DJ Mitchell has seen it all as first the COO of Car Guys Automotive and now the Regional Director of Joe Hudson's Collision Center. Listen to his insight as he discusses the unique challenges and opportunities of new staffs, new shops, and growing a family business.
Josh Avello, an automotive collision repair instructor at Ranken Technical College in St. Louis, explains how shop owners can help prepare their technicians for success when they take welding certification tests.
Mitchell’s latest Industry Trends report explores the importance of having a complete, objective view in its feature article, “The Power of Perspective: Seeing the Full Picture of a Claim.” Nina Smith, Mitchell’s executive vice president and general manager of casualty solutions, explains how integration and how the technology and data provides the insights required to give adjusters a full picture of the claim.”
Shop owner Danny Szarka explains the best, current methods for finding quality entry-level technicians among job applicants.
Dubbed "the future of collision repair" by industry superstar Mike Anderson, shop owner Jason Boggs, joins CollisionCast to discuss his evolution as both a shop owner and a leader. Boggs discusses how he figured out his own leadership style (and how it differs from his shop owner father's), how he tweaks his leadership style according to the employee, and the surprising parallels between collision repair and the restaurant world (spoiler alert: Boggs is an avid cook).
Barrett Stamps, manager of Auburn Collision 1, shares his secrets to not only providing excellent customer service but gaining customer loyalty.
ABRA Auto Body & Glass has made moves to becoming not only the repairer of choice but the employer of choice. FenderBender sat down with Carmen Thiede, chief people officer for ABRA, and dived further into how the company goes about finding, retaining and developing leaders.
Brian Wasson, manager, program delivery for I-CAR, shares the ins and outs, from price to flexibility of the product, of choosing the right welder for your shop.
Travis Fitchie was only 20 years old when he was promoted to the manager position at Apland's Auto Body. Jodie Apland, vice president of the shop, and Mike Apland, president of the shop, witnessed Fitchie raise the shop's sales through a "bite-your-fingernails" stage. Here is why and how the Aplands decided to hire a millennial manager.
Robert Molina is this year's FenderBender Award winner in the Executive category. He led his $12 million body shop beloved by his Miami community by investing in people and technology and instituting a customer-first mentality. Here's how he built his massive, technologically advanced operation.
Island Fender used to receive 90 percent of its business from DRPs. Feeling he was losing control of his body shop, owner Van Takemoto decided to tone his DRP business down. While painful at first, now his business is thriving. Here's how he did it.
While, ideally, driver-assist systems reduce the likelihood of crashes, there are still going to be opportunities for work for collision repair shops. To help clear things up, David Aylor, director of active safety testing Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, gives a rundown on the current state of ADAS technology and how those vehicles affect body repair procedures.
Controversial auto industry consultant Denny Hecker sat down with FenderBender to discuss what he views as the long-term viability of the collision repair industry. Hecker, one of the original franchisees of ABRA in Minnesota, says that, these days, shop operators need to know their market better than ever.
Not long ago, two bills in Rhode Island, Senate Bill 2679 and House Bill 8013, were passed into law. They sought to expand restrictions currently in place on aftermarket parts in first-party claims to any collision damaged vehicle. This resparked a long-running debate between OEM vs. aftermarket parts. Bill Hanvey, president and CEO of the Auto Care Association, says the law unfairly requires consumers to go to a dealership to get a low-cost part at an inflated price, and creates a false impress...
From hiring the right manager to keeping tabs on their performance, there's a lot that goes into finding your right hand man. Here's everything to consider. Here are some tips from Steve Morrow, owner of Capitol Collision Center, on how to find the perfect manager.
Conner Brothers Body Shop has become a beloved, embraced body shop in the Chester, Va., community. Owner Kevin Conner details how he grew that operation and how he built himself back up after his father sold three of the family's four body shops.
Jenna Gross, chief marketing officer for Moving Targets, shares some insights into how to form a game plan for your target audience via social media and online advertisements.
