVE 3-D SYSTEMS

80%

NO, DON'T HAVE 3-D SYSTEMS

34%

44%

Y E A R LY S A L E S VO L U M E O F $1M I L L I O N +

39%

22%

NET PROFIT MARGIN O F 11% +

33%

67%

C YC L E T I M E O F 7 DAY S O R L E S S

68%

10%

TECHNICIAN PRODUCTIVIT Y O F 10 0 % +

34%

CSI OF 90%+

76%

62%

S A L E S H AV E G R O W N IN THE LAST 5 YEARS

GETTY IMAGES, STAFF GRAPHIC

LEARN MORE

A few years back, FenderBender examined what shop operators should consider when purchasing electronic measuring systems, with insight from I-CAR official Jason Bartanen. In essence, Bartanen noted that shops need to exhaustively analyze all measuring system options before making a buying decision, because the equipment could be in a facility for a lifetime. You can check out the full article online, at fenderbender.com/modernmeasuring.

May 2019 | fenderbender.com 15

FINES HE

AWARDS INSIGHT AWARDS NOMINEE:

LLI

OWNER FOREST COLLISION FOREST, VA.

AWARDS IN

MAURO VITALE —

P SION RE

Nominate Today

B Y K E L LY B E AT O N

Deep down, Mauro Vitale is a drag racer at heart. So, even though Vitale’s parents operated a pizza restaurant, he wanted no part of the family business right out of high school, in 1994. While the family business offered security, Vitale was all about racing Fox body Mustangs. And his enthusiasm for the auto industry has yet to waver over the last quarter century. “I’ve just always had a passion for that—I thoroughly enjoy it,” says Vitale, who currently owns Forest Collision, in Forest, Va. “It always drove me.” In recent years, Vitale has steered his business toward success by focusing on staying on top of evolving vehicle technology. The 26th-year shop owner has gained recognition for his wealth of industry knowledge from peers like Tina Hopkins, a veteran body shop manager who nominated Vitale for a 2018 FenderBender Award. Hopkins says Vitale possesses “a wealth of knowledge and is always willing to teach what he knows.” Below, Vitale explains the keys for mastering new vehicle technology.

Train Consistently.

Vitale appreciates the challenge of trying to return damaged vehicles to factory specs. That’s why he’s willing to invest both time and money with regard to training for his staff. “It’s never been about the money to me,” says Vitale, who invests $6,000 per year on training for his staff. “It’s always been about taking that vehicle that was crashed up and making it just as good, if not better, than it was pre-accident.” Vitale and his staff occasionally take training from vendor Sherwin Williams, for example, and often take courses on topics such as estimating and welding. “Basically, anything that involves the industry, and efficiency, and staying lean— I’m a firm believer that that will make or break a technician,” he explains. “If you give them the right tools in the first place, because you have a process in place, [then] that technician’s rolling.” Vitale typically insists that at least half his workforce attends each training course. 16 fenderbender.com | May 2019

He especially feels that estimators need to take on a heavier load than ever these days, to provide coworkers with “repair procedures, provide them the right parts, and to make sure that we use OEM parts and not aftermarket.” He also feels that training usually makes employees so efficient that the courses essentially pay for themselves over time.

Avoid Complacency.

Despite the industry’s technological evolution in recent years, Vitale has noticed that, with “a lot of the older people that are in the business, [it’s] becoming a dying trade because they’re stuck in their old ways,” he says. “With the new vehicles and how stuff has changed, it isn’t like the old [way], where you get it in, you put a headlight in, you beat the fender out and you send it up the road. Ninety-five to 100 percent of cars now have modules in them that control these lights. “So, when these cars come in, we have

to make sure a vehicle gets repaired correctly, with the pre-repair scans, make sure what codes are in it, and pull up information to repair the vehicle.” Vitale often turns to his ALLDATA shop software to help him research proper repair procedures.

Partner with Local Dealers.

On the rare occasions where training courses and information from ALLDATA aren’t enough to answer Vitale’s questions about new vehicle technology, he then turns to local dealership employees. By forming a working relationship with area Volkswagen and Subaru dealers, Vitale has ensured that he can usually get any technological question answered in short order. To gain vehicle information fast, Vitale and his staff typically chat with dealership service managers, parts managers, or writers to gain their insight, often over the course of a 10-minute phone call. “We just keep up with what’s going on … with how new cars have developed,” Vitale explains. We will “fall back on the dealer if we need more information, like what we’ve got to do about the repair process.”

Team Up with Vo-Techs.

Vitale has enjoyed the experience of recently sitting on the board at the Bedford (Va.) Science & Technology Center, a high school vocational program. He says the experience was mutually beneficial for both parties. His main motivation for joining the vocational center’s board was “just to bring technicians into the industry. “I saw it coming, from past experience, that the industry is changing,” he adds. “I feel like I can go to the school and find those younger people that can struggle finding a job [when coming] right out of school—and I’m seeing people that were driven like I was when I was younger.”

FUE VANG

Learning Evolving Vehicle Technology

FenderBender Awards Insights feature past FenderBender Award nominees. To nominate an inspiring collision repair professional, or for more information, go to fenderbender.com/awards.

DRIVER ' S SE AT

Your Next Big Idea The key to achieving next-level goals

NICK SPAETH

The “How I Did It” issue in FenderBender is one of my favorite features every year. It’s

a feature we’ve written annually, has become a reader favorite, and even turned into a series of presentations at the FenderBender Management Conference. It’s easy to see why. Who wouldn’t want to ask someone they look up to or someone whose career they follow: How did you do that? The answers to those questions are remarkably varied and also indicative of the individuals themselves. While there are certainly universal truths (education is key, change is necessary, a good team is a foundation to success), what might work for one shop owner may not work for another. In associate editor Kelly Beaton’s feature (p. 40) alone, those “How I Did It” stories range from becoming a leading industry speaker, promoting an underrepresented demographic, encouraging new generations to the industry, and helping apprentices move into a fulfilling career. Elsewhere in the magazine, there are even more “How I Did It” stories, but for a decidedly different audience: our third annual Oversized section, written specifically for heavy-duty truck collision repair shop owners. For those unfamiliar with this segment of the industry, to say it’s a different animal is an understatement. Beyond just the (obvious) sheer size of the vehicles these operators work on, those vehicles also require completely different tools, equipment, technology, parts, software, repair processes, information, procedures, and facility space—all of which has remained relatively stagnant and outdated, particularly in contrast to the light-duty collision repair segment and in light of the advanced driver-assistance systems that have also made their way to heavy-duty trucks. However, much like the shop operators highlighted in the “How I Did It” feature, the heavy-duty collision repair shop owners in this year’s Oversized have attacked their unique circumstances with the same resourceful, clever, forward-thinking perspective. Ultimately, their motivation for doing so is simple: It comes down to safety. As industry consultant Mike Anderson said in his 2016 wishlist (yes, he’s advocated for this industry for years): “These are the guys who fix vehicles that might have 50 kids on it the next day. It’s scary the lack of access they have to training, education and OEM information, and it’s not their fault.”

ANNA ZECK EDITORIAL DIRECTOR a z e c k @10 m i s s i o n s .c o m

May 2019 | fenderbender.com 17

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QUICK FIX

ANALYSIS

THE COMPLEX LIFE CYCLE OF A VEHICLE

took a closer look at the findings and outlines the main takeaways for a shop owner.

The top five takeaways from the 2019 CCC Crash Course Report to repair advanced cars

Takeaway No. 1:

BY MELISSA STEINKEN

GETT Y IMAGES

I own my car. I insure my car. I drive my car.

That’s the life cycle of a car for a consumer, but in today’s age, this cycle is getting more complex. Vehicles are on the market and on roads with more telematics and complex materials forming the structure of the vehicle—high- and mediumstrength steel, aluminum, carbon fiber and magnesium. The recently released 2019 CCC Information Services Crash Course Report explored some of the questions that occur throughout those steps, including providing data to understand the framework of where the collision repairer and the consumer are today. Susanna Gotsch, CCC’s director and industry analyst, says the report highlighted the need for repairers to stay current on information about the vehicles they repair, the tools needed to repair the vehicles and the training required.

As more vehicles are equipped with ADAS, early data suggests the industry will start to see a reduction in crash rates, according to the CCC report. Gotsch says that, while the picture gets “murky” in terms of what the industry will see in terms of frequency within the next 3–5 years, nothing indicates the need for the collision repair industry to evaporate overnight. “For people who think they may know how to repair a certain type of car, it’s even more important for them to stay up to date on those types of vehicles,” she says. Even if a technician thinks he or she knows how to repair a certain car because it was repaired by them just two months ago, they still need to research the repair. Because a car that was repaired just two months ago could have had software updated via an over-the-air update, Gotsch explains. In light of the new report, FenderBender

The industry needs to stay abreast of any changes in vehicles.

Collision repairers can not only educate themselves in the repair, but also educate the consumers, Gotsch says. For consumers, there are websites like mycardoeswhat.org, in which the driver can look up what his or her vehicle does with its advanced features. This website was formed by the University of Iowa with the National Safety Council to help consumers understand what type of features are being introduced today in automobiles and how the technology should work. The repairer could refer the customer to the website for future questions. And, a shop operator can refer customers to the OEM’s website as well. With the changes in vehicle telematics, and the ability for a manufacturer to perform software updates over the air, Gotsch says it is vital that shop operators do not assume they know how to repair a certain type of vehicle because they might have “just” repaired it a few months ago. May 2019 | fenderbender.com 21

QUICK FIX

ANALYSIS

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Takeaway No. 2: Telematics is shifting how the car is repaired.

A customer buys a car, owns it, and then insures it. If the customer gets into an accident, he or she can call the insurance company and find their next steps. Now, with the introduction of telematics into vehicles, customers are rethinking, and not necessarily carrying out, the last step. With the introduction of car telematics, including diagnostic trouble codes, photo analytics and more sensors, cars are capable of sending data right from the vehicle to the collision repair shop to make repairs faster. According to the report, shops need to adopt innovation as early as possible, in order to learn and get it right as promptly as possible. Nearly all automakers are looking to expand the services offered via connected car technology, and as they expand those touchpoints, they could ultimately look to provide insurance services. Today, vehicle telematics and other crash-detection analytics can automatically identify when an accident occurs, sharing the accident information directly with the OE and/or insurer, triggering vehicle routing and preferred method of inspection. In the future, more data from the vehicle itself could be collected and sent to the OE and/or insurer to identify potential repair amount, and which type of repairer is best suited based on the vehicle itself.

Takeaway No. 3: One of the most promising outcomes of ADAS is the potential to avoid certain accidents and reduce the severity of accidents.

Not every shop is qualified to do every repair, whether that is a split between lighter hits and heavier hits, split between vehicle type or between electric and standard, Gotsch notes. “I think it’s an individual assessment made by each shop,” she says. Shops are driven by the type of vehicles they see in the shop and by volume. In the future, Gotsch predicts there will be a shift to an independent collision repair shop adding a role for hybrid, mechanical-collision repair technician instead of shops leaning toward specializing in one type of vehicle. Vehicle telematics and other crash-detection analytics can automatically identify when an accident occurs, sharing the accident information directly with the OE and/

or insurer, triggering vehicle routing and preferred method of inspection. In the future more data will come from the vehicle itself, such as damage area, triggered diagnostic trouble codes, according to the report.

Takeaway No. 4:

COLLISION NEWS ON DEMAND

While ADAS and improved vehicle safety are helping to reduce fatalities and injuries of occupants, until features like pedestrian air bags are standard, non-occupants’ share of crashes may continue to trend higher.

Vehicle fatalities outside of the vehicle have continued to rise due to impaired driving, congestion and urbanization, and that number includes pedestrians or bicyclists outside the vehicle. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has found that, as more consumers switch to trucks like pickups, the likelihood of a passenger hitting his or head on the front of the vehicle is more likely. In Europe and other places, there’s been a lot of desire to design the vehicle in such a way that if the vehicle senses a pedestrian, it is designed to stop but if it also doesn’t stop, the design releases a hood in a way that catches the pedestrian as they come up and over the hood of the vehicle, Gotsch says. Some manufacturers with this technology now include Volvo and Honda. A comparison of motor vehicle fatality composition from CY 2008 to CY 2017 reveals non-occupant fatalities increased from 14 percent to 19 percent, while passenger car occupant fatalities fell from 39 percent to 36 percent, light-truck occupant fatalities fell from 29 percent to 27 percent, and motorcycle fatalities were flat, according to the report.

Takeaway No. 5: Tariffs increased the average repair order in 2018.

Tariffs on car materials and features led to a 47 percent increase in the average repair order in 2018. Some 10 percent of the tariff was applied across the board in 2018, Gotsch says, and if the countries in the North American Free Trade Agreement (the agreement among the U.S., Canada and Mexico formed in 1989 to eliminate tariffs, duties and quantitative restrictions on most products) cannot come to an agreement and it increases to 25 percent, then that could potentially increase the average repair order passed onto the industry (assuming the full 10 percent has been passed on to the consumer).

