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Letter to the Editor

Holding a Mirror to the Industry

How the Collision Repair Industry can best improve its image is an ongoing debate.

Massachusetts shop owner Chuck Sulkala said one doctor's words about collision repairers still haunt him - although they were said more than a decade ago to someone other than Sulkala.

"I was doing some work with a company that was selling computer systems to shops in the California market," said Sulkala, who also serves as the executive director of the National Auto Body Council (NABC), an organization with the sole mission of improving the industry's image. "I was riding with one of the sales reps, who told me she'd recently told her doctor that she was selling computers to shops. The doctor put down her pen and looked up and said, 'Oh my god, you have to deal with them?'

"I hope that sends a chill up your back, because I know every time I tell that story, I get a chill up my back," Sulkala told a gathering of shops, insurers, and industry vendors who met in Chicago in early May to discuss the NABC's efforts. "I know tons of people in this industry from the west coast to the east coast, people who are hard working and would give you the shirt off their back, and those people aren't them."

The NABC forum in Chicago last month was designed to solicit new input and involvement from more industry segments in NABC's decade-old effort to improve the collision industry's image. Starting off the discussion, Sulkala made it clear that it is not just shops that suffer when the industry has a bad public image.

"If the image doesn't improve, how good is an insurer's direct repair program?" Sulkala asked rhetorically. "Do consumers just see it as choosing the best of the worst?"

The discussion focused on three primary questions:

1. Is the industry's image really an issue (see article immediately following)?
2. If it is, what has caused the problem?
3. And what can the NABC do to help improve that image?

Teresa Costick of Carstar-Bolingbrook in Illinois said she believes one of the causes of the industry's poor image, certainly in the past, has been its appearance - the appearance of repair facilities and the lack of a professional appearance of those working in the industry.

Bob Medved, who started in the industry as a technician prior to a 25-year career with State Farm, said he believes the image problem needs to be tackled from within the schools, to make sure the automotive programs are not just where problem kids are dumped, and where they are receiving training that will make them employable in the industry.

"It's not going to get better overnight, but we have to start putting better people into the system," Medved said. "The problem is we have bad seeds going into the ground."

Others said there is a need for fundamental changes within the industry and increased efforts to weed out fraud being perpetrated by both shops and insurers.

"You're putting those seeds into contaminated ground," Lou DiLisio, an industry consultant and chairman of the Society of Collision Repair Specialists, responded to Medved.

Both DiLisio and I-CAR's Rick Tuuri argued that marketing or advertising isn't going to help the industry's image if the way many shops and insurers conduct business leaves consumers with the impression - rightly or wrongly - that things aren't entirely above board.

The fact that, because of how shops and insurers conduct business, final billing for repairs may be twice the initial estimate is not viewed favorably by vehicle owners, Sulkala said.

Industry trainer and consultant Tony Passwater agreed, saying the industry draws from largely the same pool of students as other trades, such as electricians or plumbers, but he believes those trades have a more positive public image in part because the link between their hourly rate and the time they spend working on a job is more readily understandable to consumers.

Dan Risley, executive director of SCRS, said he doesn't disagree that change needs to happen, but that should not rule out marketing efforts as well.

"You still need to build your image by telling people who you are and what you're all about," Risley said. "State Farm has built its image on its slogan. State Farm could be ‘a good neighbor,’ but that's not enough. You still need to tell people you are a good neighbor."

Some at the meeting pointed to the fact that surveys have found a low percentage of collision repairers saying they would want their children to enter the industry.

Others contended this says very little about the industry's image because the same would be true for nearly any trade. People always just want "something better" for their children.

A variety of possible projects to improve the industry's image were discussed. Some said the growing number of companies doing reinspections of repaired vehicles could help, as could the services that enable shops to post photos of repairs in progress for customers.

Trish Serratore of ASE said as part of ASE's effort to recognize the professionalism within the industry, it is working to get all fifty states to declare June 12 as "National Automotive Service Professional Day."

Sulkala said that while much of NABC's media work in the past has focused on the trade press - believing that improving the industry's "self-image" could help its external image - he said the group's board recognizes that it needs to also use the consumer press more to convey positive images of the industry.

As it has in the past, it was suggested the industry follow the lead of the dairy farmers or beef producers and ask shops to contribute a small fee per job to fund a public relations or marketing campaign on behalf of the industry.

Several of the insurers, paint manufacturers, and other large companies represented at the meeting said they would look into having their marketing and public affairs departments participate in future meetings or projects.

Rick Ciesla of Daimler Chrysler suggested that the NABC also look to the work done by "Automotive Retailing Today," a coalition of major automobile manufacturers and dealer organizations working to promote a better public image and change the frequently-held negative stereotypes of auto dealers.

And while some shops already repair and donate vehicles for needy families or participate in child seat safety efforts, some at the meeting said these are the types of projects NABC could push for wider participation by shops.

Medved said these projects would fit better with what the industry is all about than earlier NABC projects, such as building a Habitat for Humanity home in Kansas City, or raising $500,000 over 18 months to help build a medical center at Camp Mak-a-Dream, a Montana camp for kids with cancer.

In addition to these two recent projects, over the past decade, the NABC has used other efforts to improve the internal and external image of the collision industry.

It responds to negative portrayals of the industry in the media, such as when the cable television series "The Sopranos" showed characters unable to keep up with demand from body shops for stolen airbags.

It presents "Pride Awards" annually to recognize those within the industry for their charitable or humanitarian efforts, and it created a guide to assist shops in holding open houses during October's "Pride Month."

For more information, call the NABC at (888) 667-7433, or visit the NABC website.

Is Image Really an Issue? Let’s Find Out!

At the National Auto Body Council (NABC) forum in Chicago in early May, several participants raised a good question: Is the public image of the collision industry really bad - or does the industry just believe that it is?

INSIGHT believes the NABC could commission a professionally-conducted survey of consumers - as well as a survey of those within the collision industry - to find the answer to this question - and help itself and the industry in the process.

The I-CAR Education Foundation offers a good model. Beginning in 1995 and every three years since, the Foundation has conducted an industry survey to find out about entry-level and journeyman technician wages, about turn-over within the industry, about the number of those entering and exiting the industry, etc.

The survey has given the Foundation - and the industry - valuable information on the degree to which the perceived technician shortage is real. The surveys also help measure any progress made in combating the problem, and give the Foundation data it can use in its fund-raising efforts to help address the technician shortage.

The NABC, like the I-CAR Education Foundation, should be able to find one or more sponsors within the industry to fund its surveys, which, if done properly, would provide baseline information about the degree to which the collision industry's image - internal or external - needs propping up.

The surveys could help root out the cause(s) of any image problems. If, for example, surveys find that indeed the physical appearance of shops is what gives many consumers a negative perception of the industry, the NABC would know that perhaps "Auto Body Beautiful" awards that honor shops (through positive publicity in their community) that have upgraded the appearance of their storefronts and customer areas, could help address the issue.

Just as importantly, the surveys could give NABC data to prove its case to those that could support its efforts (financially or otherwise), and, if conducted on a regular basis, could help NABC track its own progress in improving the industry's image.   o

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