Nearly every business has dealt with customers that are upset. You may have heard something like, “You said my car would be ready 2 hours ago! Now you’re telling me you don’t have it done!” Or the concern could be a billing issue; or an incorrect price quote. Whatever the problem; front-line employees are confronted with situations like these every week, maybe even every day. 

When you are in front of an angry customer it is supremely important to focus on your goal: to provide…

Time is running out to register for the free ABRN webcast, "The Lean Shop and Continuous Improvement," which will be held at noon eastern time Thursday, July 28. It is designed to introduce collision repairers to lean concepts and give them some takeaway ideas for their shop. http://www.abrn.com/leanprocesses

by Kip Kint - Director of Training and Development, ContactPoint

As a ContactPoint trainer, I stand in front of businesses large and small and teach them how…

Your goal is to get less business, right? To tick-off your potential customers so thoroughly that they never want to do business with you. Ever. You want to make them feel dumb when they call you. Make them feel like they are wasting your time. You want your potential clients to hang up the phone and say ‘Man, I will…

  I thought of an idea that I think could uplift our entire industry, save insurance companies money and greatly benefit the consumer. My idea would have those participating in any DRP program agree to random post repair inspections, not by the insurance company, but by each other. The program would work like this:

  Subsequent to repair, vehicles would be randomly selected to be re-inspected by another network shop. The customer's name and the name of the repairing shop would be…

There are a lot of discussions on various blogs about estimating, practices used and the tools we should be using to create a complete damage appraisal.  It all gets a little mind-boggling reading all the theories and mindsets surrounding whether you should write an estimate or “grab the keys” and convince the customer you need to accomplish a “blueprint” to find the true cost.  I agree that the most effective way to determine the damage on a vehicle is to tear the vehicle down until you…

I don’t think anyone would argue that business reports are an important part of being successful. I also believe common sense comes into play also, however, without specific information, it is difficult to make sound business decisions. Here is the question: How do you take your reports and use them in a tactical way to support your companies overall vision and strategy for growth? In the last blog post I provided a short list of what I believe are the essential reports to grow your…