As the general manager of five Cole's Collision Centers, Josh Jewett has a ton of experience mentoring managers in training. In this episode, he details his keys for grooming managers for success, the difficulties one can often run into when coaching managers, and how to empower managers who feel unsure of themselves.
Barry Snyder of Axalta Coating Systems discusses how a paint job in your body shop can affect the LiDAR technology that’s crucial to how autonomous vehicles function.
When J.R. Hubbard moved Selecta Auto Body into a new 10,000-square-foot building a few years ago in downtown San Francisco, he did so after thorough research and planning. Here's how Hubbard readied his processes, employees and customer base for his business's big change.
For this month's edition of CollisionCast's How I Did It series, FenderBender spoke with Rocky Champion, who runs the $2 million Barrett Collision Center in Abilene, Texas. Champion details how he took his father's DRP-heavy shop to a OEM-certification-focused shop, how he ensures an ROI on OEM training, and why he ultimately decided to become part of the CARSTAR model.
As millennials slowly overtake the workforce from baby boomers, shop owners will likely need to shift their management styles to accommodate the succeeding generation. Zac and Matt Ciaschini, owners of the $1.9 million Full Tilt Auto Body in Easthampton, Mass., manage a staff largely comprised of millennials, and are in a unique position to offer some advice. From leadership style to in-shop technology to creating a career path for employees, here is their blueprint for managing millennial emplo...
Representatives from Garmat and Filter Works USA sit down for the latest episode of CollisionCast to discuss how to properly maintain a paint booth to increase its longevity and improve your shop's bottom line.
The California Autobody Association opposes Assembly Bill 2276—a labor rate survey bill—in its current amended form, as it throws out the previous bill's provisions that could have insurers using large areas to define a market and reusing old labor rates. Don Feeley, interim executive director for the association, spoke with FenderBender to explain the ins and outs of the bill, how the trend could spread to other states, and what individual shop owners can do to help combat the issue.
FenderBender begins its How I Did It series, which features stories from the industry’s brightest leaders, and how they built the businesses we’ve come to admire. The inaugural episode kicks off with Tiffany Menefee, who took over Pronto Body Shop in El Paso, Texas, three years ago and rose annual revenue from around $250,000 to $1 million with a focus on insurance relationships and customer appreciation. As a former employee of the insurance industry, she brings a unique perspective to how shop...
Several years ago, gas catalytic drying technology was introduced. The equipment is designed to dramatically reduce paint drying time by drying vehicles within minutes instead of hours. Now, Tim Beal, owner of Beal's Auto Body & Paint, has developed his own technology, called the Phoenix. He spoke with FenderBender about why he entered into the robotic paint drying arena and how his technology works.
Is a franchise right for you? That's the question Jerald Stiele, owner of Hopkins Auto Body 1, had to ask himself before joining the 1Collision Network. And now that he's settled into his new model, he's ready to talk about the process of joining a franchise and in what ways it changed his business model.
Sheryl Driggers has been in the collision repair business for a long time, and she's come to understand that it's not enough to be a leader in your shop—you have train your employees to be better at what they do individually. And that means being a coach to your employees and providing an environment where everyone is constantly learning and improving. In this episode, Driggers discusses how she's built a culture of continuous success for her employees, and how she empowers them to strengthen th...
For this episode of CollisionCast, shop owner Carl Garcia will be discussing how to create space for training in your shop, and how to build a culture of training amongst your employees.
In its 2015 Q3 Industry Trends Report, Mitchell published the top 10 parts involved in collisions, and 68 percent was represented by bumper covers. However, 72 percent of bumper covers are being replaced as opposed to being repaired. The repair vs. replace issue carries into 2018. At the 2017 FenderBender Management Conference, Kurt Lammon and Mike Anderson spoke about repairing vs. replacing plastic parts. For this episode of CollisionCast, Lammon, the president of Polyvance, speaks with Fender...
