Growing a repair business into an MSO brings plenty of benefits—more revenue, greater market share and increased resources that translate into greater reinvestment for additional growth. Moreover, the bump in profits and earning potential help maintain a vibrant workforce capable of attracting new employees.
With these benefits come some pretty significant challenges. Growing businesses require larger infrastructures with more management to oversee operations, planning, organization and personnel. Notably, all these areas tie into training, which itself will need to grow. Juggling increasing training needs across multiple sites is no picnic, but it's a talent shops need to master if they intend to transform into successful MSOs.
Fortunately, many shops have successfully handled the transition of training at multiple locations, including several of ABRN's Top Shops Contest winners. As repairers ponder building their businesses, they might want to consider some of the lessons these shops have gleaned.
Lesson 1: Form a flexible oversight team.
Unless a standalone shop is large--for example, with more than 15 employees and several managers--it's a good bet that business gets by with a single point person (usually the manager or a foreman) who tracks and schedules training. Obviously, as sites get added to a repair business so does the number of employees who track training, along with the structure of the "training management team."
Andy Dingman, general manager of Dingman's Collision Centers in Omaha, Neb., explains he has one employee in charge of developing training schedules for his four-location business (that person also has other duties). Dingman collaborates with this employee to help set goals and directions, a regular part of his management duties since the shop is "always training."
Greg Hagan, Body Shop Director of D-Patrick Body and Glass, utilizes a similar setup at his four-site business in Evansville, Ind., with different levels of management Hagan essentially serves as the point person and works with the location manager at each shop. He takes the lead on organizing I-CAR training since he's also an I-CAR instructor.
Location managers provide much of the direction on OEM training and certification since their shops are connected to D-Patrick's new auto sales locations. Each shop has different OEM requirements. The manager of the shop attached to the D-Patrick dealership specializing in European vehicles must handle the strict demands for certifications in BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Audi repair.
The business utilizes one more employee who handles training outside of I-CAR and manufacturers.
Although recently acquired by ABRA Auto Body, Keenan Auto Body, whose 12 shops sit outside of Philadelphia, maintains a similar setup using multiple oversight employees. These employees manage training areas that fall under their respective departments. For example, I-CAR training is mandatory as Keenan seeks to maintain its I-CAR gold class certification. The I-CAR "education champion" who oversees this training (while touching base with each site's location manager) fittingly handles company compliance for Keenan.
OEM training, meanwhile, is managed by the company's marketing director. Keenan President and COO Mike LeVasseur explains, "As part of our marketing programs, we promote our certifications from manufacturers like BMW and Mercedes.
LeVasseur also lends a hand in integrating employees into Keenan's training efforts since he personally handles all new employee orientation.
Lesson 2: Set more frequent goals and schedule accordingly.
The more locations and employees a business has, the greater the need to plan early for training. This means going well beyond setting an annual training schedule and turning instead to a quarterly training review and, in some cases, a monthly plan.
"If you schedule yearly, you fall behind," says Hagan. "Our needs are always changing. In our case, being a dealer organization, we constantly have to look at other issues such as ongoing certification." Hagan notes that he checks the business's progress in maintaining I-CAR Gold certification quarterly and strictly adheres to I-CAR personnel development program.
Dingman utilizes I-CAR the same way. To help ensure he provides uniform training across sites during the same time frame, he tries to fill training schedules during the same periods. He notes, " We look at what's available and try to fill a class with as many of our people as possible."
Since uniform scheduling can be difficult for MSOs, Shawn Moody, founder of Portland, Maine-based Moody's Collision Centers recommends training in months when business is traditionally slow. Not only does this practice help to smoothly integrate work and training schedules at his nine-location business, he says it also gives employees more time to focus on what they've learned.
Lesson 3: Employ a flexible budget.
Shops typically set an annual training budget just as they budget for every other part of their business. Since, as Hagan noted, training needs constantly change, MSOs need greater budget flexibility to address these changes.
Dingman says this was particularly true for his business last year as nearly18 employees worked to recertify through I-CAR under the changing price structure and the shop gained Ford F-150 aluminum certification.
LeVasseur notes his business sets a "hard" training budget for each location but can move funds from one site to another if one shop has available money that another shop needs.
Lesson 4: Give everyone a voice.
