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Letter to the Editor

This article originally appeared in the December 2006 Issue of INSIGHT

Look Back; Look Ahead

by Karen Kilbane

Our feature this month challenges collision repair facility owners and managers to sort their shop repair orders in a completely different way. Instead of the intricate and usually overlapping types of job descriptions we have been using, the suggestion is made to think of just two types of jobs - first-party and third-party claims. Before immediately dismissing the concept out of hand, read and consider this different viewpoint.

INSIGHT is predicting a few topics for 2007 that will be big.

First, of course, we should see some careful statistical work on changes to refinish labor times. The CIC Anti-Fraud Committee stirred something up at the Las Vegas meeting that needs some serious work.
Direct Repair Programs will continue to be in the forefront in the New Year. Estimate auditing software and third-party involvement, along with some debate on just who ARE the estimating systems’ customers will be on the Collision Industry’s Hot Topics List.
Insurer-Shop relationships are definitely moving up on the industry’s list. Many industry participants are seeing a return to the old adversarial roles they worked to soften during the last few years.
Rising materials costs and a flat collision market (Some markets are definitely worse than flat, too.) will put increased pressure on collision repair facilities to get even more efficient, and to keep an even closer eye on the bottom line.

INSIGHT is interested in hearing from NACE 2006 attendees. Drop us an e-mail: editor@collision-insight.com, and let us know something useful you learned there that you plan to put into practice back home.

Wishes for a snowy winter for all our collision repair readers, and a Happy New Year filled with good health, wealth, happiness, and opportunities to all!

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