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Letter to the Editor
Friday June 3
Sherwin-Williams Conducts Training Class for University of Toyota Estimator Certification Program
The University of Toyota recently approved Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes Corporation’s “Estimating Solutions for Profit” class as part of its estimator certification program.Toyota Motor Sales USA’s research has shown that a poor collision repair experience often results in customer dissatisfaction, which ultimately lowers the profits for its dealers. The most effective and efficient way to restore a damaged vehicle to a pre-accident condition is to begin with a very accurate and thorough assessment of the damage, commonly referred to as an “estimate.”
The damage estimators participating in Toyota’s new estimator certification program will be challenged to move away from the traditional method of estimating and embrace a more comprehensive approach to estimating—“blueprinting” the repair plan.
Steve Feltovich, Business Consulting Services Manager for Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes Corporation (SWAFC) commented, “We are extremely excited about the opportunity to be selected by Toyota as the training partner to participate in enhancing the skills of vehicle damage estimators for Toyota’s dealership network.”
“Estimating Solutions for Profit,” a seven-hour, hands-on workshop, provides estimators with techniques, skills, and information necessary to write more profitable estimates. The class comprises real world estimating scenarios and industry specific issues pertaining to body shop operations and insurance relations.
“Body shops often provide employee training on everything from accounting practices to paint application; but they rarely include estimating in the training process,” said Jason Crager, OEM Account Executive, Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes Corporation. “Most estimators fail to capture all the necessary repairs on their initial estimate, and our mission is to remedy this situation. In fact, we have found that the attendees in our ‘Estimating Solutions for Profit’ class have increased their estimating accuracy on average by 28 percent.”
SWAFC’s “Estimating Solutions for Profit” class is approved and accredited by the Automotive Management Institute (AMI) and offers 12 credits toward AMI’s diploma program.
“We have been using Sherwin-Williams’ ‘Estimating Solutions for Profit’ class to train our estimators for several years,” said Brad Brahe, Body Shop Development Manager, Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. “We have seen the value of this course and are pleased to include it as one of our requirements for the newly developed estimator certification program.”
SWAFC’s “Estimating Solutions for Profit” course will be available to all of Toyota’s 1,200 dealership partners nationwide, which represent approximately 450 collision centers within this dealer network. Non-Toyota dealerships or independent body shops’ estimators interested in attending SWAFC’s “Estimating Solutions for Profits” class can visit www.sherwin-automotive.com/company/training for more information and a class schedule.
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