Shop owners offer what they’d say—or like to hear—if they could address the industry
By John Yoswick
Ron Nagy doesn’t hesitate when asked what he would like to say if given a chance to deliver a message to the industry.
“My message is pretty simple: Get involved,” said Nagy, president of Nagy’s Collision Centers, which operates 13 shops in Northeast Ohio. “There are too many shop owners out there who do not attend industry events, whether it is association meetings, NACE or SEMA. They are not up to date on pre- and post-repair scanning, on using OEM repair procedures, etc., simply because they are not involved and do not read the trade publications seriously.”
As the collision industry gathers in Las Vegas this fall for SEMA, here is what some other shop owners around the country said they’d like to hear from industry leaders at the events — or would say themselves, if given the opportunity to address the industry.
Don’t try to compete on price
Byron Davis of Auto Body Specialties in Springfield, Ore., said his message to any shop that is struggling is that it’s likely because of too many price concessions.
“You’ve heard the phrase, ‘Death by 1,000 cuts,’” said Davis, who operates a 10,500-square-foot shop along with a satellite customer service center in a neighboring town. “That would be the title of my speech. They’re all doing it to themselves. They just keep giving it away. Why? Because the large MSOs are doing it. It makes me sick. You’re never going to out-cheap an MSO. That is their business model, and you’re not going to outdo them.”
Davis said the large MSOs have intelligent people and can command better discounts, so trying to compete with them on price is foolish.
“It’s impossible to out-cheap them,” he said. “So you need to out-perform them. You have to have better customer service. Then you can compete with them. I’ve done it for years.”
Take care of your people
Chris Wilson, who oversees a team of 32 people at the Titus-Will Collision Center in Tacoma, Wash., said his message to other shops is to take good care of your employees.
“What we do on a daily basis can be exceptionally challenging,” Wilson said. “Customer service can be tough in any business but especially ours, because traditionally no one wants to see us. But our customer service index is pretty high, and that’s because of our staff. In turn, you have to take care of your people. Nearly every person I have hired has worked at some other location in the industry. They’re No. 1 complaint was not being treated fairly there. No one listened to their concerns. I had a technician who was frustrated with a couple of little things, and I asked him, ‘What is it you think would be better?’ I’d implemented that within that day. I keep following up with him to ask him: ‘Is this working out now? Is there anything else we need to tweak?’ They love that. They see instant action instead of hearing, ‘That’s a great idea, and I’ll get to it when I can.’”
With the technician shortage, Wilson said, shops need to invest in growing their own new technicians.
“At the beginning of the year, we hired our first truly official body technician apprentice,” he said. “We have her on a formal two-year apprenticeship. Some shops have what they call apprentices, but they’re really just helpers. They’re not assigned specific tasks or required to show competency over a certain period of time. But here she has very specific criteria that she needs to accomplish every six months. When she does that, she gets a merit increase, and we provide her tools as well. So it’s kind of similar to what some of the large MSOs have done. But she won’t have to go to a different shop when her apprenticeship is done. She has employment here.”
Take care of your customer
Jim and Dawn McCoy also say their message to the industry would focus on people. After 17 years working in production and management for a collision repair business that was eventually purchased by a large MSO, Jim McCoy purchased Lents Body Shop, an existing 10,000-square-foot collision repair business in Portland, Ore., about two years ago. He said he’s been a long-time participant in a 20-group, and that’s what has helped him focus on the people aspects of the business.
“For the first few years, that group was concentrated only on lean processing,” McCoy said. “Now we’ve moved into a leadership training focus. Our tagline is: Building better humans. We want to develop and empower employees to work with customers and make decisions without having to look for a manager. It’s about seeing people as people, not objects. It’s lot easier to be mad or yell or be upset at an object than it is a person. So stop and think and treat people better. I think employees really appreciate it.”
McCoy’s wife, Dawn, who helps oversee the company, said that respectful treatment of people extends to customers as well, who often say they didn’t feel listened to at other shops.
“We hear from customers who come in and say, ‘I went there and they wouldn’t even come out and look at my car. At least you came out and looked at it, even though you may not be able to help me,’” she said. “I think it’s about seeing the customers as people, not a means to an end.”
“The big players in town have a certain demographic they want, and everyone else just gets shoved away,” Jim McCoy said. “We’ve seen it far too often. ‘Just because I have a 1995 Honda Accord doesn’t mean I’m not worthy.’ We get that exact phrase from people. ‘I was treated like trash because I have a 1995 Accord.’ I saw that firsthand going from a family-run business to a corporation. So I’m glad to be back in a situation where we can treat everyone with the respect they deserve.”