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VIEWPOINT

THE ISSUE OF UNCALIBRATED ADAS Experts on advanced driver-assistance systems explain the importance of properly calibrating them B Y K E L LY B E AT O N

Recently, Sean O’Malley has heard multiple horror stories with regard to uncalibrated advanced driver-assistance systems. Last winter, for example, O’Malley says a coworker with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety had a family member endure a bizarre incident related to ADAS. The coworker’s daughter had been in an accident that left her Toyota Prius with damage to both the front and rear of the vehicle. In the subsequent repair process, a radar unit located behind the Prius’ grill was accidentally tipped up 2 degrees. The car had been repaired, but the ADAS system had not been properly calibrated. As a result, the car began automatically applying its brakes when it approached bridges. “We looked at it and found the radar unit was tipped up,” says O’Malley, a senior test coordinator with the IIHS. So, “from 80 feet out, it’s looking at bridges instead of cars; it sees a coming bridge and considered it a threat like a stopped car. “It’s concerning, because the insurance company paid for a calibration—they showed us an invoice and they had paid $700 for a calibration that wasn’t completed.” Rick Zirbes shares O’Malley’s concerns. That’s why he’s rather outspoken when it comes to the need to properly calibrate ADAS systems. “These technologies, at a minimum, alert drivers of potential or impending dangers,” says Zirbes, the president of Smart Express, a Bloomington, Minn.-based company that specializes in providing services for connected car technology. “But [they] also more commonly slow, stop, or steer the vehicle to prevent accidents—and save lives.” According to I-CAR research, 86 percent of vehicles today have some form of ADAS technology, which aids with driving functions such as cruise control. Research by Safelite AutoGlass indicates that, when a windshield is replaced on vehicles featuring ADAS systems, it sometimes results in a slight difference in the angle of where that glass is sitting in relation to a camera lens. And, 1 degree of camera difference, when a vehicle is moving at 60 mph, equates to 30 yards per second. “Calibrating radars and sensors is critical,” Zirbes says. In recent weeks, FenderBender interviewed multiple industry experts regarding ADAS; here’s what O’Malley and Zirbes (interviewed seperately) noted about the importance of properly calibrating those systems.

COURTESY SE AN O’MALLE Y, RICK ZIRBES

How dangerous can an uncalibrated ADAS system be? Zirbes: Lane-keeping, adaptive cruise, auto-

matic braking and blind spot-alert systems work in tandem with other technologies, sending data to modules which, in turn, control the vehicle’s operations. Calibrating radars and sensors is critical to ensure systems activate when necessary. Calibrations also prevent false-alarm activations which may lead to life-saving systems being turned off to avoid inconvenience. Calibrating systems to properly gauge speed and distance readings is critical to optimize performance and reduce fatalities. Failure to calibrate an automatic braking sensor may result in stopping 10 feet after hitting a vehicle—or a child—in the road.

Does more need to be done to create awareness about repairing ADAS systems? O’Malley: The manufacturers do have po-

sition statements, and they do send reports and they get published. [But] it’s all over the map right now, and we need to get them more in line. From what we’ve seen here, [an ADAS system currently] has to be really far off for some kind of trigger from the vehicle. I think the repairers and the dealerships need to be more involved, and more forceful, in making sure these ADAS recalibrations are completed and done correctly. Is the occurence of uncalibrated ADAS systems widespread? Zirbes: I believe most people want to do

Sean O’Malley

Rick Zirbes

Senior test coordinator

President

IIHS

Smart Express

the right thing when it comes to calibrations. And, even when someone chooses the opposite, they [typically] do it out of ignorance. Sadly, in every industry there are also naysayers that look at it as someone else’s problem, or reject an idea as overkill. Unfortunately, sometimes the cost of the procedure is weighed in and valued more than the cost of lives. As the number of cars with ADAS features continues to grow, so will the problem, unless the perspective of the industry changes. We direct the shop to the proper procedure, and to use OEM scan tools and equipment to perform the calibration. What does it take to become an expert on ADAS calibrations? O’Malley: Read the OEMs’ position state-

ments and follow their published protocols for calibration. All the information is out there, it just needs to be followed. We’ve fixed these, and we have manufacturer software that anybody could purchase, the diagnostic software. It’s still fairly new technology, so the mom-and-pop shop, they probably don’t know about the radar units behind the bumper cover, or what it’s doing. Because, if they don’t read up on this stuff and stay up to speed, they’re never gonna know. To get educated on ADAS, I’ve been to many industry events—I’ve been to the Collision Industry Conference, Auto Glass Week—and a couple other conferences, and ADAS is in every single one; five years ago, that wasn’t the case. So, it’s being covered more now. And education deletes ignorance. May 2019 | fenderbender.com 25

News

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For your daily collision repair news visit

LIGHT HITS

PICKUP TRUCKS RECEIVE POOR RATINGS IN CRASH TESTS The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tested 11 mid-size and full-size pickups in March and found mixed results, according to a report by CNBC. The majority of pickups recently put through the passenger-side small overlap front test struggled to maintain their structure, but two trucks —the Ford F-150 and the Nissan Titan—earned a good rating. In total, IIHS has rated 11 crew cab pickups in the passenger-side test—four small and seven large. The Toyota Tundra, a large pickup, earned the only poor rating, while five of the trucks rate marginal. The IIHS said part of the problem is that some pickups have older designs that did not emphasize front-seat passenger protection to the degree it’s expected today.

fenderbender.com/lighthits

GOOGLE MY BUSINESS TO REPLACE GOOGLE+ Change, of course, is frequent in today’s digital era. And, recently, Google announced that its platform Google+ shut down at the beginning of April. According to Google, the platform disbanded due to “low usage and challenges involved in maintaining a successful product that meets consumers’ expectations.” The company reported that Google+ accounts, along with Google+ pages, created will be shut down along with the deletion of its content. However, those who are looking to save content from Google+ are able to download the data via Google’s “Download your Google+ data” page. Users were no longer able to create Google+profiles, pages, communities, or events as of Feb. 4, according to Google. In addition, content on Google+ pages, including comments, were also deleted starting on April 2.

And, while Google+ as a community or social media platform may not have been widely used, for many businesses—including body shops—it was an extremely valuable way to boost SEO and Google search rankings. Jennifer Filzen, owner and operator of Rock Star Marketing in Monterey, Calif., has worked with auto clients who previously utilized Google+ in their business. “As a marketer, I loved it and I promoted the crap out of it,” Filzen says. “Anything that’s a Google product is great for SEO [and] a great resource.” Filzen isn’t surprised by Google’s change of heart in signing off on Google+ for social media. “Ultimately Google+ was always a far distant second place to Facebook because Facebook started off as social and that’s where its strengths lie,” Filzen says. “Google has always been the search engine.”

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M AY 2 0 19

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B I G

I D E A S ,

B O L D

S O L U T I O N S

As the heavy-duty truck segment continues to evolve, with ADAS and telematics becoming more prominent, so, too, does the heavy-duty collision repair segment. Oversized is FenderBenderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s solution to help HDT shop owners overcome obstacles and find tangible, businessbuilding strategies that can help their operations thrive in the changing and evolving years to come.

F O R

H E A V Y - D U T Y

PROFILE

S H O P S

STR ATEGY ONE

STR ATEGY T WO

May 2019 | fenderbender.com 27

OVERSIZED PROFILE

FOR HOGLUND BODY & EQUIPMENT, PROCEDURE REIGNS SUPREME BY JORDAN WIKLUND

Not much keeps Howard Elsenpeter up at night. Safety, OEM repair procedures, parts procurement, employee retention, customer service growth—all these aspects of heavy-duty trucking, however, exist under the same umbrella. And that stems from not enough SOPs from shop to shop, business to business. Without a clear path forward for many heavy-duty shop owners as far as standardized rules, regulations and repairs are concerned, Elsenpeter believes a storm is coming. He just doesn’t know when. Elsenpeter is the body shop manager of Hoglund Body & Equipment Inc., in Monticello, Minn. A member of the HD Repair Forum advisory board, he spoke with FenderBender in late February 2019 on a day in which heavy–duty trucks and trailers were in the news for all the wrong reasons. Some had spun out on the icy roads of northern Minnesota. Others had stalled on entrance and exit ramps. One was stranded in the middle of a frozen lake due to, reportedly, “a GPS malfunction.” Many had tipped over. It’s a good segue into crash avoidance. In the consumer collision repair world, there’s the general feeling that, as the frequency of fender benders will diminish, severity will increase. “More technology may increase severity, but it’s hard to know; that’s more a dry-weather problem,” he says. “With our weather in this state, crash avoidance isn’t going to help on icy roads. More technology equals more totals. That’s happening. And the technology is going to be harder and harder to deal with.”

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HOGLUND BODY & EQUIPMENT INC. OWNER:

HOWARD ELSENPETER LOCATION:

MONTICELLO, MINN. SIZE:

33,000 SQUARE FEET STAFF SIZE:

24 CAR COUNT:

120 ANNUAL REVENUE:

$4 MILLION

Retaining his Employees Everyone knows about the technician shortage. Everyone knows retention of good employees is difficult. Elsenpeter feels confident, though, that has the right team around him. And he’s learned from his mistakes.

JESSIENA LAKE

S I M P L I F Y, S I M P L I F Y, SIMPLIFY

Keeping Up with Technology To help counter this, Hoglund purchased its first scanning system and software-loaded laptop in late 2018 from Bosch. The system cost roughly $4,000, and it’s one of the more advanced models available. He sees it assisting roughly 99 percent of Hoglund’s work and estimates, and as the staff becomes more familiar and comfortable with the tools, they’re able to implement it more on a day-to-day basis on new work. The tool is so new, however, that the staff hasn’t had a great chance to use it yet. When asked about reimbursement for future scanning, Elsenpeter knows he must document everything, but that the path ahead in regard to heavy-duty scanning and reimbursement isn’t clear. As more heavy-duty shop owners and technicians gravitate toward preand post-repair scanning, Elsenpeter is sure the insurance companies will respond in kind. With such a rising tide of voices, they won’t have a choice. Besides planning to account for ADAS and other crash mitigation systems, Elsenpeter mentions the framework of the trucks themselves as something savvy shop owners need to increasingly account for and be ready to fix. He mentions lighter weight fiberglass frame rails to help keep overall weight down, as well as new (and in many cases, exciting) composites and alloys. “We don’t have a frame rack, though,” he says, “and that’s going to have to happen, too. Trying to sublet out framework is problematic—you lose control of the job and now you’re depending on someone else.” For Elsenpeter, self-reliance is key to running a successful shop—and staying as far away from that oncoming storm as possible.

Elsenpeter hopes that forum attendees will be able to foster transparency and best practices among the industry and begin the move toward establishing industry-wide SOPs. “If you’re not a dealership, what’s the advantage going to be? If you start a repair and you’re a big enough shop and worried about liability, are you going to price yourself out of the market when ma and pa down the street can do it cheaper and less professionally?”

Investment Pay-Off At Hoglund Body & Equipment, a new massive paint booth has helped the shop revise its paint department procedures.

HOGLUND’S TOP KPIS LABOR GROSS PROFIT: 70%

“I was not the cleanest tech on the floor,” he says, “but I’ve got a team that has been with me for many years. I know it’s nice to work in a clean shop.” Several years ago, several of his technicians approached him about working a 10/4 split instead of 5/9. “All my techs work four 10-hour shifts,” he says. “They asked about it a few years ago and we decided we can make it work. We try and take care of the technicians, and we have good benefits. “We even have an incentive program that helps keep them compensated. We are strictly hourly. … We’re team-orientated, and when every job takes two or three people, we try to keep people motivated. Elsenpeter describes his average repair order as pretty small compared to more dealership shops, and that Hoglund focuses more on quick repairs for high throughput. To keep track of progress on a repair, Elsenpeter prefers a solid, simple paper trail over digital. If something looks amiss, he can always ask the right technician why something was done or not done. The Elsenpeter Outlook Elsenpeter is confident that good help will remain hard—but not impossible—

to come by. If you want to get something done, you don’t quite have to do everything yourself. “The way the world is going, your diesel tech, your body tech are going to be in so high demand in the next five years, you’re going to pay a premium for them.” Still, good help is hard to find. Elsenpeter is confident that as the world gets smaller, as products become more readily available to average consumers who shop from their homes, and that no one knows what cars will look like in 20 years, he maintains a skeptical optimism about where the heavy duty industry is going. “I’ll be curious about what happens in the next five, 10 years,” he says. “You hear about throughput and what holds up a truck coming through—that it should be a process like an automotive shop. People will suggest the automotive world to a truck shop and I struggle with that.” He cites the annual HD Repair Forum in Fort Worth, Texas, as a necessary and vital part of the conversation about heavy-duty trucking in America. He says everyone has a seat the table—owners, technicians, insurers and manufacturers. The transparent flow of information and exchange of ideas in a small but crowded marketplace is key to transforming that marketplace from within.

“We pay hourly, and the labor GP fluctuates depending on whether we’re swamped or not. It’s good to be busy, but that means our technicians are working overtime and earning time-and-a-half. Now you’re losing a little labor GP due to the volume of work. It influences everything.”

PARTS GROSS PROFIT: 30% “This really varies quite a bit at Hoglund. At our monthly business council, different shops report different numbers based on their heavy-duty specialty. We try to run about 30 percent.”

PAINT AND MATERIALS GROSS PROFIT: 45% “We shoot for about 45 percent, but it’s not always possible. One month will be great on paint and poor on materials and the next will be the opposite. It fluctuates due to the extreme nature of the jobs; right now, I have a 53-foot Lowboy trailer and I’m biding 10, 14, 15 gallons of product after sandblasting. It’s hard to judge how much you’ll use.”

OVERALL GROSS PROFIT: 53% “Every year we seem to be growing. So much depends on monthly margin. Having goals is the first task and tracking them is the second. Then we can adjust.”

May 2019 | fenderbender.com 29

OVERSIZED S T R AT EGY O N E

Information is rare.