In an effort to install uniform training throughout a large organization, MSOs run the risk of depersonalizing training opportunities. That can be a big mistake since shops benefit when employees seek out learning opportunities on their own to bring valuable new skills back to a business.
Hagan says his business encourages workers to identify training they want, as does Dingman who notes, "If somebody has interest in learning something, we'll figure out how to accommodate it."
Moody says his business has even sent employees to college to earn full degrees if they express interest. This can be expensive, but Moody maintains that training is an investment that does bring dividends both in the form of economic rewards and the bond between employee and business.
Lesson 5: Organize your non-I-CAR training.
Handling training delivered by manufacturers, vendors, jobbers and on-line sources can be challenging for MSOs since they need to consider how to relay all this information to multiple locations. They also need to decide which sources to use since MSOs, because of their size and market impact, frequently receive offers from training providers to use their services.
LeVasseur's business utilizes a program where new training is thoroughly reviewed and tested before being rolled out company wide. LeVasseur explains that vendors must first contact Keenan's corporate office with a training proposal (vendors are not permitted in individual shops). From there, the proposal is examined and, if accepted, field tested at one or two shops. If the results are positive, the training is then presented to the leads of all the departments that would be using it who then can take it to each location.
LeVasseur notes that Keenan's holds a painter's summit three-four times each year where its paint vendor provides training to all the company's lead painters. Attendees also shares ideas on best practices and cost savings and discuss related issues, such as ways to raise KPI scores.
Lesson 6: Create a management program.
Shops of any size wanting management training have plenty of options--everything from formal college business programs and management training institutes to coursework from industry vendors. Expanding organizations also need to look at instituting their own internal programs to ensure uniform oversight across sites that reflects the business's values.
Hagan attends management classes and, since he's already an experienced instructor, trains his instructors on anything of value from the course when he returns. From there, he and his management team work on finding way to put new principles into place.
Keenan hires 90 percent of its managers from within, so they're already aware of the business's procedures. Outside hires spend several months following a manager and learning directly from that person.
Additionally, as part of these programs, managers can be encouraged to gain or maintain technical training or certifications. LeVasseur notes that even though it's been some time that's he's worked on a vehicle, he still possesses an ASE master certification.
Lesson 7: Put training at the core of growth.
Not all training needs to be management-based or focused on distributing technical or procedure information. MSOs can benefit from learning aimed at building and strengthening their business cultures, critical pieces in the formula for successfully expanding a business to other locations.
Moody and his staff identified this need early in their business's history when they began to consider opening a second site. Specifically, they were looking for a way to improve communications and build leadership to ensure information and values could be passed on to another location.
Moody settled on a three month evening program offered by a local community college, which the shop paid for through a state training grant. The entire workforce attended, including Moody, not only because he wanted the training, but also to demonstrate his commitment to it.
The grant that covered the cost of the program carried three requirements:
1. The training had to offer employees an increased opportunity for promotion.
3. Participants were guaranteed a pay increase within 12-18 months based on increased skill level.
3. The training couldn't be industry specific and must be portable.
The first two requirements offered additional motivation to employees who initially balked at giving up their evenings to attend classes. The third may have caused other repairers to balk at the opportunity because it wasn't tied to collision repair.
Moody calls it one of the program's benefits. "If you do things the traditional ways, you're going to get traditional results," he says. "It pays to get out of your comfort zone."
At a time when such training wasn't popular in the industry, Moody and his employees were learning to create personality profiles, conduct an information exchange meeting and both give and receive feedback.
Moody raves about the results. "It formed the core of our growth," he says. More than that, employees found the lessons so valuable, they carried them over to their personal lives. Moody says, "They talk about how it made them better parents and spouses."
The training remains a continuing requirement for all new Moody employees. Some shop veterans volunteer to retake the curriculum, and the shop annually plans for it, regardless of whether a grant is available.
To date, Moody's has used the program to become an employee-owned enterprise that stretches over nine locations.
Paying it forward
Training is never inexpensive. Even when it's provided free of charge, employees are still on the clock and work efficiency is affected to some extent. As a repair business grows, training expenses rise at a comparable rate. Once a shop expands to more than two sites, those numbers can begin to look prohibitive.
Yet, shops cannot afford not to train or to begin looking at training as just another expense. The key is getting the most out of the training they do invest in through careful management, planning and learning from the experiences of others facing the same challenges.
