In September, we launched our eBook, Small Changes, Big Differences in the Bodyshop, looking at how marginal gains can improve the bottom line of modern vehicle repair businesses. In this second blog in our ‘small changes’ series, we will investigate how bodyshops can improve profit margins by protecting the estimate.
Responsible for ensuring the correct value is achieved for each repair, the Vehicle Damage Assessor is at the heart of bodyshop profitability. Every estimate must be carried out with maximum accuracy, to ensure that technicians have a clear blueprint of the exact work accounted for within the cost of the estimate.
With bodyshops already operating within extremely tight margins, any work completed in addition to that accounted for on the original assessment inevitably adds on further time and costs required to complete the repair. When this occurs, the VDA needs to go back and revise the estimate to account for all the work completed.
Putting this into context, if the average bottom line profit on a vehicle repair is £30, the opportunity to add another £10 to the estimate, for a missed task, or work operation, increases the total profit made by a third. These gains might seem marginal on a case-by-case basis, but they must be protected in order to positively impact your bottom line when accumulated over time.
Taking simple steps to provide a constant flow of communication and in-repair images between the VDAs and technicians, can improve the clarity over the exact work required and allow workshop staff to raise questions when necessary to avoid any additional work being carried out and not captured within the assessment.
Utilise the communication channels within Audaenterprisegold to send tracked communications and unlimited images for each vital step of the vehicle repair, ensuring all activities are accurately documented and following the required best practises.
While at first it this may seem to add another step to the repair process, by documenting communications and providing the required evidence for each step, this could ultimately determine whether a profit is lost or gained on a job.
To read more, download the full eBook here: https://www.audatex.co.uk/news/small-changes
