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Professional Solutions
Mitchell’s Road Show highlights the software’s management advantages.
T
he Mitchell Road Show has returned to Canada for 2015, making its first stops in British C olumbia to visit t wo ver y different collision repair facilities. It’s a good place to start such an undertaking. The first facility was the collision centre attached to Mercedes-Benz North Vancouver. Now just a few weeks away from retirement, Manager Joe Bove has been using Mitchell’s estimating and other solutions for his entire career. “I’ve used Mitchell since I started in the business 32 years ago, originally with the books and then electronically,” says Bove. “In my opinion, it’s a very good estimating platform that’s fast to learn and easy to read.” Bove also appreciates the dedication to accuracy shown by the Mitchell team. The system is loaded with repair times, based on careful studies of average repairs, but some vehicles don’t have repair times. That’s a plus. “We repair a lot of high end vehicles. Some of those vehicles just aren’t repaired often enough to have time studies done on them,” says Bove. “Mitchell doesn’t include the times unless they have solid evidence to back it up, so they’re not in the system.” In other words, information for a vehicle that almost no technician will ever see might not be included. When the information is there, as it is for every almost every vehicle, it can depended upon to be accurate. As part of the dealership, it’s natural that most of the work that goes through Mercedes-Benz North Vancouver’s facility are the high-end vehicles that are sold there. Bove says Mitchell helps to ensure the high levels of satisfaction their customers expect. The Mitchell Road Show next touched down in Abbotsford, home of CARSTAR 360. A franchised collision centre is different from
The team at Mercedes-Benz North Vancouver. The facility was the first stop on this year’s Mitchell Road Show.
The team at CARSTAR 360. The location is also home to 360 Fabrications, one of Canada’s top auto customizers.
a dealership collision facility, but CARSTAR 360 has an additional factor that makes it stand out. It’s also the home of 360 Fabrications, Canada’s largest builder by volume of custom vehicles. Both businesses are owned by brothers Rick and Daryl Francouer. “The custom business and the collision business have some similarities, but they’re actually very different, and they have different needs,” says Rick Francouer. “We had been using Mitchell ABS up until 2011, when we decided to move to the new Mitchell RepairCenter.” This makes the facility an early adopter. What prompted the change? “We anticipated that we would need it for our own reasons,” says Francouer. “We believed that a cloud based management system put us ahead of the curve. Running our performance and custom business has given us an appreciation for always adopting the latest technology.”
Mitchell RepairCenter
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Oddly enough, the custom part of the business is still using Mitchell ABS, but C ARSTAR 360 uses the more recently launched Mitchell RepairCenter. “ABS works well in the customization side, but managing a repair business is very different. Customers at 360 Fabrication aren’t as interested in a quick turnaround. These aren’t daily drivers. Customers at CARSTAR 360 need their vehicles back as soon as they can get them. It’s not a fun project or a labour of love for them. It’s an absolute necessity. Mitchell RepairCenter has everything we need to get them back on the road as quickly as possible, while allowing us to manage our time and resources in the most effective manner.” The Mitchell Road Show makes its next stop in Calgary. Don’t miss the full coverage appearing in the next issue. For more information, please visit go.mitchell.com/2015CanadianRoadShow.