Do You Know What People Are Saying About You?

This blog article has been written by Brian Doyle, product manager for RepairCenter Reputation Manager.

As the internet continues to evolve, so has the way information and opinions are shared. Social media has gone from a buzzword to a widespread form of influential communication.  As consumers pay more and more attention to what others are saying online, opportunities are created for businesses to market their brand, but new risks also appear. Social media and online communities are new channels which businesses need to monitor closely and frequently to protect their brand. This begs the question: are businesses going online to create false buzz or reviews to either bolster their reputation or deflate the competition’s?

In a recent blog article in Harvard Business Review, the interesting dynamic of online reputation management is addressed. The two experts interviewed for this article were Michael Luca, Professor at Harvard Business School, and Georgios Zervas, Assistant Professor of Marketing at Boston University of School of Management. Together, their findings show that businesses are likely to post fake reviews when they are new in their business cycle, face intense competition, or have had a recent surge of bad reviews.

So why would auto body shops even care about online reviews? Previous research in this field has revealed that an increase of just a single star on a review site can lead to more than a 5% increase in sales. This is a huge economic incentive for independent businesses to actively manage their online reputation, or at the very least, monitor it for any negative reviews or comments.

Here at Mitchell, we are continuously evolving our products to provide our clients with new ways to keep track of what people are saying about their business online. For example, we recently released Reputation Manager, which is a suite of products that provides users the tools to manage their online brand, gain business insight from customer survey data and keep customers informed during a repair.

Social media monitoring is important for every kind of business out there, including auto body repair shops, and the tools to help you monitor are out there. Make sure you do your research to see what works best for you, and what can help you increase your business potential.

Tips to improve your Mitchell Estimating Performance

This blog article has been written by Ken Clapp, Mitchell’s product manager for Mitchell Estimating.

I’m confident most of you reading this blog have at one time or another installed Mitchell Estimating in your repair shop. Did you know that when we install Mitchell Estimating for you, there are a few things we specifically look for that ultimately improve the performance of Mitchell Estimating on your computer?

To make sure you all know what these key items are, I have listed them below so that all of you can perform a few simple system checks that will significantly improve your Mitchell Estimating performance.

1. For network installs, add the mapped drive to the local intranet list in Internet Explorer, enabling you to avoid the security warning every time you launch Mitchell Estimating.
2. Make sure all PCs are using a gigabit Ethernet connection and are configured properly.
3. Run the basic PC performance checks (CPU speed, RAM, disk free space, and fragmentation). Disk defrag is important on Windows XP machines because it does not run automatically, and if you hard drive is fragmented; it will slow down your computer if not run frequently. If you are using a Windows 7 computer, Defrag is set to run automatically and is not a concern. If you’re not sure how to defrag your computer, instructions can be found here.
4. Check your anti-virus instructions and ensure the following exclusions are in place (both the folder and file). In addition, make sure any modifications are acceptable with your security policies before modifying your anti-virus settings.

a.       For Windows XP or Windows 2003 Server:  (not intended as a complete list)

M:\Mitchell;

C:\Mitchell;

C:\Windows\mitchell.ini;

C:\Program Files\Mitchell;

C:\Windows\System32\Spool

b.      For Windows 7 Professional or Windows 2008 Server: (not intended as a complete list)

M:\Mitchell;

C:\Mitchell;

C:\ProgramData\Mitchell;

C:\Program Files (x86)\Mitchell;

C:\Windows\System32\Spool 

(M: = mapped drive for multi-user versions of UltraMate.)

c.       Please also add the following file extension exclusions for UltraMate:

k00; k01; k02; k03; k04; k05; k06; k07; k08; k09; k10; k11; k12; k13; k14; k15; k16; key; dat; dbd; d00; d01; d02; d03; d04; d05; d06; d07; d08; d09; d10; d11; d12; d13; d14; d15; d16

We’re constantly working on improving your experience with Mitchell Estimating, and are always looking for ways to make your job easier. I hope that these simple tips can enhance your current performance, and please keep checking back for more tips.

Reduce Your Paint Cycle Time!

This blog article comes to you from Mitchell’s product manager for RepairCenter ToolStore, James Ho.

