ABRN: As CARSTAR celebrates 25 years, what are some of the keys to success from the past that you’ll take to the future?
DB: The whole company was founded on the concept of training, education and helping our people be more successful. That is really the concept that Lirel Holt, the founder of CARSTAR, set out to do. It is critically important that we carry that mantra forward and continue to help our people be some of the best educated, best certified, best prepared people in the industry.
ABRN: Training needs are continuously changing. How do you keep your shops up to speed?
DB: We have a proprietary training system called The EDGE Performance platform. It has multiple tiers, a ton of content and sequencing where we take our stores through each of the tiers. And they are sequenced in such a way that they work together more effectively. And at the end of each of those tiers, we have certification for our stores. This process ensures that we get all of our training fully executed and implemented throughout the network. It includes technical training, financial training, operations training, process training. The entire CARSTAR process is baked into that system. The EDGE platform is continuously evolving. Since Dean Fisher’s arrival last year as Vice President of Field Services, we have put an intense effort on upgrading and expanding it, providing significantly more content and providing certification for the various levels, ensuring that our stores comply with getting through the tiers on the appropriate timeframes. It’s 1000 percent more robust than it had been in prior years.
ABRN: How is CARSTAR preparing its shops for aluminum?
DB: We are the only MSO that does aluminum certification today, and we’ve been at this for several years. This is something we are accustomed to, and that gives us a leg up in how we then prepare the rest of our network for these changes.
ABRN: CARSTAR focuses on the 3Cs — closing ratio, cycle time and CSI. Why are these the three key elements?
DB: We believe that almost everything else derives from one of those things. For us, closing ratio is incredibly important because it is people who are already coming to your door. So the ability to have a higher closing ratio is money in the pockets of our owners.
Cycle time is really everything. You can talk about days of rental, touch time, but cycle time is what we are measuring that will drive our ability to get additional work and drive down costs. CSI, or NPS as we look at it, is the single best way to measure overall customer satisfaction in most industries I can think of, not just collision repair. And at the end of the day, we are a customer service business and understanding how we are performing against customer expectations is the only way for us to know how to improve our business over time.
ABRN: CARSTAR has a different approach that the other MSOs in letting shop owners stay just that. How do you ensure corporate uniformity?
DB: We have an integration process for 90 days with every new franchisee. They are required to do a number of different things that immerses them in the CARSTAR process. That is the way we get them up to speed on new branding, the new processes, the new management systems, rebate programs and more.
ABRN: What are some of the ways you help to foster a positive relationship with your insurer partners?
DB: We do have a deep relationship with the carriers and its one where we can help them and they can help us, so it’s mutually beneficial. We are very clear with perspective franchisees that this partnership is important to us, and we purposely don’t look for candidates for the network who are anti-insurance. We don’t think that is productive; we don’t think that is the future. We have embraced a different path of cooperation, which we believe is why we continue to be the largest MSO in the category.
ABRN: When looking to bring new shops into CARSTAR, what are some of the main qualities you seek?
DB: They have to have the passion for the business and the desire to fully participate in the network to succeed. It is important that they have enough human resources and financial resources that will allow them to fully participate in our programs. Some independents that are on the smaller end of the continuum don’t have the resources to allow them to fully participate in our programs, and we don’t think that is a good recipe for success.
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