HOW TO EFFICIENTLY AND PROFITABLY IMPLEMENT PRE– AND POST–REPAIR SCANNING BY JORDAN WIKLUND

Ron Kuehn has been in the automotive industry his entire life. His grandfather had a shop, and Kuehn first scraped his knuckles and turned a wrench in high school. But that was a long time ago, when mechanics and the vehicles they serviced shared a wide repair swath. Repairs were more transparent. Different models benefitted from the same mechanical techniques. That world, like so many others, is gone. Kuehn is the founder and president of Collision Business Solutions, a heavy-duty shop consulting firm. After significant stints with Axalta, SherwinWilliams, ABRA, and I-CAR, Kuehn has his finger on the pulse of the challenges facing the heavy-duty world.

Scanning is complicated. Advanced scanners are part of the future for repair, but for some, it’s not enough. “Aftermarket scanners aren’t the entire

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GETTY IMAGES

MURKY REPAIR PROCEDURES BLUR THE ROAD AHEAD

“The biggest issue in the heavy-duty market,” Kuehn says, “is the amount of info that manufacturers have shared in the field.” “The more that shop owners learn, the more adamant they become about what’s going to happen and what they’re going to be encouraged to do from an economic standpoint. The liability exposure, however, is forcing their hand about the future of their shops.” Compared to its contemporaries in consumer collision, the heavy-duty repair market is miniscule. Money flows out more readily than it flows in because the vehicles are so advanced (and their customization options so variable) that as the vehicles become more futuristic—as the technological tide overtakes the heavy-duty shop as quickly as it did the collision shop almost two decades ago—technicians, owners and operators are struggling to keep up with the repair threshold. The information just isn’t as readily available. It’s a double-edged sword. Because manufacturers don’t have a great incentive to keep old trucks on the road, contemporary shop owners and operators are working in a framework of almost planned obsolescence—you can’t fix what you don’t know and what can’t be verified.

answer,” says Chris Sterwerf, CFO/COO of Fairfield Auto & Truck Service Inc., in Fairfield, Ohio, and current advisory board member of the HD Repair Forum. “You can buy the best, most expensive aftermarket scan tool/software in the world and it won’t do all of the calibrations and system updates with the advanced integrated safety systems on many latemodel trucks.” Sterwerf says that aftermarket scan tools have limitations on accessing all the proprietary modules an OEM scan tool can provide. What’s more, even choosing the right supplementary hardware can be difficult; owners need to select the correct TMC RP1210-compliant box that allows their tools to communicate well with the vehicles. “Shops that only use an aftermarket scan tool as their only scanning solution are setting themselves up for trouble,” he says.

“Only OEM software from the big players like Wabco’s Toolbox or Bendix’s ACOM software will do the proper job on their systems for late-model trucks,” Sterwerf says. “OEM software is the only software that can roll out the changes to the safety systems quickly. Now that the steering gears and control systems are being managed by computers, we need to make sure that they are repaired and calibrated with the most current code so the vehicle handles as intended for the driver.” Sterwerf cites Bosch/OTC, Snap-on Pro-Link, JPRO, Texa, Autel, Cojali, and FCAR as decent options. “Shops need to access OEM information to find out what needs to be done,” he adds. “Because of the HD Right to Repair Act, if they can’t access it, they need to go to NASTF.org and fire off a SIR (Service

SOUND PLANNING FOR PROFITABLE SCANNING YOU’VE INVESTED IN A SCANNER FOR YOUR SHOP. HERE ARE SOME TIPS TO MAXIMIZE EFFICIENCY (AND PROFIT): KNOW THE POWER DEMANDS. Many scanners require a constant supply of power, even during the scan. Be sure yours is hooked up and charged so you don’t lose valuable data and time. ACCOUNT FOR SCAN TIME. Scanning time varies between different tools and software. There are diagnostic scans, calibration scans, and reinitialization scans; be sure to know the appropriate time to allot so your team isn’t sitting around waiting for the tool to finish the scan, no matter the type. USE ALL SCAN RESOURCES AVAILABLE. You’ve finished the scan. Great! Do you know how to interpret the codes and what they mean? Be sure to use your tool’s written or online supplement to educate your team about what the scanner actually reads. UNDERSTAND HOW “GHOST CODES” WORK. Your scanner may tell you an onboard safety feature isn’t working. If your vehicle never had it to begin with, you can ignore that code. DOCUMENT EVERYTHING . This is the most critical part of proper repair and reimbursement. Develop a scan strategy for your team for delivering findings to the floor, the insurance carrier and to the customer.

Information Request). They can also look at the component manufacturers and see if they can get information on what needs to be done.”

Slow down early to speed the process late. Making proper repairs in the heavy-duty world is no easy task. To Kuehn, the problem is as transparent as it is vexing—he understands why manufacturers are reluctant to take a more proactive role in repairing their products. he technicians who build trucks today don’t necessarily need to know how to fix them. Why would they? They never see them again. Shop owners are forced into a negative feedback loop due to the way heavy-duty vehicles are manufactured, insured, and sold. “The last thing you want is a technician of forty years deciding how he’s going to make the repairs when the manufacturer should dictate what has to be done,” Kuehn says. “Slow down the teardown, itemize the repair, catalog the expenses moving forward, and understand your reasonable costs,” Kuehn says. Knowing what is reasonable to charge—enough to be competitive and profitable, but not so much to appear outlandish—is the best way forward.” “There’s not a database for the trucking industry like there is to the car side,” Kuehn adds, “and you have to make a living. If you understand what your costs are and what it costs to run your business and how much is reasonable as far as profit, it’s very economics-driven.” If cataloged properly, the insurers, he says, will respond in kind. “The market is evolving,” Kuehn continues, “and change and evolution are a good thing. But for the heavy-duty market, we’re right on the edge.” The question for many, however, is evolving into what? Unless shop owners and their affiliates—their technicians, 20 Groups, suppliers, and heavy-duty vendors—begin raising their voices in unison, the negative feedback loop will continue. And those not navigating the technological tide will drown.

May 2019 | fenderbender.com 31

OVERSIZED S T R AT EGY T WO

T H E PA R T S D I L EM M A FIVE WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR PARTS PROCUREMENT PROCESS BY JORDAN WIKLUND

32 fenderbender.com | May 2019

Know Your Vendor. Know the owner and team selling you your parts. To Spoto, this is the top reason why repairs go awry, timelines are broken, and estimates skyrocket. “There’s no rhyme or reason as to what comes through the doors the next day,” he says. Because of this, many shop owners operate in a perpetual vacuum—they can depend on work, but the scope of that work doesn’t follow any real pattern. Having a decent relationship with your local parts vendor is the first step in acquiring what you need when you need it. “Your goal is to put the truck back on the road in a reasonable amount of time and allow revenue—your revenue, your vendor’s revenue, and the revenue the truck represents—to keep moving.” A decent relationship with a quality vendor is the best way to eliminate supplements, lower the estimate, and look forward to the next repair—not rue the

GETTY IMAGES

John Spoto was driving near Atlanta when he caught a recent story on Georgia public radio. The subject? What’s unexpectedly hot in the job market for young graduates. The focus? Heavy-duty trucking. “This story said Wal-Mart is paying $85 grand to haul freight. Eighty-five thousand dollars. Other lower-end companies are offering starting salaries of sixty-, sixty–five grand.” He pauses, which is rare. Even over the phone, you can hear the gears turning. “That’s incredible. It’s the Wild West out there,” he says, with a laugh. The Wild West. To an industry veteran such as Spoto, it’s an apt comparison. Spoto is a known quantity in the industry, having grown up as a third-generation professional in the industry. Spoto has over 40 years of collision repair experience, and after cutting his teeth at a variety of family-owned and independent jobber stores—he’s a talented technician and accredited I-CAR trainer—Spoto moved on to good careers with PPG and finally 3M, where he currently serves as the national heavy-duty/commercial manager in the automotive aftermarket division. For an industry constantly in flux, he has some ideas about how to keep things moving within the shop. Parts procurement is a headache for every owner, driver and technician, but there are easy strategies to reduce the stress, increase clarity, and drive revenue. “There is so much wasted time in the teardown and analysis process, it’s wild,” he says.

disassembled truck taking up space on your shop floor, wasting precious time.

Share Your Vision with Your Vendor. Does your vendor know who you are? Does he or she know the team? It’s not enough to share a phone call once a month regarding work in and work out, discussing slow repairs and future opportunities. “They need to know who you are,” Spoto says. Spoto says it’s important to remember that no matter what your vendor says, they’re selling parts and committing resources to your competitors as well—establishing a real-time, realworld relationship that exists beyond the confines of your offices and connected by more than telephone wire is key to operating in the black, especially early in your shop’s life. “Put yourself above everybody else,” he says, even if it’s uncomfortable. That leads to comfort, transparency, and the ability to get what you asked for the first time. “It also builds confidence with your vendor,” Spoto says, “because they know you’ll pay them when they deliver exactly what you asked for.”

Share Your Vision with Your Team. Spoto believes transparency is key to improving cycle time, implementing lean processes, and working toward a goal. Transparency provides context, and only by knowing the context of your shop—the measure of your management—can you communicate a clear vision to your employees. Executing that vision is easier said than done, however; he summarizes how long it can take a ticket to move within a shop. Unlike the consumer collision world—where a car might move through the entire shop in eight hours— the heavy-duty corollary takes place on such a grander scale, with so many more parts, questions, and difficulty, that it can often take 48 hours or more for the work to even begin. “Get every party involved,” he says. “There is no need-to-know basis. Everything is need-to-know.” Get the technicians involved early.

3 BIGGEST MISTAKES FOR PARTS PROCUREMENT TRUSTING THE DATABASE/PROVIDER PART NUMBERS ARE CORRECT. Many aftermarket scan tools used by you or your shop are not updated with any regularity. Make sure you have access to current OEM parts numbers before ordering parts for the fix.

TRUSTING THE PARTS WILL WORK. Even if you’ve acquired the right part, be sure to unbox and mirror-match it to the damaged component. Don’t wait for it to be wrong later when the actual repair is underway. Make sure they’re undamaged and double-check with your technicians.

DISASSEMBLING THE BARE MINIMUM. Gain a complete repair plan by tearing down absolutely everything related and close to your repair; maximum vision of and access to the parts allows for the swiftest and most complete repair.

Get the paint shop involved. As a team, determine the space this might take within the shop and how to coordinate it—most shops don’t have the space, time and luxury to dismantle an entire hood and cab. How will you reach the repair in the quickest amount of time without cutting corners? “Knowing what is wrong with the truck doesn’t help anybody; you need to share it. You need to include your whole team, top to bottom, and ensure everyone is doing it the same way,” he says. It starts with understanding the context, identifying the constraints, and executing n team plan to work through it all.

Plan for the Parts. Having a plan for the parts is just as equally important. “Shops need to make sure the front nose, say, is accounted for, but what does that mean? If a valve is in the way, can it be moved out of the way? Or does it get disassembled?” Spoto says. An average stall for a heavy-duty truck is approximately 25 feet wide by 50 feet long. Larger spaces exist, but that’s the average, he says.. If you don’t have a plan for what to do when the truck and all its disparate

parts arrives, you’ve introduced another variable to fulfilling the estimate and order under budget and on time.

Take Pictures. This should be obvious, but for many owners and technicians, the lack of photographic evidence makes accurate repair and swift reimbursement difficult. As a former I-CAR instructor, Spoto knows there are classes out there from a variety of organizations that teach how to take a decent photo without slowing the disassembly or repair. “It doesn’t have to be difficult,” he says, but it does require a bit more than simply shooting from the hip. “Lighting, scale, identifying the component in question—these are all parts of a usable photo,” he says. Something as easy as using a finger and pointing toward the component in question is often enough to show the damaged part to a customer. To the layperson, however, it may all look the same; the ability to differentiate between a broken rotor or hose that looks an awful lot like a functioning rotor or hose can often be taken for granted. “Take the guesswork out of it—not for you, but for your vendors and insurance team,” he says.

May 2019 | fenderbender.com 33

QUICK FIX

SNAP SHOP

APLAND’S AUTO BODY BY KELLY BEATON PHOTO COURTESY APLAND'S AUTO BODY LOCATION:

Medford, Ore. OWNERS:

Mike and Jodie Apland SIZE:

5,500 square feet STAFF:

7 (2 technicians, 2 painters, 1 detailer, 1 estimator, 1 office manager) AVERAGE MONTHLY CAR COUNT:

ANNUAL REVENUE:

$1.2 million

1. COMFORT FOCUS Not long ago, when owners Mike and Jodie Apland remodeled their 1970’s-style collision repair facility in Medford, Ore., they did so with a goal of easing customers’ stress. That’s why, when you arrive at the downtown location, you’ll notice vaulted ceilings, contemporary leather furniture, and plants and candles around the shop. “We were looking for comfort and relaxation as the customer comes in—a comfortable place for them, while being in a stressful situation, to relax,” explains Jodie Apland, who says she invested more than $8,000 in new shop furniture in 2018.

2. FRIENDLY FIRST IMPRESSION Visitors at the Medford location (one of two Oregon shops the Aplands own) usually receive a warm, enthusiastic welcome from Keno, an employee of five years—who happens to have four legs. Apland says the 74-pound labrador mix helps with employee morale and usually calms customers. The dog “actually diffuses a lot of the customers,” Apland says. “Because they’re coming in here and they’re mad after an accident—and agitated—and the dog greets them at the door. Before we even greet them, they end up petting the dog and talking to the dog.”