In the collision repair industry, cycle time is a leading key performance indicator (KPI) for both body shops and insurance carriers. Though there isn’t a standard measure of cycle time, most people consider “keys to keys” (customer drop-off to return of vehicle) as the definition of a cycle. Reducing cycle time on a job has many obvious benefits: insurance companies want to control their rental car and loss of use expense, while shops want to get jobs done as quickly as possible so they can work on more cars and have satisfied customers. 

Many factors contribute to the cycle time on a job and a successful shop is able to tackle most, if not all of these factors. One of the most important and time consuming parts of a collision repair is the paint process. This is the step where the shop will paint new parts and repaint fixed parts going back onto the damaged vehicle. In some cases, the entire vehicle is brought into the paint booth for a repaint! The paint process consumes a significant amount time, and it is also where shops have the flexibility to manage the process to maximize efficiency and reduce cycle time.

One major inefficiency that many shops experience in the painting process is getting the vehicle’s information to determine the right color and quantity of paint to mix. Traditionally, the painter would need to search in the shop’s management system for the specific repair order, dig through to find the vehicle’s color, and how many panels are being painted. The painter would then have to manually input this information into their Paint Mixer and then track the job cost back into their management system. In any given week, this could waste 5+ hours of a painter’s time which could have otherwise been spent on actually painting. 

Mitchell has worked with each of the major paint providers to develop custom paint interface add-ons that integrate Mitchell’s shop management software RepairCenter™ with all the paint mixers. Shops using RepairCenter save their painters a lot of hassle and wasted time by seamlessly connecting the shop’s Paint Mixer to RepairCenter and allowing job information to flow between the two systems. Painters can automatically pull in vehicle information into their paint mixer without leaving the paint booth and push job cost data back into their RepairCenter. This connection removes the need to manually transfer information between the two systems and allows painters to focus on what they do best: painting.

These paint interfaces require little or no investment as most of them are free. They do require for the shop to be using RepairCenter, of course. Over the course of a year, the time savings from having an efficient paint workflow could mean more jobs completed and more revenue…and who doesn’t like that?

Is your shop prepared to repair hybrid and electric vehicles?

This blog article comes to you from Mitchell’s product manager for RepairCenter TechAdvisor, Sharon Wong.

It is no surprise that over the past few years, there has been a surge of sales for hybrid and electric vehicles. The “going green” movement has caused these gas-efficient vehicles to become increasingly popular, with models such as the Toyota Prius, Ford Fusion, and Tesla Model S being great examples of prominent vehicles that happen to be hybrids. 

According to Green Car Congress, the Toyota Prius was the top-selling model in California in the first half of 2013, as well as being part of the Top 10 best-selling vehicles in the nation. Additionally, according to the Los Angeles Times, through the first quarter of this year, sales of hybrids rose 19% over the same period a year ago.

 

There is no doubt that advancing hybrid technologies will continue to occur, and that the number of hybrid vehicles will continue to grow at an exponential rate. More hybrid vehicles on the road also equates to  more potential accidents and repairs, so being prepared and educated on these types of repairs is crucial to maintaining and increasing revenue for your shop. 

While hybrid and electric vehicles provide many benefits to the car owner such as increased gas mileage, the new technologies in these vehicles make repairs more complex. In many circumstances, your technicians may not have come across these types of vehicles before. There are numerous rules of conduct and protective measures that must be followed in order to prevent injury or harm to the technician. 

According to Al Thomas, department head of Collision Repair at Pennsylvania College of Technology, high voltage batteries (300 volts or more) can kill a technician who has not disarmed the high voltage system properly. Furthermore, regenerative breaking systems can produce enough electricity to injure the technician pushing the disabled vehicle around the shop. 

The most fail-proof way to ensure that your technicians are following the proper repair procedures is to invest in a standardized repair information database. Mitchell’s RepairCenter TechAdvisor has a wide range of coverage for current hybrid models, and provides step-by-step procedures in dealing with repairs. The Mitchell Electric/Hybrid Safety Quick Reference Guide also provides real-life pictures accompanied with numbered techniques and caution notes in order to make repairs as simple and efficient as possible for technicians. 

Don’t be fearful of electric and hybrid vehicles. Invest in this information to ensure that you are following the proper guidelines to do them yourself, keeping repairs in-house while increasing revenue for your shop.