Mutual benefits
Wondering what it takes to break into the lucrative business of collision repair consolidation? It took entrepreneurial spirit and a lot of elbow grease for Mike Carson, 33, of Illinois.No stranger to getting his hands dirty, Carson started his automotive repair career right out of school, gaining increasing responsibility in a succession of jobs. He began as a detailer while attending an auto body program at a local community college. After that, he became a painter, then a body tech, then a production manager and finally — a shop manager.
"I've gone through the ranks. As much as I'd like to forget where I came from, I can't," Carson says. "It's a definite benefit from my standpoint, having that background. It has its limits at times, but for the most part I think it's more of an advantage than not. It's nice because I tell my guys, 'Don't ever think that this is the only place you can go. You can grow.' There's always room to grow. Back when I was doing body work I never thought I'd be a shop manager or a shareholder in an 11-shop operation."
That multi-shop operation is Collision Centers of America, a Northern Illinois-based company with locations in Chicago and several northern suburbs. Carson joined CCA in 2004 to serve as an estimator at the corporate headquarters in Woodridge, Ill. After four months he became a shareholder in the business. But it wasn't just Carson's hands-on experience that made him a desirable business partner — it was also his side business, Integrated Technology & Design, a Web-based training and consulting company.
Carson and his brother, whose background is in heavy construction equipment, started Integrated Technology & Design to address certain shortcomings they noticed in both businesses. "I saw a need for a standardized documenting procedure and a standard way of communicating," Carson says.
He noticed many shops were using different documents for the same procedures, which created confusion among shops. This was especially a problem for multi-shop consolidators. So the Carsons designed an online content-management system to standardize the documentation procedure.
After hiring Mike Carson to work at the corporate headquarters, Collision Centers of America signed on with the ITD system. Now Integrated Technology & Design controls documentation across all 11 shops via a secure online system. Employees can download and print out documents from anywhere at any time. "If a store needed a check request, they can just go in there and get it," Carson explains. "The CEO can be in Florida and upload documents to the site."The system facilitates collaboration and shared resources. It's even flexible enough to accommodate specific requests from corporate leaders — the recent addition of a staff calendar, for example, makes it possible for managers to view vacation schedules to anticipate staffing needs.
In addition, ITD standardized and expanded the company's entire e-mail capabilities. The ITD system features a comprehensive communication tool that distributes company notices and e-newsletters, and includes a discussion forum where employees from the company's various shops can chat online or post images in a photo gallery. "When you're slow people are screwing around on the Internet anyway, so they might as well check out our site," Carson says.
Another unique feature of the ITD platform is the learning-management system. The custom-built program features industry-specific training modules on everything from managing diversity to reading income statements. Employees can review the training modules and then test their comprehension. Managers can set the parameters for the tests, assigning a passing score of, for instance, 90 percent. Then when employees pass a test, they can send certificates to their manager and the HR manager.
Right now the ITD system is available only to CCA's administrative staff. The next step is to expand access to all employees in CCA's operation — detailers, painters, body techs and others on the shop floor. "At this point there would be nothing that would pertain to the shop yet, other than the discussion forums and stuff like that," Carson says.
The partnership with Collision Centers of America has proven beneficial for Carson. Not only does he have a large multi-shop business testing out his content-management system — he also has taken over management of a CCA shop. In January Carson left the corporate headquarters to become manager of a shop in Shorewood, Ill.
Training at the headquarters prepared him for the move. "I learned a lot of corporate ways of doing business that have helped me understand how to manage a store better, and that's why I was asked to come here – to bring this store to the next level of customer service and growth," he says. And the move appears to be working. "My second month here, we've done our best month ever in sales at this location."