34 fenderbender.com | May 2019

3. DECORATIVE TOUCHES In the Medford location’s recently revamped office area, Apland made a few design tweaks worthy of inclusion on an HGTV show. One wall is decorated in recycled barn wood and stained gray, and other facility walls feature decorative texturization. Apland says she put great detail into the design of the shop’s interior, so customers will assume the same attention to detail is being paid to their vehicle’s on-site repair.

4. REMODELED EXTERIOR During the Medford facility’s recent remodel, the building’s exterior was revitalized, receiving fresh coats of paint and plenty of glass panels. Apland says customers have taken note of the body shop’s improved curb appeal. “As it gets overcast, you can look inside the shop and see the beautiful lights we have hanging from the ceiling,” she notes. “We get a lot of customers that stop by just to tell us what a great job we did remodeling.”

5. INNOVATIVE MEASURING SYSTEM The Medford facility recently became the home of a brand new, roughly $60,000 Chief frame machine. While such measuring systems aren’t cheap, Apland felt the investment in new equipment was worth it. “You have to stay up on the technology,” she says. “With the new vehicles and new technology, we want to make sure that we’re doing [repairs] correctly, due to the liability piece. We need to make sure that we’re doing the best repair that we possibly can.”

6. FLEET WORK Of the roughly 65 cars the staff repairs each month, several belong to entities like the state police, or the city of Medford. Apland appreciates the value that such consistent repair work provides her business. That’s why she makes sure those fleet vehicles are protected overnight not only by locked gates and a security system, but also by employees of a security company that periodically drive around the shop property. Apland says fleet clients typically demand such security for their vehicles, and that she’s more than happy to deliver.

Submit Your Shop Proud of your shop and want to show it off to your peers? Tell us about it at

submissions@10missions.com.

May 2019 | fenderbender.com 35

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THE BIG IDEA KEVIN RAINS

Escape the Drama

MICHAEL HOEWELER, GETTY IMAGES

Making the leap from rescuer to coach A body technician walks into your office: “Hey, boss, you got a minute? I don’t think it’s fair that Rob gets all the good work. I’ve been here longer but he keeps getting all the little easy jobs with lots of hours!” A customer service rep stops you in the hallway leading out to the shop, “I’ve been meaning to ask you something. Why do I have to stay late all the time when Julie, our new estimator, seems to be able to bounce out of here by 5 every night even if there’s a late delivery on one of her cars?” And just like that, you are thrust into what one writer calls the “Dreaded Drama Triangle.” The Drama Triangle is a simple concept that was developed by Stephen Karpman. Karpman taught that people deal with conflict and anxiety typically by taking on one of three roles: victim, persecutor or rescuer. In the examples above, the manager is being asked to be the rescuer. The three roles can be seen almost anywhere. Think about all the fairy tales you’ve ever heard. Or even your favorite movie. There’s typically a victim—someone who needs to be rescued. And there is, of course, a persecutor, the one who is victimizing the victim. And then there is the hero or rescuer who comes in to save the day and relieve the victim of their anxiety or danger through some heroic act. Now, this is all well and good for fictional stories. But it’s not so good if this scenario plays out day in and day out in your shop or family. There’s a reason it’s called the drama triangle. When you are constantly made out to be the rescuer, it’s exhausting. At first, this role can feel flattering and strokes our egos. We feel important— needed, even. You might be tempted to think, “How could these people get on without me?” But, as you can imagine, over time, if you get stuck in this role repeatedly, it is exhausting and you start asking that same question but with a different, defeated tone: “How could these people get on without me?” So, how can you determine if you’re a rescuer? And, more importantly, what can you do to escape the “Dreaded Drama Triangle”?

Rescuers like to be heroes. They like to solve other people’s problems. They like to be the one in the room with the right answer and are quick to share it. But really, who doesn't like those things? There is nothing wrong with wanting to help. The problem comes in when we do this to feed our own ego and to make ourselves feel good. And, typically, if we’re not selfaware enough to realize we’re doing just enough that the ones we want to help will start to resent us. And guess what that does: it typically makes the helper (the rescuer) into a victim. This is where we start to hear things like, “Well, I gave them the right answer but nobody around here ever listens to me!” What is needed and most helpful for both the organization and the one being helped is for the rescuer to make the journey from being the hero to being the coach. There’s a popular old saying that applies here and you’ve probably heard it many times: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” In this context, we might alter that a bit to, “Give a person the answer and you solve their problem today. Empower them to solve the problem themselves and you’ve helped them for a lifetime.” If you find yourself being drawn into the dreaded drama triangle as the rescuer, here are a couple of things you can do to make the journey to being a coach. First, slow the train down. Have patience. Don’t rush to a solution just so everyone can feel better. Take the time to sort out what the perceived victim is going through.

Secondly, ask really good questions. Get the person who feels like the victim talking. Help them sort out what they really think and feel. Often it has little to do with the problem they are presenting and more to do with something else going on in their lives. Of course, this doesn’t need to turn into a counseling session. But, get them talking to find out what the core issue is. You can use tools like the “5 whys” and the AWE question (“And what else?”) to keep them talking, diving deeper into the root causes of why they feel the way they do. Stay intensely curious. Whenever they say something that strikes your interest or sounds like they are getting somewhere, follow that thread with another question. Lastly, through listening and asking good questions, try to get at what they really want. All victims experience deep emotions like frustration and even anger because there’s something we want that is unfulfilled. Half the battle is discovering what that is. As a recovering rescuer myself, I can tell you that making the journey to being a good coach is not always easy. Sometimes it feels like it just takes too much time and there are too many unnecessary steps. Wouldn’t it be easier to just give them the answer or relieve the tension they are feeling and move on? My to-do list isn’t getting any smaller! The truth is: It’s worth it. Take the time now to coach people, rather than rescue them, and you will have an empowered team, confident that they can solve their own problems with just a little help from you, the coach.

KEVIN RAINS Kevin Rains is the owner of Rains CARSTAR Group with locations in Cincinnati, Ohio, West Chester, Ohio and Lexington, KY. He is also an industry consultant and founder of Body Shop 2.0.

E M A I L : kev i n r a i n s @ g m a i l .c o m A R C H I V E : f e n d e r b e n d e r.c o m /r a i n s

May 2019 | fenderbender.com 37

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The ADAM5 has five cameras and was designed in conjunction with Automotive Art’s Motomix Plus Color Software; together, the total system removes any guesswork in fewer steps with greater accuracy, and the five-camera breakthrough allows the ADAM5 to match any metallic, pearl, or xirallic with pinpoint accuracy. The real magic, however, is in its color correction ability. “That’s what sets ADAM5 apart from the rest,” says Dereck Foster, founder of Automotive Art Paints. “They’ve got other five-lens cameras out there but we know they don’t perform as well as ADAM5. And as Ramirez confirms, the color correction functionality is really what makes all the difference!”

MIKE LITWIN PROVES ‘EM WRONG “The feedback I get when I tell customers we have a camera is, ‘Well, those don’t really work.’” Litwin has seen it all before. He’s the owner of Litwin Paints & Supplies, a distributor of 30+ years in Cleveland, Ohio. “I tell them, ‘No, this one does.’ And then I prove it to ‘em,” he says. “I have a shop in Youngstown that said it’s already saved several jobs, probably several thousand dollars.” Litwin is impressed with every aspect of the ADAM5—particularly the camera. “Motorcycle colors are often difficult; nobody has formulas for them,” Ramirez says. “With our old camera, you’d have to pick the metallic. The ADAM5 shows the coarseness of the metallic. The other camera you’d have to use color cards to match. The ADAM5 takes the guesswork out of it.” Litwin pauses. He’s been around a long time and has serviced customers old and new. “There’s this idea that cameras don’t work, and I can prove ‘em wrong. I’m getting customers that I had before coming back, and I keep saying, ‘Bear with me, it’s going to get even better.’ It’s made my guys better; we’re all better. We’re better color matchers. We use it with every mix. We’re matching 95 percent and above the first time.” For his longtime customers, the results speak for themselves. Automotive Art already has one of the best color-matching systems, and with the addition of the ADAM5 Spectro, they are in a league all by themselves. “Shops absolutely get it,” he says. “My shops have seen it, they’ve seen the results, they’re thrilled about the ADAM5. They’re thrilled we’re investing in the future.” His advice for suppliers, owners and technicians? “Get one. If you don’t have one, you need to get one. Being aggressive with the camera has been great for us. I’m a go-getter; the ADAM5 is common sense.” The future is here and we’re all hurtling into it. Common sense tools such as the ADAM5 can make tomorrow brighter—even if it’s a motorcycle coated in vantablack. Learn more at automotiveartpaints.com/Color-Tools.

May 2019 | fenderbender.com 39

HOW I DID IT:

40 fenderbender.com | May 2019

FOUR ACCOMPLISHED SHOP OPERATORS SHARE LESSONS THAT HELPED THEM OVERCOME OBSTACLES TO SUCCESS

The daily stress of the job can destroy a body shop owner, if they let it. Stan Medina has been there, wondering how there could possibly be enough hours in the day to get his Texas shop off the ground while also helping to care for twin boys who entered his life when he was 16. Selvi Rizk, the owner of two California Fix Auto locations, has felt the tension, like in 2009, when the first body shop she invested in nearly went belly up. Michael Bradshaw recalls the pressure that accompanied taking over the family shop his father started nearly 30 years ago. Yet, those shop operators, along with others FenderBender spoke to for this feature, used their unwavering will and positivity to overcome adversity. And now they’re doing their part— whether it be through mentoring the next generation of technicians, or by offering guidance to other shop owners—to provide inspiration. “I just kept consuming information, and it’s a compound effect,” says Medina, the owner of Certified Collision Works in Corpus Christi, Texas. “Your confidence changes. You start to see your business grow.” Says Rizk: “This industry can be stressful at times, for sure. But … being stressed magnifies the problem and doesn’t necessarily solve it. “For me, it’s a choice; I wake up and I choose to focus on all the things that I’m grateful for—that are going right—big or small.” Yes, the collision repair industry can be pressure-packed, especially for those operating fledgling shops. But, according to those mentioned in this article, if every shop owner spent time on paying their good fortunes forward, virtually every collision repair facility could prosper. “I know how hard it was for me starting out, to really learn the industry,” says Bradshaw, the vice president of K&M Collision in Hickory, N.C. “I feel like there were a lot of different people that I’ve listened to over the years that really helped me, and really helped our business. “So, it’s a [focus for] me to try to educate, and try to empower other shop owners, so they can be successful.”

BY K E L LY B E ATO N

May 2019 | fenderbender.com 41

FE ATURE

HOW I DID IT: INSPIRATION

I get something out of every industry organization I’m part of. And I think that

Shop owner Selvi Rizk (center) attends several collision repair industry events each year, and shares the lessons learned with her staff.

SELVI RIZK:

FIX AUTO BREA, FIX AUTO MORENO VALLEY LOCATION:

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA STAFF:

30 (COMBINED) AVERAGE MONTHLY CAR COUNT:

175

CSI:

ANNUAL REVENUE:

INSPIRING WOMEN Selvi Rizk inspires those around her by displaying rare determination, and relentless positivity. Those traits were forged from watching her father work 12 hour days well into his 70s, and from observing her mother become a professional “chameleon,” as the family moved from the middle East to the U.S. when Selvi was 12. “You emulate what you see, and you learn from the people around you,” explains Selvi Rizk, who recently opened her second Fix Auto location in southern California. Just as Samir Rizk, an accountant, works long hours during tax season, and Louris Rizk embraced the challenges of trying a variety of jobs like medical billing and elementary school teacher, Selvi Rizk eagerly takes on any task she’s presented with. That passion and persistence helped Rizk overcome a bumpy start to her 42 fenderbender.com | May 2019

$6 MILLION

collision repair career to eventually own both Fix Auto Brea and Fix Auto Moreno Valley in California—a pair of shops that combine to produce $6 million in annual revenue. Rizk had originally been a body shop investor, but took over as operator of Fix Auto Moreno Valley in 2009, to salvage a failing business. “Never operating or working in a body shop [before], I had to learn the ropes fairly quickly to keep the business afloat,” Rizk says. “... It’s a challenging but rewarding business.” Those are the kinds of business experiences Rizk speaks with colleagues about these days, like at the 2019 IBIS USA event, in which she served as a presenter. Rizk recently spoke with FenderBender about the merits of joining industry organizations, and also offered advice for young female collision repairers. A S T O L D T O K E L LY B E AT O N

It’s good to get out of your business now and then. It helps you see where the indus-

try’s heading. That allows you to work on your business, instead of just in your business. Seeing that you’re not the only one facing the same challenges, it allows you to open up; talking to other people in the industry just opens up a flow of ideas. And, a lot of times it leads to a positive change, or solution. And I’ve learned that, in this industry, if you just ask, people are so willing to share their knowledge with you. In general, we need more women in the collision repair industry. I’ve been part of WIN for a few years and I like what they stand for—WIN sheds a light on that need for more women in the industry. They offer scholarships to women, and they recognize women that have made an impact on the industry. And I like to be around those women—it’s contagious. And the momentum is starting; I’m starting to see more women being interested in the industry. I just think we need to talk more about getting more women into collision repair, and be open to recruiting people from outside our industry, kind of cast a wider net. My suggestions for younger women in the industry: Word hard. Be confident. Speak

up. Take calculated risks. Find a mentor— or several. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, and, when you do, learn from them. We’re in a male-dominated industry, but women can bring in a different perspective. Women and men complement each other’s talents. And, I think an organization that has a good mix of both allows for a better flow of ideas and, overall, a better chance for success.

