"Being organized is the root of easing the stress.”
All body shops have to forge communication between customers and insurance companies. And at All Line CARSTAR in Bolingbrook, Ill., Courtney Hartwell is the middle woman.
As an estimator for All Line CARSTAR, the pressure is on her to both balance a satisfactory customer experience and maintain the shop’s DRPs. And Hartwell is living proof that the most crucial component of building that bridge isn’t an extensive background in collision repair, but instead an organized schedule and established communication skills.
“I think anybody can do it,” Hartwell, who managed a tanning salon before settling in at All Line CARSTAR, says. “There's a lot of different levels of things you need to make sure are checked off a list properly. I think anybody could become an appraiser and do their job very well. You don't have to have the knowledge—it's all stuff you can learn. But you have to be willing to learn it and educate yourself.”
And that’s exactly what Hartwell did. In the 11 years she’s worked at All Line CARSTAR, Hartwell has built her estimating expertise, earning I-CAR Gold status and ASE certification.
These days, Hartwell has the estimating process mastered, and her success stems from a tried-and-true inspection and communication process that keeps customer satisfaction high and stress levels low.
Our shop has over 25 direct repair relationships with insurance companies in which we essentially serve as their estimator. We probably work with 10 that write their own estimates, but we know what parts they use just based on doing the work for them. I pretty much know the guidelines based on having done enough work for them and what they require.
I follow a pattern with inspections. If you can write everything at once, it makes it easier on the insurance side, makes it easier for the customer, because at that point you're ordering all the parts at one time for all the damage. You get all the parts in at the same time, you process the repairs quicker—in the ideal world.
In the industry right now, especially in the Midwest with the weather we get, we have to schedule. So you can only see what you can see with the vehicle being driven, and then once that car's washed, it's amazing the additional items you find. Then you go from there. You're on the floor, looking under hoods, pulling bumpers back, pulling out lights. Technicians will do all that for me, but I’m the one photographing it, writing what's needed and going from there.
There’s so many new electronics that a lot of times I have to educate myself. Once this car is done: What lights could be on that need to be checked? What systems need to be reset? Maybe a blind spot indicator? A lot of times there are certain things that have to have a company reset them and make sure all those things function properly. Even if you're just removing a bumper and putting a bumper back on, they're more technical and more involved now than they were. You have to know all that. You have to have the education.