with Stacey Phillips
Tips for Busy Body Shops
Stacey Phillips is a freelance writer and editor for the automotive industry. She has 20 years of experience writing for a variety of publications, and is co-author of “The Secrets of America’s Greatest Body Shops.” She can be reached at sphillips.autobodynews@gmail.com.
with Stacey Phillips
Industry Veterans Erick and Shelly Bickett Share Insight About Collision Industry When industry veteran Erick Bick- in a body shop owned by a couple ett was growing up, he aspired to be of dealerships in Anaheim, CA, and an airline pilot like his dad. He real- eventually purchased the business, Stacey Phillips ized that a 9-to-5with job wasn’t for him. Auto Center Auto Body Inc. Erick always had an interest in We operated out of a 3,500cars and eventually opened a body square-foot facility behind a used shop with his partner, Shelly Bickett, car lot. Three years later, we built a who had a background in accounting. 30,000-square-foot state-of-the-art location at an auto mall where there were a number of dealers in one location. The business eventually bewith Victoria Antonelli came part of Fix Auto USA and grew to include 165 employees at nine locations, spanning over 200,000 square feet and bringing in more than $30 million in annual gross revenues.
My SEMA
Shop Strategies
Product Innovation
with Ed Attanasio Shelly: I never intended to be in the
body shop business. I went to school for accounting and was working at New York Life Insurance. When we Erick and Shelly Bickett bought into the business, I start That was more than 35 years ago. ed doing the accounting part time. Since then, Erick and Shelly have Eventually, I worked there full time founded a number of organizations in when we purchased the company. with Gary Ledoux the collision repair industry. These in- At the time, most body shop clude Caliber Collision, the Collision managers and owners had grown up Industry Electronic Commerce Asso- in the business and didn’t have financiation (CIECA), Cyncast, Fix Auto cial or accounting experience. Erick USA and the Collision Career Insti- is a great businessman and his finantute (CCI), which supports industry cial expertise helped us a lot and set apprenticeships. us apart from our competitors. with Stacey Phillips Autobody News recently talked to Erick and Shelly about their caHow did you both get started reer highlights as well as advice to How did your involvement in shops on how to be successful in the 20 Groups eventually lead to the forfuture in light of COVID-19 and in- mation of Caliber Collision? dustry changes. Shelly: When we started our first Mike Anderson How did with you both get started business, we became involved in a in the collision repair indus- 20 Group with other like-minded try? individuals. We’ve always found the networking to be very beneficial and Erick: While in college, I took a job it’s a great way to share knowledge driving a tow truck. I eventually and best practices. It also gives you managed the tow company and then the ability to have a bigger footprint transferred to the owner’s body shop. to work with insurance companies. Later, I managed a dealer group. I Otherwise, your body shop is like a also obtained my license to become lone ship on the ocean. an insurance agent. The shop owners would mea Early on, I realized I could be sure themselves against themselves, competitive in the body shop busi- and we soon realized that we needness. Shelly was a big influencer ed to compare ourselves with other in that decision. I was 28 years old shops nationwide. These measurewhen she convinced me to go out ments and numbers are now called on my own. In 1984, we invested Key Performance Indicators (KPIs.)
OE Shop Certification
Product Innovation
Q:
Erick: The formation of the 20 Group started with a group of California shops coming together to talk about the challenges of software we were all using. At that meeting, we realized the benefit of having discussions about business development issues and this led to the formation of our 20 Group. The industry was going through a lot of change and having the association of great operators was really important. When you are all by yourself, you’re not exposed to different viewpoints and other ways of doing things. Through the 20 Group process, we learned that the best form of continuous improvement is posting results and comparing them among the group. We were all active nationally at that time and a group of six business owners decided to form Caliber Collision in 1991.
• Large Inventory • Wide Delivery Area • Free Local Delivery
Q:
What role have you played in creating technology for the industry?
Erick: It was that learning through the 20 Group that was an incentive to eventually start CynCast in 2000, a technology company serving thousands of collision repair shops that was later sold to Enterprise Rent-A-Car. We built technology predominantly to create transparency around shop performance. In a 20 Group, that’s fairly easy to do because everyone brings in their financials in a common format. Since there wasn’t anything already built for the industry in the late 1990s, we started the Collision Industry Electronic Commerce Association (CIECA), the only industry organization providing standard methods of electronic commerce. Having e-commerce is critically important. The way things are going now with APIs
• Experienced Staff Ready To Serve You • Competitive Prices
From the Desk of Mike Anderson
Q:
Call Us Today for Genuine Hyundai Parts!
www.patrickhyundai.com
847-605-4055 Parts Direct 847-619-4511 Parts Fax
Parts Hours: Mon - Fri: 7:30-5:00 1020 E Golf Road Schaumburg, IL 60173
32 AUGUST 2020 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com
Midwest_Issue_0820.indd 32
7/20/2020 5:57:00 PM