RIKKI YOUNG

Boundless Ambition

involvement helps my organization, in general. The relationships with the people I’ve met in the industry are what made me passionate about this profession. I attend several industry events, like SEMA, CIC, and those for Verifax and WIN. It’s not a big issue for me to be away from the shop on occasion because I have a great team; if you hire the right people, and have them embrace your mission and the culture that you want to develop in your business, and you empower them to make decisions, it gives me the peace of mind that they’re doing the right thing when I’m not there.

K&M COLLISION LOCATION:

HICKORY, N.C. STAFF:

AVERAGE MONTHLY CAR COUNT:

CSI:

97.8 ANNUAL REVENUE:

$5.4 MILLION

MICHAEL BRADSHAW:

GETTY IMAGES

INSPIRING AT INDUSTRY EVENTS Michael Bradshaw can still vividly recall the first time he attempted to speak in front of the staff at K&M Collision, in Hickory, N.C. It was an experience most body shop operators can relate to: while looking out at a gathering of longtime technicians, nervousness set in quickly. Fortunately, Bradshaw learned rather quickly that the anxiety of public speaking eventually fades away with practice. And, nowadays, the vice president of K&M speaks with confidence at industry events like SEMA, the NORTHEAST trade show, or SCRS board meetings. For seven years now, Bradshaw has taken to the podium at industry gatherings; he speaks at as many as four such events per year. Bradshaw, now in his 14th year as a collision repairer, speaks at the industry gatherings because “I’m trying to give back,” he explains.

Below, Bradshaw, who helps oversee a North Carolina shop with an annual revenue of $5.4 million, offers tips to allow shop operators to get over any fear of speaking in front of groups. A S T O L D T O K E L LY B E AT O N

I still get a little anxious when I get up in front of decent-sized crowds. But it’s one

of those things where, once you start talking and getting into what you know, it goes away. Overcoming the fear just comes from doing it, and practicing it, and speaking in front of your staff. Certain people are always going to get a little nervous, but if you’re prepared for what you’re talking about, that goes away pretty quickly. The more you do it, the less anxious you are.

It helps ease your nervousness to ask questions of the crowd. Bring people from

the audience into the conversation and try

to get involvement from them. That way, it’s not so awkward, where you’re just standing there and everybody’s staring at you. If you get the audience’s thoughts on the topic, to me, that makes it more personable, and makes for a better presentation. I also like to walk around during presentations; I’m not big on standing still. The key is making sure you’ve got a clear, concise message. The biggest thing I do is

try to go through and make sure that I’ve got a couple key points that I want to focus on, and really figure out the best way to get those points across. Usually, I speak for 20 to 30 minutes for my presentations. I often use notecards, but it can vary. If

I’m giving a presentation on specific topics, then a lot of times I’m going from a Powerpoint slide presentation. And then, other times, where it’s more informal, I try to have a couple bullet points on the topic that I want to hit on. Notecards can certainly help guard against losing your train of thought—just having something that you can refer back to. Powerpoint presentations are more and more common within our industry, and it’s good to have visual cues up there, but you don’t want to just stand there reading from slides, because that can get boring. Having a dialogue with industry peers is invaluable. I’ve always been about trying

to consume information. And it’s easy to find information now, with social media, and from the videos that organizations like SCRS do. But it’s still not a replacement for being able to have a discussion with somebody. And, at these events, that’s where shop owners really get the value: where they can ask somebody a question, like “Hey, have you dealt with this? What did you do in this situation?” Speaking at industry events, or simply attending them, pays dividends. If you’re

looking to gather information about new equipment purchases, or how to run your business more efficiently, industry events are well worth budgeting for. Especially SEMA, because there’s so much training type of stuff over the course of a few days that’s offered that, if you really broke it down and looked at all the travel you would have to do if you tried to get that kind of information separately, it becomes more economical when you look at it that way. May 2019 | fenderbender.com 43

FE ATURE

HOW I DID IT: INSPIRATION

LOCATION:

CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS STAFF:

AVERAGE MONTHLY CAR COUNT:

CSI:

4.9 STARS OUT OF 5 ON GOOGLE ANNUAL REVENUE:

$1 MILLION (2019 PROJECTION)

STAN MEDINA:

INSPIRING YOUNG HIRES Virtually every day, Stan Medina is up before dawn. But it’s not because he’s obsessed about his work as the owner of Certified Collision Works, in Corpus Christi, Texas. It’s because Medina meticulously structures his day. He meditates in the morning. He also takes time to plot out his work schedule, which sometimes includes stops to speak at collision repair school programs like those offered at nearby Del Mar College. Because of that forethought, Medina has gone from a shop owner that started out with a modest business, to one who currently exudes confidence and earns 4.9 stars out of 5 from reviewers on Google. “You’ve got to figure out what’s important. It’s going to be family, health, business,” says Medina, a longtime shop owner whose blended family features eight children. “You want to prioritize things. Then, it becomes habit, and it becomes routine.” Of course, it took Medina nearly a quarter century to find his way as a shop 44 fenderbender.com | May 2019

owner. While his low-volume shop projects to make more than $1 million this year, Medina openly admits that, when he started in the industry, he had “no business sense.” Nowadays, Medina, who works closely with his local Rotary club, makes a point to try to locate, hire, and mentor young individuals who exhibit a hunger to make an honest paycheck, even if they lack ideal experience. Below, Medina explains how today’s body shop owners can find ideal, motivated entry-level employees. A S T O L D T O K E L LY B E AT O N

In the past, when someone turned in an application, I would meet them for lunch

and do an hour-long interview. And then, it never failed; 5 minutes into the interview, they’re like “I’m a convicted felon.” And I’m like “Dude, I took time out of my day for this interview.” So, what I’ve learned is to have

some general questions. That way, you can go through about four or five applicants within 30 minutes. So, get them on a call and ask them a few questions, like “Do you have a valid driver’s license?” That’ll let you know if they should make it to the next step in the interview process. I’ve learned how to understand people’s behavioral style, and to recognize their

strengths and weaknesses. A lot of times, when we hire someone, we really don’t know their strengths. Sometimes we hire someone, and we’re not too organized ourselves, and we don’t have a system, and it ends up creating a lot of confusion. And then we blame it on the employee, but it was really us not preparing them right. By recognizing employee’s strengths, you’ll see where they fit best. On the other hand,

if you hire someone and they have a real negative attitude, they can influence the culture of your shop. So, identifying that stuff is really important. An example: we hired a detailer; eventually I noticed he had real attention to detail, I paired him up with a veteran body man that was the same way— soon we had that young hire do R&I stuff and it was like a paradigm shift for him, and he realized “You know what, I’m pretty good at this.” Lately, I’ve been reaching out to local community colleges. Any schools that offer vo-

cational training. You’ve got to step out of your comfort zone. I’ve met with the college deans and just explained to them that “Look, part of your training for all of your body shop technicians is really outdated. You all are training these guys to do restorations, and they’re not going to make any money in the real world doing that. So, I’ve offered to go in there and share some of my experiences. All you can do is plant the seed. You can’t

force young workers to do anything. One thing I tell kids is “Look, any kind of vocational training you can get, that’s something that’s going to add value; you’re going to be able to create and generate an income, because you have a skill. And, one thing about the body shop industry: it’s kind of like hands-on training; you’re getting training as you’re working. You’re getting paid for it. And you’re not going to be stuck with the huge debt that you might if you go to a major university.

GETTY IMAGES

CERTIFIED COLLISION WORKS

ANDREW SMITH: GETTY IMAGES

INSPIRING APPRENTICES For nine years now, J.W. Smith Auto Body Inc. in Elliottsburg, Pa., has utilized an apprenticeship program. The reason for the program is simple: “the shortage of available techs,” coowner Andrew Smith explains, before adding “the shortage of qualified techs.” The program has served the shop well; Smith says four of the shop’s former apprentices have gone on to forge legitimate careers in the collision repair industry, with three landing fulltime jobs at J.W. Smith Auto Body. By all accounts, the mentorship program aids the body shop’s reputation in its community, too.

And Smith has made sure that the apprenticeship program benefits its entry-level employees, too, by paying the apprentices respectably. Currently, the Pennsylvania shop pays apprentices $12 per hour to start. “I pay you well, because I expect you to give me well,” Smith says. Smith, who oversees a shop with a CSI score of 92.6 percent and has earned respect in the industry for his apprenticeship program, explains how his industry peers could effectively implement such a program.

J.W. SMITH AUTO BODY INC. LOCATION:

ELLIOTTSBURG, PA. STAFF:

AVERAGE MONTHLY CAR COUNT:

CSI:

92.6 ANNUAL REVENUE:

$1 MILLION (2019 PROJECTION)

A S T O L D T O K E L LY B E AT O N May 2019 | fenderbender.com 45

FE ATURE

HOW I DID IT: INSPIRATION

One key is paying apprentices a good starting wage. And, if they don’t work

out, remove them as soon as possible; the fastest I’ve ever gotten rid of an apprentice was after two days. To find our apprentices, we just run an ad on Facebook, and run an ad on the job apps, like Monster, or Indeed. If I want to try to attract a 21-year-old apprentice and I put an ad in the newspaper, I’m going to get a bunch of 50-yearold applicants. … If I put it on Facebook, I’m going to get someone under 30. We hire apprentices with no body shop experience. The reason for that is, most

body men learn from other body men. And, the cars have changed so much in 30 years that there’s no point in having an older body man teach a younger one. So, I start the apprentices out cleaning and detailing cars here at our facility, doing the pre-wash, the post-wash, and then I start them on minor jobs, doing tear-down and assembly. And, if they

46 fenderbender.com | May 2019

follow the rules, then we take them on and train them to do panel replacement, dent repair, structural repairs, frame repair, or suspension repair. But we have them do the easy stuff first, to see if they want to work hard, and whether they’re willing to learn. Our apprentices are 21 years old and up. The bad part with taking high school

kids is, unless it’s on a cellphone, they’re not interested in it; with many of them being technologically savvy, that’s the most important thing to them—they’re not willing to learn something unless it’s through their cellphone. A 21-year-old technician would much rather look up the OEM repair procedures on the computer than a 58-yearold technician. So, there’s pros and cons to each age group. But the key is finding out who the individual is and then treating each individual how they need to be treated, so you can reach the desired goal for everybody.

I expect full-time employees to take time to train apprentices. And, if they don’t, then I

explain to those longtime employees that they’re more than welcome to leave and come back tomorrow with a better attitude. I don’t have the veteran, longtime employees train my apprentices because they often don’t believe in looking up any repair procedures on the car. And they just believe at looking at a car and fixing it from what they see. And that’s totally wrong. We have quality-control checks for apprentices’ work; every time a job goes to a different department, it’s checked over. So, you nip the problem before it’s a major problem at the end. You actually save money by having an apprenticeship program. Because there’s so

many jobs that an employee can do where they don’t need to have prior knowledge of repairing a car to do it. So, instead of having a more tenured technician doing the minuscule stuff, you can have a younger technician do that.

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S P O N S O R E D B Y:

MANAGER May 2019 | fenderbender.com 47

Steady Climb

When Brian and Heidi Myers took over as owners of Gould Body & Paint, they aimed to improve both marketing and employee benefits.

48 fenderbender.com | May 2019

A NEW VENTURE O N E Y E A R I N T O O W N E R S H I P, BRIAN AND HEIDI MYERS HAVE C A P I TA L I Z E D O N G O U L D B O DY & PA I N T â&#x20AC;&#x2122; S B I G G E S T S T R E N G T H : ITS PEOPLE BY MELISSA STEINKEN PHOTOGRAPHY BY JUSTIN CASTERLINE

May 2019 | fenderbender.com 49

PROFILE

A NEW VENTURE

GOULD BODY & PAINT LOCATION:

CRAWFORDSVILLE, IND. OPERATORS:

HEIDI AND BRIAN MYERS SIZE:

12,000 SQUARE FEET STAFF:

AVERAGE MONTHLY CAR COUNT:

100

ANNUAL REVENUE:

$2 MILLION

Encouraging Outlook

Co-owner Brian Myers uses his wealth of auto industry experience to help Gould Body & Paint brace for collision repair's uncertain future.

Brian Myers, co-owner of Gould Body & Paint in Crawfordsville, Ind., covers his desk in colorful Post-It notes, which serve as reminders that tasks need to be done now or can wait for a day. Since taking on a more significant leadership role in the shop, Myers has become a fountain of ideas. Despite a long history in its Midwestern location and $2 million in annual revenue, Gould Body & Paint still has a family feel—which Brian and Heidi Myers were determined to keep when they became owners in early 2018. As new owners, the couple had a clear mission from the start: They have a vision for the shop, but want to continue to preserve the shop’s history as a business that supports its staff from within and delivers a consistent, high level of customer service for its customers. Their vision has been made easier with the help of the previous owners, Don and Diana Gould. When the time came for the Goulds to retire and step down, they handed over the torch to Brian and Heidi, both longtime friends and co-workers. One year later, the Myers are on the cusp of making big changes to the shop. Within the first year, they renovated the shop’s front office and increased benefits for employees. Brian also adapted his previous role as general manager into one that requires him to make the big equipment purchases and decide which benefits he and his wife are going to offer their staff. Meanwhile, Don and Diana Gould still remain involved in the shop processes to offer help and stay in touch with their friends. The Goulds help while the Myers continue to work out the kinks to running the business on their terms.

