March 5, 2012—Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes will host its next two A-PLUS University EcoLean training courses at the Springhill Suites Hotel in Hampton, Va.

The training courses, which include “Improving Workshop Efficiency” and “Achieving Service Excellence,” are scheduled for March 28-29.

Sherwin-Williams said its “Improving Workshop Efficiency” training course is designed for collision shop owners and managers who are interested in leveraging the power of lean production and business solutions that reduce environmental waste. The course teaches collision repair shops how to take advantage of lean production and green business practices to develop a sustainable program to drive profitability. The course will cover the following topics:

• The origins of lean production
• How to run the workshop more efficiently and effectively
• Raising output quality while lowering operating costs
• Capturing increased market share through continuous improvement
• Maximizing production and profit opportunities
• Developing systems and processes to assure greater customer loyalty

Sherwin-Williams’ “Achieving Service Excellence” training course is designed for shop owners, production managers, customer service representatives and estimators. The course teaches the skills, knowledge and tools that are necessary to improve a collision center’s quality, production and output by focusing on the right types of customer service, according to Sherwin-Williams. The course will cover the following topics:

• How to become more profitable with a customer-focused strategy
• How to establish a proven method for providing each customer with value
• How to build a strong brand based on customer service excellence
• How to improve efficiency and effectiveness of your customer service staff
• Identify service excellence professionals in and out of your organization
• Explain driving factors behind the experiential service economy

“Now is the right time for collision repair facilities to redesign their business model and utilize the powerful principals of lean production,” said Troy Neuerburg, manager of marketing business services for Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes. “Lean collision repair shops—and those that utilize the right methods of customer service—are able to reduce internal costs and raise their level of CSI and output quality while gaining a competitive advantage in their respective markets.”

For more information, or to register for the training courses, visit sherwin-automotive.com/en/Events.aspx.