A panel of collision repair shop owners shared how they’ve moved to more specialized employee roles within their company, during a Society of Collision Repair Specialists’ (SCRS) training class during the 2024 SEMA Show in Las Vegas.
The three opened the discussion by first talking about the benefits of such specialization in manufacturing, particularly at another transportation sector company like Boeing, where exacting tasks are handled by specific people who become very skilled and productive at that work.
Barry Dorn of Dorn's Body & Paint in Mechanicsville, VA, said he believes that just as more shops are specializing in the repair of fewer makes and models, more specialized roles for employees will similarly boost expertise and productivity.
Dorn said with all the duties shops have traditionally given to estimators, for example, how high a priority will it be for them to mirror-match parts or handle parts returns and credits?
“They’ve got to take care of the customer. They’ve got to get the car going. They’ve got to get this supplement approved. They’re not worried about parts,” Dorn said, saying his shop, which repairs about 160 cars a month, has a dedicated parts team.
Similarly, he said, if a technician is also handling supplements, they will likely be focused primarily on body labor hours because in a flat-rate system, that’s the basis of their compensation.
“You can’t blame them,” he said. “So that’s why you have to have at least some level of a blueprinter or a repair planner that’s with them who is also focused on parts and focused in on the procedures.”
Having a detailer or someone other than an ADAS specialist do the pre-scanning of a vehicle isn’t likely to ensure the shop has all the information it needs as repairs begin, Dorn said.
“That’s the initialization of you finding out what’s wrong with that car,” he said. “Yet most of the folks doing it in most shops are literally hitting ‘print’ and hoping that somebody, somewhere, will know what it means, yet it’s often sitting in the file not being read. It has to be somebody who actually knows diagnostics so he can read it, and know what he’s looking for, and more importantly, know when they scan something, depending on if it’s an OEM tool or if it's an aftermarket tool, how far down into the modules is it going?
“Is your estimator going to know that? Probably not. That’s not what they were trained for,” Dorn continued. “I don’t know that I can, because I was never trained to be a diagnostic service tech. The point is, if you hire folks for that role, they’ll give you the information that you need to know what’s wrong with that car prior to even writing the blueprint, instead of finding out five hours before the customer is supposed to come pick the car up.”
Starting in the Body Department
Kris Burton of Rosslyn Auto Body in Alexandria, VA, said he started the transition to more specialized roles in his shop’s body department, developing assembly and disassembly teams and adding helpers and apprentices -- three of the five are under age 19 -- to help keep structural technicians focused solely on that highly-skilled work on the 78 cars the shop repairs per month on average. That helps make it easier to bring in entry-level technicians to train.
Kris Burton said narrowing the responsibilities of each employee makes it easier to find or train someone to fill that role.
“When you are able to narrow it down as far as the roles and responsibilities of that person, it's a lot easier to introduce younger people into it,” Burton said. “People always say: ‘There's not enough techs. We have a shortage. We need to have more people.’ But having a kind of a reduced role makes it a lot easier to bring people in. It’s like we’re creating our own farm system internally, and can promote from within. I don’t want to say that we don’t face a technician shortage, but it’s not as drastic.”
By segmenting out all the roles the typical estimator handles, Burton has been able to bring in customer service reps who just handle all customer interactions, including explaining the process and selling the job.
“Some of the best CSRs that I’ve found have been from restaurants,” he said. “Lately it’s been from even like vet’s offices and doctor’s offices and dentist’s offices. They’ve dealt some with insurance companies to a different level, and kind of have an understanding of admin and processes.”
His shop’s 21 employees include a 19-year-old technician who specializes in ADAS and diagnostic work.
“He started with us when he was 16, and flies all around the country for training and loves it,” Burton said. “The reality is that it’s become a specialized role, and it’s something that's attractive to a lot of young techs.”
Only One Structural Tech Needed
Like Burton, Michael Bradshaw of K&M Collision in Hickory, NC, said few people have all the different skills needed for the tasks many shops have traditionally required of estimators: technical knowledge, customer service and sales abilities, negotiating, collections, etc.
Michael Bradshaw said it’s rare to find someone who has all the technical and customer service and sales skills shops have traditionally required of estimators.
“Is there any one [task] that they’re really going to be able to excel at if they’re trying to manage all these others?” Bradshaw asked. “I know sometimes we look at things from a perspective of ‘I can't afford to have somebody else to do this task or this role.’ But if you look at the inefficiencies that are created, you really can’t afford not to have somebody alleviate some of that stress.
“Think about it: We want somebody up front who can sell and is pleasant and nice to deal with. But a repair planner is usually somebody that's probably a little nerdy because it’s super technical, and maybe isn’t the best at interacting with the customer. Those two people are rarely the same personality type,” Bradshaw said. “But we wonder why we don’t have success. Why are we missing parts? Why are we not closing on the opportunities that we have? Because we don’t have the right individuals in the right place, and we’re asking one individual to do way too much.”
Bradshaw’s shop has 31 employees, but just one structural technician, with a helper, who does all the welding and frame work -- becoming very efficient at it because it’s all he does -- while others handle disassembly and reassembly, glass work, scanning and calibrations, etc.
Similarly in the paint shop, Bradshaw said, having one person handling all color matching helps that person become very efficient.
The parts team at Bradshaw’s shop includes one person who does all the mirror-matching of parts and checking for any damage to those parts; another ensures all the invoices are received, that discounts are correct, that parts price updates are applied to the estimate, and returns and credits happen.
“We’re processing about 100 vehicles a month,” Bradshaw said. “At one time we had one individual doing all those [parts-related] tasks. He worked for us about a year and a half and then resigned. He resigned because he couldn’t deal with the stress. It was hard for him to have the time to mirror-match because he was handling all the communication with the dealers and follow-up on back-ordered parts and all that.
“After we hired an individual dedicated to doing all the mirror-matching, I was able to bring back that parts manager, and he’s as happy as can be now,” Bradshaw added. “And he’s really good at the accounting side of things.”
John Yoswick