50 fenderbender.com | May 2019

Restructuring the Space

Brian and Heidi both came into the industry with different backgrounds. Brian began working for a Subaru company, was the team leader for a direct repair program for Northwest Indiana and Progressive Insurance, and then landed at Gould’s Body & Paint. During his previous career, Brian saw firsthand how 30 different shops operated and just how different those operations were. He learned that there is never just one right way to run a body shop. Heidi, on the other hand, was a social worker before she decided to take on managing the body shop’s human resources department, payroll, accounts payables and marketing. She came in and hired an outside marketing firm to help design a new logo and colors for the shop and its online presence. She also spent six months training with Diana, on HR tasks. “There’s been slow, but sure, progress in getting the [advertising] word out there,” Heidi says. “I try to spend a little time each week updating our online social media presence.” Heidi wanted to come in and update the shop’s marketing. Together, the Myers had a goal for the first year to not change anything drastically, with the exception of those marketing tactics. Heidi added a Facebook and Instagram account under the shop’s name. She also supervised the renovation of the front office to make it more friendly and open to the customer. The front office was remodeled in summer 2018, and the shop was made over with a new coat of paint and new tile in the waiting room floor, glass windows between the waiting room and the offices and a new reception desk. The shop’s website boasts that “Gould Body & Paint is a family owned, state-ofthe-art, collision repair facility in Crawfordsville, IN,” and it indeed appears to be. The shop still holds all its original values, just under new ownership.

Keeping the Old, Starting the New

Gould Body & Paint consists of two buildings with over 12,000 square feet on three acres of land, Brian says. One building houses the collision repair shop and the other is a place that the old, primary owner, Don, still visits to work on vehicle restorations.

Content Crew

At Gould Body & Paint in Crawfordsville, Ind., employees are now offered an expansive array of benefits, such as a company-matching IRA.

“It’s a different atmosphere here because you have an old owner and a new owner sitting around a water cooler and having a conversation on most days,” Brian notes. Since the transition of ownership, Don spends his days working in the restoration building and working on his painting skills, including airbrushing and fineline stripping. And, he is available for any questions that he has on bigbudget purchases or production matters. The transition was made even smoother because Brian was able to turn to the old owner for advice. Brian also has insight into the way the shop runs because he was the general manager and worked closely with the employees before the ownership switch. As a result, all 10 employees stayed on during the transition. In the immediate future, he is looking to expand the shop and hire a new entrylevel technician. Right now, there are two body technicians, along with two painters and a painter’s assistant. Yet, before he got to the point where he felt comfortable expanding his team, Brian worked out a system that helps him keep tabs on how employees are performing.

Treating Employees Like Family

Brian, like other shop owners, finds it important to check in with his staff every morning. He will make a note to try and ask everyone how his or her day was and on Mondays, and he inquires what the team did on weekends. “I like to have informal conversations in the morning,” he says. When he first took on the role of co-

owner with his wife, Brian dabbled in having one weekly meeting with his staff. Yet, over time he found that, with a team of just 10 people, it was easier to meet one-on-one with everyone. Today, Brian meets with each staff member briefly when he hands over a production list. He hands out an updated production list about three times per week, he says. This is just an updated Excel spreadsheet that is color-coded based on the technician and his job. Brian forms the production list with his estimator during the week. The front office team, he says, works in close proximity to each other to tweak the schedule as cars go in and out. If anyone on staff has a question, they can find the list on a production board that is located in the front office. Not only does Brian make a point to check in with employees, he still spends much of his day writing estimates for customers, as well. In addition to the new process, the Myers also now offer additional incentives for the employees to feel like they’re still valued and keep the team together. For example, starting in March, the two were able to implement a companymatching IRA for all employees. “When I became owner,” Brian says, “I realized I just love connecting with people. Everyone has a story and some we laugh about and some we are genuinely concerned about because it was a traumatic experience for them.” So, Brian has kept up his interactions with employees, mainly by working alongside them at the reception desk.

Checking Employee Performance 1. Pick a goal to focus on. Before expecting or wanting his team to change, Brian says he and Heidi picked a goal toward which to work. Their goal was to focus on the people, community, shop process and customer service. 2. Communicate the team’s importance. To keep a team happy, Brian needed to communicate how each person was valued. Be receptive to their ideas and most likely the team will be receptive to yours. 3. Check in each morning. Brian recommends asking employees how their nights were or how their weekends were. Do this first thing in the morning and have a brief, informal conversation, he says. 4. Meet individually with the team. Brian tried a group meeting with his team but found the best results came when he sat down with everyone one-on-one. In these meetings, he’ll go over the production list with staff to show where individual goals can be made, improvements occur and what’s going well. 5. Work alongside not above your staff. Brian gets his hands directly in the process by working at the desk as an estimator. Brian will ask his fellow estimator what he needs help with throughout the day and makes sure that there is a give and take to the process.Heidi also works at the front desk helping out with any financial tasks and marketing. 6. Consider using consultants. Brian even brought in a team from ICAR to do evaluation interviews with every staff member, he says. Since the shop is located in a small town, his team had never before had the chance for I-CAR to visit on-site.

May 2019 | fenderbender.com 51

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Forward Thinking Arkansas shop owner Jody Gatchell has found that utilizing chatbots on his facility's website has made his business more approachable to clients.

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May 2019 | fenderbender.com 55

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And, most businesses have fast and slow times. One thing I suggest to businesses is to remember that if the business is located in a state with extreme weather like snow, cold or hail, to remember that your shop will experience busier months in the winter than other months. These months should be accounted for when planning how many jobs to take.

Tip No. 3: Evaluate your advertising, even in the shop’s worst months.

Evaluate Your Brand How to determine if your shop actually matches the promises your advertising makes

Think about the language used in your advertising and marketing campaigns. What are the words used to describe your business? Honest? Customer friendly? High quality? Now, think about your actual business. Think about your employees, your work, your online reviews. Are the claims made by your marketing actually accurate? If a customer left your shop, would they agree that you provide “five-star service”? If not, says Tom Egelhoff, a marketing consultant who has written three books on small town marketing, your marketing is not only ineffective, it’s also deceitful. In today’s competitive landscape, it’s crucial to both uphold the promises made by your marketing and also portray your business accurately in those efforts. Business evaluations can take place anywhere and anytime. In the body shop, if a shop operator neglects an evaluation, and doesn’t check work at each step of the repair process, a shop can lose time waiting for extra parts to be ordered, or lose money if the shop is promising a quality repair for the customer and not delivering on that end goal. Below, Egelhoff outlines his top tips to make sure you evaluate your business before it even gets to the point of mistakes being made or a customer isn’t pleased with the experience he or she received. AS TOLD TO MELISSA STEINKEN

GETTY IMAGES

Tip No. 1: Evaluate your customer service correctly.

It all comes down to how you evaluate your customer service. People always miss this step. Everyone says they have the best customer service around, but if I were to take a poll of who had the best customer service at one of my seminars, no one would raise their hand. One way to evaluate your customer service is by keeping a list of questions next to your work space. For instance, ask yourself if you guarantee your work, or do you return parts if they’re not the right quality? Check in with the practices going on in the shop. When a customer goes into a restaurant that is a chain like McDonald’s, he or she will know what they will get in terms

of food quality and customer service. The customer feels this way despite if the McDonald’s is located in Columbus, Ga., for example, or in Columbus, Ohio. The main reason that the customer knows what he or she will receive is because the advertising for McDonald’s is consistent and tells the customer what to expect.

Tip No. 2: Evaluate your end profit.

When you take a step back to think critically about how you portray the business, remember that you need to think ahead. How much in annual revenue do you want to make? How many hours and what types of repair jobs can your facility handle? A shop operator needs to limit the business to what he or she can profitably do.

Say you have an advertising budget of $50,000 per year. Divide the budget up throughout the year. Calculate your advertising budget according to the amount of work the shop does in that particular month. For example, if your shop does 30 percent of its work in January, then allocate 30 percent of the advertising budget for your busiest month. Also, while it is important to not completely ignore advertising in the worst months of the business, you should not stress about it. So, stop worrying about advertising heavily in the four worst months, profit-wise, of your business.

Tip No. 4: Evaluate your overall message.

If your marketing message does not live up to its promise, it’s time to take a step back, sit down with your team and work on improving it. The way you approach this will depend on the size of your team. If you have a team of ten or less, then it might be easier to sit them down at one time and go over specific, negative customer reviews. Then you can work one-on-one on training to fix those errors. If you have a team that’s more than 10 and closer to 50 employees, it’s time to look at what the customers are saying. Are they saying you’re short-tempered? Not speaking when they come into the shop? Repairing the vehicle incorrectly? Determine the category with the most negative reviews and start there. Also, it will not hurt to go back to the original marketing message and redo it. Go through everything that is put in front of the customers and change the message. This includes television advertisements, online marketing ads, social media, etc. If you’re message has the word “no” anywhere in it, get rid of it. You don’t want to tell the customer no before they even come in the door. May 2019 | fenderbender.com 57

STR ATEGY

LEADERSHIP

Effective Feedback

The best ways to communicate with employees to inspire improvement B Y K E L LY B E AT O N

Typically, there are three main elements to a person’s message: their

words, their voice, and their non-verbal cues. That’s the sentiment of Patrick Donadio, a professional speaker, trainer, and the author of Communicating with IMPACT. Donadio occasionally speaks at collision repair industry events, where it’s not unusual to find shop owners who struggle to communicate effectively with employees. In stressful environments like body shops, it’s important for those in leadership positions to take a deep breath before offering feedback, or criticism, to employees, he says. “Watch your tone,” Donadio says. Instead of saying, “‘I’m very upset,’ say, ‘Hey, I’d like to learn a little bit more about what happened.’ “Focus on the situation or the issue, not the person. If you focus on the person, it’s going to come off as harsh.” Felicia Weisberg, a manager at Mike’s Auto Body locations in both Brooksville, Fla., and Spring Hill, Fla., concurs. When she’s assisting estimators, technicians, or front office employees at her high-volume workplaces, Weisberg tries to always keep emotions out of the equation. “I say, ‘Look, we need to [fix] this job; this is what happened, and this is what needs to be happening,” she says. “I try to be very black and white with it, so there’s no confusion. I try not to approach [employees] in an angry way, but more just giving advice.” Below, Donadio and Weisberg offer several suggestions for how shop operators can effectively deliver constructive feedback to employees.

If a shop leader wants to communicate with employees effectively—in an effort to get them to improve—it usually works best to meet with the staffer one-on-one, in private and, ideally, in a warm, nonthreatening environment. It’s one of Donadio’s top rules with regard to workplace communication. “I always find it helpful, when you’re going to give particularly negative feedback or criticism, to try and do it in a way that’s not going to embarrass people in front of somebody else,” notes Donadio, who occasionally speaks at events such as the Automotive Service Association’s annual conference. 58 fenderbender.com | May 2019

Consider personality styles.

No two employees will share the exact same personality. And that’s important to keep in mind when offering feedback to your staff, Donadio notes. Some employees will be hyper-analytical, some tend to be impatient, some will be outgoing, and others will internalize their emotions. Shop owners can pick up on how they need to approach employees by observing how those staff members interact with their coworkers on a daily basis. Then, shop leaders need to react accordingly. “If you’re talking to, for example, an extrovert versus an introvert,” Donadio says, “think about how you [need to] adjust

your communication. You know, extroverts are more open to a lot of emotion; introverts might not be. Introverts think before they speak, are slow acting, show less emotion. We’re not all the same.”

Be direct.

Weisberg, who helps oversee 20 Mike’s Auto Body employees, aims to work as efficiently as possible each day. As a result, if a longtime technician questions her suggestion on the workfloor, she’s always ready to show them OEM repair procedure printouts, in an effort to support her argument. And, when she needs to offer instruction to young, fledgling employees,

GETTY IMAGES

Praise in public, criticize in private.

eventually have them provide written proof that the matter was discussed on multiple occasions. “If this is something that I’ve talked to the employee two or three times about, then what I like to do is follow it up with a writeout of exactly what we spoke about,” Weisberg explains. “And then have both of us sign it. It’s something they can keep, to reference back to.”

Consider seeking assistance.

Before a problem persists at length, Weisberg suggests bringing it to the attention of an employee’s direct supervisor, so the supervisor can get to the bottom of the issue. If that doesn’t solve the issue, then the shop owner can be called in, as a last resort. “When the owner gets involved, that [makes employees think] ‘Wow, this is kind of intense,’” Weisberg notes. “Normally I try to stick to the next chain of command, and only bring the owners into it if it’s a situation that’s kind of gotten out of control.”

Pause and listen.

Weisberg doesn’t mince words. She’s specific, brief, and to the point. “When it comes to younger employees,” she says, “you almost have to be a little harsh with them, and abrupt, because, if not, they like to say, ‘Oh, she said this, but she could have meant it this way. And it’s like, ‘No, this is what we mean, this is how we have to do it, and there’s no woulda, coulda, shoulda.’”

Consider multiple solutions.

In order to keep emotions from escalating during workplace conversations, Donadio suggests putting employees in “solution mode.” In his experience, workers will often come up with a surprising

amount of solutions if they’re respectfully asked to provide their opinions. For example, if a shop owner wants to go over an estimate that an employee wrote, he or she could say, “What are some things you think we could do differently in the future to help you get more accurate?” “Put [employees] in the driver’s seat,” Donadio says. “Let them come up with it. … Present your case [and] ask ‘how’ questions to draw out opinions.”

Try written agreements.