Follow OEM procedures
Allen Martinez manages Prestige Imports Collision Center, with 27 employees operating out of both a 16,000-square-foot main facility in Lakewood, Colo., as well as a 10,000-square-foot facility three blocks away used primarily as an aluminum repair facility.
He said that if he had a chance to address fellow shop managers or owners at an industry meeting, he’d have a two-part message calling for unity.
“I think we all need to be on the same page as far as repair procedures,” Martinez said. “We also need to be paid for the things we need to do to repair the car correctly per OEM standards. As we’ve learned from the lawsuit in Texas, the insurance companies aren’t going to be the ones that get pinched. It’s going to be the repairer. I think collectively we need to say: The car tells us what we need to do to repair it correctly, and that’s what we’re going to do. We have a duty and requirement to protect the people inside these cars.”
He said too often shops cave when an insurer tells them that, for example, that $80 special bit to drill the B-pillar off a particular vehicle is “part of the cost of doing business.”
“In reality, it’s not,” he said. “If they think they can push to get shops to agree to that, it makes it harder for the other ones saying it’s not a cost of doing business. We need to be paid for the things we need to do to repair the car correctly per OEM standards.”
Martinez said it doesn’t matter if a customer spent $25,000 on a Honda, or $100,000 on a Land Rover.
“They’re all entitled to have their car repaired correctly through the OEM standards and guidelines,” he said. “That would be my cry to the rest of the industry.”
Don’t waver in your beliefs
John Arnold reflected on his message to the industry as his company, Arnold’s Body Shop, is about to begin its 50th year in business in Davenport, Iowa.
“We all made it here by working hard, believing that the vehicle owner is our customer, that correct and quality repairs are our No. 1 priority, and that we need to get paid for them,” Arnold said. “Those virtues, if you all follow them without wavering, will carry you through this ‘storm’ and into the next one. You have to believe in yourselves, and work as a team on all levels. You will never be in the Warren Buffett income bracket, but you also will not suffer. I am proud of all of you.”
Support one another
Dave Jacobus is a second-generation collision repairer, operating Jacobus CARSTAR in Vancouver, Wash., with eight employees in a 5,000-square-foot shop. He said at times he thinks seriously about building a new facility two or three times that size, but isn’t sure he could find the technicians to staff it nor if he wants to take on the added challenges. He thinks many in the industry are too focused on scale.
“I think you can stay small,” Jacobus said. “You can have a mini-mart and be profitable. You don’t have to have a Fred Meyer,” he said, referencing a chain of large grocery stores.
His other message to the industry, he said, would be a call for unity.
“We need to stick together as one,” Jacobus said, noting that doesn’t mean price-fixing or any other illegal activity among competitors. “I just think we can do more to support one another. Being part of CARSTAR is a great thing for me. I like the networking and having someone I can pick up the phone and call and get some help. On a national level, I think that’s just great.”
Now, he said, he’d like to see more shops, whether independent or part of a larger network, offer one another that same type of support and help.
Get involved
Scott Benavidez is the owner of Mr. B’s Paint & Body Shop, Inc., in Albuquerque, N.M., and is the national collision division director for the Automotive Service Association (ASA). He said he’s concerned that too few collision repair shops really have a grasp on the liability they face for the work they do.
“We are responsible for so much information and for customers’ vehicles,” he said. “It is our responsibility to properly document the damages, and repair the vehicles to [OEM specifications] using ever-changing procedures.”
He said insurance industry pressure to reduce costs only complicates this.
“That transfers down to our repairs and the vehicles we are returning to customers,” Benavidez said. “More and more, these vehicles are so complicated that if we don’t perform proper repairs, it will come back on us. We as a shop ‘fight’ on a daily basis to make sure we are not only doing proper repair, but that we are getting paid for it. The industry is changing fast. With all of the consolidators making deals with not only insurance companies, but also part manufactures and paint companies, it will be hard for independents to compete anymore.”
Like Nagy, Benavidez says this only increases the need for shops to get more involved.
“Educate yourself and your team to really understand the what, when, how, why and where,” he said. “We as an industry have lost touch with associations that can educate us on how to properly run our business like a business.” •
John Yoswick, a freelance writer based in Portland, Ore., who has been writing about the automotive industry since 1988, is also the editor of the weekly CRASH Network (www.CrashNetwork.com). He can be contacted by email at john@CrashNetwork.com.
