Repairer to Repairer: Shop Trends that Need to be Discussed

Repairability, revolutions, insurance relations, best practices and vehicle advancements – repairers from coast to coast face similar hurdles in their businesses every day, and during SCC 2023’s Repairer to Repairer panel discussion, industry leaders shared their insights into tackling these tough topics. The panel included Barry Dorn (Dorn’s Body & Paint; Mechanicsville, VA), Phil Rice (Huber Collision Center; Fredericksburg, VA), Michael Bradshaw (K&M Collision; Hickory, NC), Frank Rinaudo (Frank’s Accurate Body Shop; Slidell, LA) and Ron Reichen (Precision Body & Paint Inc; Beaverton, OR) and was moderated by CCA President Kyle Bradshaw.

When asked what separates their shops from their competitors, the panelists agreed that culture is the main differentiator. “The most important people in our organization are our team because they take care of the customers who take care of our bottom line,” Reichen said. “We can teach skills, but if you want a perfect employee, you have to create that yourself. Owners and managers need to see themselves as coaches.”

“Two things we can control are attitude and effort,” agreed Kyle Bradshaw. “If people give us those, we can train and groom them if they’re willing to commit and do the right thing.”

Rice suggested that career pathing is also “huge and ties into how we differentiate ourselves. People need to be able to see how they can grow within the organization.”

Not surprisingly, panelists indicated that timeliness is one of their largest challenges in today’s market. The most important way to overcome issues related to resolving things in a timely manner is maintaining communication with the customer.

“Transparency begins at the beginning of the process,” Rinaudo stressed. “We have documents explaining what parts we’ll use, our labor rates and operations…and once we finish our repair plan, we email the estimate, photos and procedures to the customer and have a conversation explaining what we’re doing and why. If we don’t do that, they don’t know.”

Referencing the trend of multiple supplements, Dorn called it a “morale killer that frustrates your staff, plus it adds an additional expense and burden on you. No matter what the insurance company wants to do, it’s the same car, and the end result is going to be the same. To the customer, seeing these different plans makes them question who is lying to them, and from the shop’s perspective, a vehicle that goes into the supplement process becomes a brand-new vehicle that just came in; we have to start the process all over.”

“Carriers are experiencing the same thing; it’s wearing their people out too,” Michael Bradshaw pointed out. “We’re arriving at the same place, so why do we need to go through all the back and forth?”

Panelists discussed the value of furthering their education by getting involved with local and national associations, as well as by mentoring one another. Documentation is vital, but no shop owner could say they get paid for every item they write for…so, how do they handle those disagreements?

“It starts with being transparent about what’s going on and establishing the fact that we’re the expert,” Reichen insisted. “We will write a repair plan that follows OEM procedures, but the relationship between the shop, customer and insurer isn’t a triangle; it’s two flat lines – one between the shop and the customer and another between the customer and the bill payer. If we reach an impasse with the insurance carrier, the customer has different options to get paid.”

Litigation is always an option, though it can be costly, but many policies also offer other possible remedies such as the Right to Appraisal. “The Appraisal Clause process works,” Dorn added. “We can’t choose it, but it’s an option for the customer. We spend time educating the customer so they understand the insurer isn’t the repair professional; we are.”