CollisionCast

Jason Bogg’s Secrets to Effective Leadership

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).  

Disrupt: Customer Service Loyalty Secrets

Barrett Stamps, manager of Auburn Collision 1, shares his secrets to not only providing excellent customer service but gaining customer loyalty. 

Vision: Growing Leaders in Your Shop

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.

Adapt: Choosing the Right Welder

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. 

Vision: What to Consider When Hiring a Millennial Manager

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.

How I Did It: Robert Molina

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.

Disrupt: How to Profitably Move Away from DRPs

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.

Adapt: ADAS Technology & Your Shop

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.

Denny Hecker on Body Shops’ Challenging Future

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. 

The Ongoing Debate: ACA on OEM vs. Aftermarket Parts

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 impression that aftermarket parts are inferior. On this episode of CollisionCast, Hanvey and Tom Tucker, director of state affairs for the association, discuss the bills and why they believe they set a bad precedent for the collision repair industry.