Wish No. 8: Dealership wholesale parts departments need to “play nice in the sandbox” with one another.
I can’t tell you the number of times I hear about a body shop needing a part being told it’s on backorder---only for the shop to find out a dealership in another market has it, but won’t sell it to a customer outside their market. I recently heard about a shop’s customer actually locating a part at another dealership, and finding it unfathomable the shop, dealerships and automaker couldn’t keep this problem from happening. It makes all of us look stupid. Parts departments need to work better with one another.
Wish No. 9: The industry as a whole needs to understand in-process scans are also needed on every vehicle.
I think the industry has pretty much caught up on the need for pre- and post-repair scans, but less so on the importance of in-process scans. Many diagnostic trouble codes need to be cleared after reassembly but before you test drive the vehicle or perform calibrations. More of the industry need to get better educated about this.
Wish No. 10: Insurers need to stop hiding behind remote claims handling and get back to negotiating fairly.
Shops say insurance companies are increasingly sending back supplements saying it’s all they will pay and hiding behind the computer. They never call the shop and have a discussion. It’s frustrating and not fair to the shops. Insurance companies need to get back to having dialogue with shops in regards to items they don’t want to pay for, versus just saying they’re not paying for it.
That’s my list for this year. Will any of these things happen before next year’s list?
Mike Anderson