Weisberg tries to be patient with every employee—but not at the expense of her workplace’s bottom line. So, if a staffer persistently makes mistakes, she’ll

When it comes to offering criticism to employees, it never hurts to take a deep breath, gather your thoughts, and listen. “A good leader,” Weisberg says, “puts themselves in others’ shoes when assessing a situation. So … take a breath and lower your anger level before addressing the issue.” Donadio suggests taking a moment to gauge how upset an employee might be before confronting them with any feedback or criticism. “You have to listen with your eyes and ears,” he suggests. “Listen to what people are sharing. Because it might be that, the reason that there’s an issue is not because of a particular person, but it might be a systemic thing. … So don’t just jump in and say, ‘You need to do this, and you need to stop doing this.’ Make sure you build in the opportunity for people to give you some insight. “When you’re going to give feedback, allow it to be a dialogue, not a monologue.” May 2019 | fenderbender.com 59

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Load Leveling with Efficiency

FUE VANG

How multi-shop owners can effectively spread out work among their facilities

Load leveling. Balancing your workload. That has become a point of emphasis at my three shops in Anchorage, Ak. We want to use our facilities the best way we can. And each of the three facilities is laid out totally different from the others. So, by looking at what makes the most sense for that facility, we’ll be able to take care of our customers in the most ideal manner possible. We have one facility with a drive-in estimating bay. And, in the winter, the more vehicles we can run through that—where we have the opportunity to go over that car with the customer in a nice, warm, well-lit situation—the more success we’re going to have. And, we have facilities with lots of garage doors, and some with just two. So, the better we can control the situation, the better success we’ll have. There are a couple keys to load leveling. First, you have to factor in what each of your facilities produces. At my shops, our employees work in teams, and we track our teams on a daily basis in terms of how many hours per day each is producing. Those numbers will change on occasion, of course, because you’ll have guys go on vacation, you’ll have guys out sick, you’ll have new hires and so forth. But, in general, us being in tune with what our teams are actually producing is important. Then, we also look at what our average supplement and tow-ins are, and what our unexpected, or unplanned, amount of hours are. Our goal is that, if one shop’s booked out for two weeks, then all shops are booked out for two weeks. We don’t want one shop booked out for a month and another one booked out one week. But, to accomplish that ideal balance, we have to know our production numbers. We have to know what each facility is producing— and not what they did last year, and not what they did six months

ago. We need to know, for this pay period, what that facility is accomplishing. Administratively, we have one team that covers all three of our locations. So, my administrative staff doesn’t care where a car gets fixed. They just want to know that it’s going to get fixed by our organization. Originally, each of my facilities had their own administrative team, and what I found in that process was that, when that was the case, an estimator would write the estimate, and if the best shop for that vehicle was to go to a different location, then the estimator was, theoretically, not getting paid for the work that they did on that vehicle. Because we’re commission-based, even with administration. So, we eventually combined all locations, from an administrative perspective, so that estimators don’t care where a vehicle goes.

And now I’m able to move administrators to the bottlenecks. So, if we end up with, say, 10 vehicles at one shop that all need administrative support, we can move people for a day and say, “Go get them caught up.” Basically, we can move our resources to where there’s a problem. And we do that often. My tow-in facility has a very small office, so, we’ve tried reducing the amount of customers that facility deals with to three cars per day. My other two facilities are over 10 cars per day. Of course, the more cars you have, the more customer interaction you have and, as a result, the more office space you need. We’ve found that, if we have less traffic in that small office, then it works out better. The bottom line is this: If we can use our facilities correctly, we can serve the customer better, which, at the end of the day, is all that really matters.

RYA N C R O P P E R is the owner of Able Body Shop, with three locations in Anchorage, Alaska, and Total Truck Accessory Center.

E M A I L : r c r o p p e r @ ab l e b o d y s h o p .c o m

May 2019 | fenderbender.com 61

STR ATEGY

CASE STUDY

62 fenderbender.com | May 2019

LEVERAGE THE USE OF

FIND OUT HOW A SHOP CAN IMPLEMENT ITS OWN C H AT B O T S E R V I C E BY MELISSA STEINKEN

May 2019 | fenderbender.com 63

STR ATEGY

CASE STUDY

n 2019, it’s predicted that the best commerce and content will remove barriers to purchasing, including “clicks” to checkout, according to a report by Big Commerce. Using chatbots for marketing activities such as ad targeting, lead generating and SEO is becoming more and more popular. According to a report by Digital Marketing Institute, the future of digital marketing will be heavily directed by artificial intelligence (AI) applications, including chatbots. In fact, Gartner, a research and advisory company, predicts that by 2020, over 50 percent of medium to large enterprises will have deployed the use of chatbots. A chatbot platform allows users a simple, single option. Simply type in a message and get a prompt response, which many sites report is appealing to millennial consumers. Jody Gatchell, owner of A&J Collision Repair in Conway, Ark., noticed that, toward the end of 2018, his customers wanted a different way to contact the shop if they needed updates on their vehicle. Today, Gatchell’s business does about $2 million in annual revenue with a monthly car count of 75. Customers wanted more options similar to texting, which Gatchell says the shop was already doing. In today’s market, consumers can get services from their homes and with a click of a button to get whatever they desire— from a pizza delivered to their door to Amazon deliveries shipped as soon as two hours after an order is placed. Gatchell knew he needed to keep up with the current marketing trends and start offering a service that is not only simple to use but makes it convenient for the modern customer that could possibly want something “on demand.” Since Gatchell decided to offer another way for his customers to communicate with the shop staff, he has had great feedback, he says—both from his own employees and customers. He says the use of a more modern communication method not only grew his business but made it so his shop was also more approachable and accessible to customers.

Customers of A&J Collision Repair have always preferred to find out updates on their vehicles through text messages, Gatchell says. And, since most of his front office team has the ability to sit behind a desk and computer screen for the day, Gatchell says choosing a method of communication through the computer was a relatively seamless process. The shop is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and with those limited hours that coincide with other people’s work schedules, Gatchell says he came across customers asking for ways to contact the shop when its office is closed. “Most people are doing their web 64 fenderbender.com | May 2019

searching when they get home and they probably find us, and think, ‘Oh, crap! I need a [shop] soon,’” Gatchell says. “We’re more likely to get people messaging us than calling us back the next morning.” In late 2018, Gatchell decided to find a solution to fulfill this customer demand.

The Problem

Gatchell surveyed his customers and saw that most of the responses noted how there needed to be a better form of communication with the shop. At first, A&J Collision Repair used a web forum, but that was not as fast as Gatchell wanted. So, he did some re-

search and the shop eventually began using the company Podium to set up a chatbox on its website. Gatchell says he did not do much in the way of researching a company for chatbots. Podium reached out to him about the chatbot service because he was already using the company for a texting form on the shop’s website. Yet, he was hesitant, initially, to start using the chabot setup.

The Solution

While A&J Collision Repair started offering the chatbot service to customers, it did not mean the business necessarily grew, Gatchell says.

MIKE KEMP

The Backstory

“WE’RE MORE LIKELY TO GET PEOPLE MESSAGING US THAN CALLING US BACK THE NEXT MORNING.” J O DY G AT C H E L L OWNER A&J COLLISION REPAIR

Gatchell chose the Podium company largely because his shop already used it for services like text message communication with clients. Since every feature is integrated into the platform, there was no additional cost. Once the chatbox feature was added to the website, customers are able to quickly chat online with one of the shop’s customer service representatives. Here’s how it works: Step 1: Go to the shop’s website. A chat box will pop up in the lower right-hand corner of the website. This box is green. Step 2: Type in a question. Once the customer clicks on the box, he or she can type a question into the box. Step 3: The collision repair staff receives the information. While the first message delivered to the customer is an automated one that says, “Thanks for texting with us! We’ll be with you shortly,” the front office staff sees the message pop up on the website, Gatchell says. An employee sees a message that says the name of the customer and the topic of his or her inquiry. From there, the employee shares his or her name and asks how the shop can help the customer. The body shop staff makes it a priority to answer the chat questions as soon as they come through. If no one at the front desk knows the answers, a staff member will tell Gatchell and the whole team will brainstorm to find a solution.

The Aftermath Plugged In The staff at A&J Collision Repair makes a point to respond to customers’ messages to chatbots by providing personalized responses to any queries.

Gatchell says that, while the chatbox process has been fairly easy and streamlined, he does not like his staff to provide answers to the customers based off of a script. For instance, if a customer asks what color they can change their vehicle to, he does not want a customer service representative be beholden to answering with all the colors that the shop might be able to supply. The employee should be able to answer with just one color. Right now the shop gets about two to three customers using the chatbot per week. “If we ever receive good messages, we also make a point of going through them at the weekly staff meetings,” he says. And, when the tough messages come in through the chat box, Gatchell will have a staff member pick up a phone and call the customer. If the staff has to relay a message about a delay in a repair or May 2019 | fenderbender.com 65

STR ATEGY

CASE STUDY

something that did not go according to schedule, then he or she will message the customer, explain they have an update about the car and follow up with a call.

The Takeaway

66 fenderbender.com | May 2019

A&J COLLISION REPAIR OWNER:

JODY GATCHELL LOCATION:

CONWAY, ARK. SIZE:

18,000 SQUARE FEET STAFF:

14 (4 IN FRONT OFFICE, 2 IN DISASSEMBLY TEAM, 4 METAL TECHNICIANS, 2 IN PAINT DEPARTMENT, 1 DETAILER, 1 OWNER) AVERAGE MONTHLY CAR COUNT:

ANNUAL REVENUE:

OVER $2 MILLION

MIKE KEMP

Using chatbots provides a way for customers to stay in constant contact with the shop, even after business hours, which is especially helpful for Gatchell, whose shop is closed on weekends. “It gives customers the ability to ask their questions, feel like someone is there and feel like they are being helped,” he says. Since the use of chatbots is relatively new to him, Gatchell has not noticed the chatbots providing any significant details on the shop’s customers. He usually sees about two messages a week through the application. Typically the questions range from the when the shop is open, to what kind of repair work the shop does, and a handful of customers asked about older cars and paint jobs for them.

Growth Initiative A&J Collision Repair’s website has featured chat bots of late, and the facility’s owner plans to use that technology to bring more vehicles into the shop.

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CE Classes in the Modern Era Five keys to teaching a continuing education class, taking into account modern vehicle technology BY MELISSA STEINKEN

Rick, a strategic account manager for Axalta Coatings Systems, is no stranger to having insurance agents come back to him a couple years after a class he led and tell him all about how they were able to take the information they learned and save someone’s life. A driver was kept safe because he or she stowed heavy equipment low to the floor of the car. Another agent was able to save someone else’s life by passing along information to their children on how to sit properly, and buckle up properly while traveling in a car. Time and time again, Rick sees how continuing education classes reach further than just an insurance company and a body shop. Continuing education classes (or “CE” classes) largely came to the foreground for himself around 1996, Rick notes. He got into them when an insurance company recommended it as a way to work with agents and claims people. Among numerous other auto body shops offering such courses, Classic Auto Collision, located in the upper peninsula of Michigan, also offers CE classes, says Scott Peterson, the facility’s operations manager. Peterson has been at Classic 68 fenderbender.com | May 2019

Auto Collision for 13 years and, roughly three years ago, started offering free CE classes for insurance agents. Peterson took one full day and visited every insurance agent personally to show that the shop would be offering the service. He handed them a flier about the first course, regarding teen driving, and then explained how it was free for them to come to the shop for the class. Now, three years later, Peterson teaches six classes per year. In 2019, it’s more important than ever for insurance agents to attend CE classes, Rick says. With all the modern vehicle technology, including ADAS, self-driving vehicles and more, the agent needs to stay in the know on how to repair vehicles correctly. For Rick, the classes are a great source of information and one of the classes provide families, insurance agents and first responders with details of what physically happens to people and their bodies in a crash. Classes can cover anything from hand positioning, or body position in a car that will minimize injury patterns. With so many technical advances in vehicle safety systems, people like first responders need to know how to correctly extricate someone from a vehicle.

When insurance agents participate in continuing education courses, it makes a difference for their relationship with the consumer. With more education on the repair, the agent is able to confidently refer his or her customers to a body shop. Rick and Peterson share their tips to providing relevant information in continuing education classes.

The Location

Rick says Axalta does not offer classes online, in part because studies have shown that classes taken online are inferior to a class that is located in a body shop or training facility and can offer hands-on training. And, from a safety standpoint, the attendees do not actually do hands-on repairs but are able to attend in-person, live demonstrations. Whereas there are online CE classes, Rick has found that agents enjoy the live interaction and education that can be passed onto their customers. Peterson conducts his classes in-house at one of his shop locations, most often at the Escanaba, Mich., location. He says he’ll offer a spread of food for the agents and typically set up a projector.

GETTY IMAGES

Robert Rick has heard it often: “Thank you.”

The Class Size

Rick recommends a CE class size be smaller than 50 people. While he has facilitated classes typically between one person to 50 people, he says that a more intimate class setting makes it easier for instructors to answer questions. “Most of the classes are between 15 and 25 people,” Rick says. So, he suggests keeping the classes smaller if possible and offering more of them for the insurance agents and customers. Peterson says he won’t allow more than 24 course attendees at a time. He says that he’s attended some Axalta CE classes and found that the larger class sizes make it harder for agents to ask questions and intermingle with the shop and instructors. “I require all of my estimators to come to the classes so it’s an opportunity for them to make the connections with the insurance agents in our area,” Peterson explains.

The Marketing

It’s a solid opportunity for the body shop that’s hosting a CE class to also market the course to the community, Rick says. For example, marketing to Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and local fire departments is a good way to spread the shop’s name

around without going to great lengths for a marketing event. “Make it a community event so that, when someone does have need of a repair, they remember your shop’s name,” he says. Local law enforcement can also provide statistics on the number of car accidents and collision repair fraud in the area. The owner of the body shop can tie those statistics into the fact that he or she is trying to educate the community on how lives can be saved and traumatic accidents can be prevented. For a typical class with 20 people, Peterson says he invests roughly $400. In return, he gets the shop’s name in front of insurers in the local towns and makes relationships. His class budget comes out of the shop’s marketing budget because in the end of the process, the CE classes help foster relationships between the insurer and the shop. Just three years ago, Peterson didn’t know any insurer in his area. Today, when he goes to visit a shop, he’s often instantly recognized the moment he walks in the door. “I probably have 12 main agencies I visit and they all wanted to hear about the classes because it brings them something they need to meet their credit requirement,” Peterson says. “At the same time, it gets my feet in the door to build that relationship.”

The Vehicle Technology

Rick says it’s essential that any technical class depict how the vehicle has to be brought back to pre-accident condition after each demonstrated step in the course to ensure the vehicle will work the same way it had in factory condition. In the courses, Rick says they build in “Ask the Expert” interactive training. For example, they will stage a piece of the vehicle in the body shop, such as a piece of the frame, and show how not only the damage will need to be repaired but how the measuring systems used by the technicians also bring the equipment back to pre-accident condition, as well. “Show a printout of what the measuring equipment shows before and after the repair,” Rick suggests. Peterson says he demonstrates how the

vehicle needs to be calibrated by setting up asTech equipment and going through every test the repairer would conduct. The test includes turning on headlights, rolling the windows down, and more. That way, the agents can see how the vehicle acts when it’s coded correctly. Three years ago, Peterson would ask if people were familiar with scanning and only get one agent to raise his or her hand. Now, there might be seven to raise their hands in the class. He says that most agents love the classes taught on advanced vehicle technology and the classes on hybrid vehicles. The shop has to be careful about what is shown to the agent but, for instance, if Peterson is talking about the crumple zones on the front of cars, he’ll bring in a front panel and also brings in a car to show where the high-strength steel cage is located.

The Customer

Insurance agents need to learn not only about the vehicle repair and measurements, but also how the customer can be properly informed throughout a repair, Rick says. Customer defection is at its highest point when getting a claim on the vehicle and by the time the customer leaves the insurance company, he or she will blame the damage on the insurance company itself or the body shop, he adds. “During a repair, an agent still wants to keep track of the customer because it’s his or her specific customer,” Rick says. For safety, Peterson offers courses that cover how a seatbelt should be worn properly, and how a driver can hold a steering wheel. One class that many agents have been interested in, Peterson says, is a course on aftermarket and OEM parts. Peterson shows the agents examples of both an OEM part and a somewhat similar aftermarket one. Then, he says the important step is asking the class whether they would feel safe with one or the other in their vehicles. He says it’s important to make the class critically think about whether they would feel safe in such a situation. Especially when talking about how the different types of metal need to be repaired on a vehicle, Peterson says. May 2019 | fenderbender.com 69

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70 fenderbender.com | May 2019

COLUMNS

IN THE TRENCHES STEVE MORRIS

The Keys to a Dedicated Teardown Area

NICK SPAETH

Set up a teardown area that will streamline blueprints

In recent columns, we’ve been focused on systems and processes that you will find valuable for your damage analysis or blueprinting process. Let’s continue with a few more tips, setups and procedures you can use to create your own robust damage analysis processes. Having a dedicated teardown area in your shop will be crucial for a successful implementation of the blueprint process. This well-lit teardown area needs to be large enough to accommodate a vehicle with enough floor space around to accommodate parts removed off of the vehicle. The area will also need a two-post lift, a small rolling toolbox, a rolling work table, space for rolling parts carts and a small stand-up desk with the estimating computer and scan tool for the person doing the blueprinting. This isn’t the complete list of items you’ll need in this area, but I’d caution you to not clutter up the area with unnecessary stuff. Let me elaborate on some of the items listed above. A two-post lift is ideal for your teardown area because it gives you full access to the underside of any vehicle you are blueprinting. This means you are able to remove under-shields, inspect and measure for structural damage, remove damaged exhaust components, inspect suspension components, etc., without interference and without laying on your back with a creeper. Your technicians that do the teardown will be more productive and will thank you for watching out for their health and welfare. Even if your techs provide their own tools, you should consider setting up a company-owned toolbox stocked with the tools that are commonly needed for teardown. The toolbox itself should be an inexpensive 30-inch, five-drawer mechanics box, which you can buy for $250. When we were deciding what tools to put in the box, we had one of our techs do teardowns for one week. Each time the tech used one of his own tools for doing a teardown, we asked him to

put that tool in our company-owned toolbox instead of putting it back into his toolbox. At the end of the week, we had an inventory of tools that were used for teardowns and we were then able to go out and purchase those tools to stock our toolbox. In our inventory we have fewer than 25 items including the toolbox. The tools are arranged in the drawers with shadow-board type liners. We did cut-outs in the liners in the shapes of the tools so that it’s easy to see where the tools should be returned. We also photographed each stocked drawer and assembled a laminated montage of the pictures as a guide to where the tools belonged. We attached the laminated photos to the underside of the tool box lid for quick reference. I know of some shops that do something similar but they use a peg board on a wall to display and hold the tools instead of keeping them in a tool box. Either way, it’s easy to maintain a small set of tools for teardown and it’s highly visible if something goes missing or needs replacement due to normal wear and tear. A rolling work table that is 48 inches by 30 inches is extremely helpful in your teardown area. Put a shipping blanket on the table top and use it for disassembling bumper assemblies and other large assemblies. The shipping blanket will protect from scratched paint on the components you’re working on. The size of the table lets your tech sort fasteners, nuts, bolts, and other small parts and get them labeled for your parts storage system (more on that in future columns). I recommend the space under the table top not have a second shelf since this is likely to become an area that collects unnecessary “stuff” in your teardown area. The blueprinters workstation will be your next project. As you can surmise, I believe the blueprinter should be stationed in the shop right in the teardown area. You might be tempted to use a process where

the blueprinter typically stays in the office while the teardown is going on, then, when notified, will go to the car and take notes about the damaged parts, repairable panels, and other operations, and take a few photos of these areas. After doing that, the blueprinter goes back to the office and attempts to write a thorough repair plan. There are several problems with that system and there will be a lot of wasted time and inaccuracies if you stick with it. How many times will your writer stop in the middle of the estimate to go back to the car and verify options that can’t be determined from the photos that were taken? Trust me, it happens all the time. More often than not, the writer will get interrupted by someone in the shop with questions about another vehicle or situation. These are just a couple of examples of why it makes sense to move your blueprinter, the estimating system and all relevant tools out to the teardown area. The blueprinters’ workstation should include a good computer with a solid internet connection for using the cloud based estimating systems. You should install a widescreen 32-inch monitor or use dual monitors so that the blueprinter has plenty of visual real estate for the programs that will be running simultaneously, such as the estimating system, the EPC, the OEM repair instructions, and parts search systems, among others. Make sure to include a good LED inspection light, a nice digital camera, a set of posca markers for mapping the repair plan on the vehicle, and a reasonably priced mobile phone or tablet to use for virtual assist interactions and other inspections. I believe that the blueprinting process is one of the most important systems you should implement and in my next column I’ll outline some of the step-by-step procedures used by successful shops to get a thorough, accurate and virtually supplement-free repair plan.

S T E V E M O R R I S is the director of operations for Pride Collision Centers, a seven-location MSO located in Southern California. He is an Accredited Automotive Manager (AAM) and ASE-certified master technician.

E M A I L : s t ev e m @ p r i d e au t o b o d y.c o m A R C H I V E : f e n d e r b e n d e r.c o m /m o r r i s

May 2019 | fenderbender.com 71

“SHOP CULTURE STARTS FROM THE TOP AND HAS TO BE CONSISTENT.” BRIAN ROACH MARKETING DIRECTOR ALEXANDER BODY & FENDER AKRON, OHIO PHOTOGRAPHY BY DANIEL J. SMITH

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SHOP TALK

BRIAN ROACH

Improved Atmosphere Brian Roach's varied professional experience has helped make necessary improvements to the culture at Alexander Body & Fender Co.

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SHOP TALK

BRIAN ROACH

Clear Communication The owners of Alexander Body & Fender Co., Brian Roach (below, left), and Jon Roach (right), focus on keeping their staff on the same page each day.

For the first few years of business ownership, Jon Roach worked with a business partner at Alexander Body & Fender Co. in Akron, Ohio. But in the early 2000s, the relationship hit a rough patch. Enter his cousin, Brian Roach. Did Brian envision himself going into the collision repair industry? No. But, in 2004, he stepped in to help run the shop. For a few years, Brian decided he only wanted to help his cousin by consulting with him and using his background in insurance and business mergers to keep the shop afloat. However, Brian found that he liked the business. And, when Jon’s business partner decided to move on and his insurance work came to an end, he found that the timing was right to come on board permanently. In 2015, Brian formally joined the shop and became part owner. He started by working on the legal side of the business. Jon wanted him to learn more about the inner workings of the shop, including estimating, but Roach said he wanted to go a different direction. He started focusing on the marketing for the shop, the culture and managing the employees. “When you have a bad marriage and an uncomfortable home, the first part in [recovery] is finding out which family members you want around and which ones still wanted to be around,” Roach says. In the first three quarters of 2016, the shop experienced staff turnover due in large part to the change in ownership, and sales lagged. So, Roach got to working hard on the big picture aspect of the shop management. Eventually, in 2018, the shop produced an annual revenue of $2.28 million. AS TOLD TO MELISSA STEINKEN

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ALEXANDER BODY & FENDER CO. LOCATION:

AKRON, OHIO OPERATOR:

JON ROACH (MAJORITY OWNER) AND BRIAN ROACH SIZE:

9,000-12,000 SQUARE FEET STAFF:

AVERAGE MONTHLY CAR COUNT:

70-100, 50-80 DETAIL JOBS

ANNUAL REVENUE:

$2.28 MILLION

The first thing I focused on was offering our employees benefits. I worked

on making it possible to give the staff a 401(k) plan. I wanted to offer the employees the opportunity to comfortably retire from the shop if they wanted to. By April 2016, we had a 401(k) plan. The next thing I focused on was the culture of the shop. I sat down with my cousin and asked him, “Who’s the boss?” My cousin thought I meant it should be me but I said no, and pointed to the sky. Everything starts from the top. Then it trickles down and has to be consistent. Now, during my typical day, I usually come into the shop after I attend morning meetings in the community. I wake up

at 5:30 a.m. and am usually at the gym right away. Then, after work, I get home around 7:30 p.m. Sometimes I attend a morning breakfast for Christian-owned-and-operated businesses in the area. This takes place on the last Wednesday of every month. There are also weekly meetings for the local chamber of commerce. I attend those at 8 a.m. Two or three days per week, I attend networking lunches or dinners in the community. On Saturdays, we’re open 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. I come in around 9:30 a.m. but then

I stay past our close. This is the time I take to work on the shop’s finances and books. I could stay until anywhere from 2 p.m. or all the way until 5 p.m.

During the week, I try to touch base with each of our employees. We have a staff

of roughly 23 people. I try to talk to each of them. I like to keep my ears out and listen and learn. If there is a problem that an employee has and I help them fix it, and then that employee keeps repeating the same mistake, then I know it is time to pull the whole team together and fix the issue. Once per month, we do a staff luncheon, we offer it to everyone and invite our other business partners, as well. At these meetings, Jon and I will update the staff on where we are financially with the monthly sales numbers and then our goals for the next month. In 2015, our annual revenue was $1.58 million and since then it has grown by $600,000. May 2019 | fenderbender.com 75

SHOP TALK

BRIAN ROACH

Our staff is not just considered employees. Shop culture starts from the top

and works its way down. We decided to only refer to our staff as “the team” and “team members” to better help with that culture. We also follow a few principles that showcase that culture. For example, our brand means more to us than getting rich and we’re going to do what’s right for the safety of the customer, regardless of whether or not we get paid for it.

I’ve spent time working to identify our ideal customer. We’re not a DRP shop.

The bulk of our work is through the customer choosing to come to us. I realized that for the previous 80 years or so that this shop has been in business, that customers will often go to family members and ask their grandparents for recommendations on which shop to go to. That was in our advantage because we’re an older shop. For the first six to nine months, I spent time researching who was coming into

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Time-Tested Business Alexander Body & Fender Co. is one of the oldest body shops in Ohio, and the longevity is a point of pride for its owners.

our shop. I discovered that our ideal customer had vehicles from Honda, Toyota and Hyundai. Our customers are from dual income families. These customers needed transportation whether it was to get to work or something else and they spent time taking care of their property. Since I started to help Jon, I focused on re-doing our logo and branding. Ev-

eryone at our company wears black and gold to match the shop logo. Before I redid the colors to match our slogan, it was green and a light beige color. We also have nine loaner vehicles that are painted with black and gold and display our shop’s name on the side of the car.

And, branding is not only about the colors but identifying the ideal customer. I did some research and our shop has been in Ohio since 1928. Our slogan now is that we’re the gold standard since 1928. We’re probably one of the oldest body shops in the area. We’ve always been known in the area as the best and the most expensive body shop but before we came up with the slogan, people didn’t realize that we’re expensive because we are thorough in our repairs. We’ll help deal with the insurance company but at the end of the day, your deductible is your deductible. So, we tell everyone to then choose the “gold standard.”

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