A shop owner reviews ALLDATA Collision Advantage – SEMA’s 2017 New Product Award winner
Editor’s note: Check out how ALLDATA customer Robbie Wyndham has been able to document and charge for all the work his shop performs – adding hundreds of dollars a week in revenue – thanks to ALLDATA Collision Advantage.
The software product, which is featured in this FenderBender “How it Works” article, won first place in the SEMA 2017 New Product Showcase for Best New Product, Repair and Refinish Category. Current pricing for ALLDATA Collision Advantage is $286 per month.
The Reviewer:
Robbie Windham, 46 years old, says that working with cars is all that he’s ever known. While he attended community college, he got his first job working at a body shop and started doing some repair work on his own. He started his own shop out of his parents’ backyard, and as demand for his work increased, he kept adding on. In 1991, he officially opened up shop as Windham Body Shop.
The Shop Stats
Reviewing Shop: Windham Body Shop
Location: New Albany, Mississippi
Product or Service: ALLDATA Collision Advantage
Description: Reads estimates and provides all of the necessary repair information
Training Required: Initial set-up training phone call and continual support line
Windham Body Shop, located in New Albany, Miss., has gone through a few location changes but is currently housed in a 6,000-square-foot building that employs eight. In the past year, the shop has implemented new processes, including blueprinting.
Another thing that Windham is focused on is following OEM repair procedures. Being a member of the Mississippi Collision Repair Association, Windham is always reminded of the importance of following the recommended OEM repair procedures. So, when ALLDATA introduced its now award-winning Collision Advantage, Windham decided to give it a try.
How it Works:
Collision Advantage integrates with all three of the major shop management systems. To use it, open Collision Advantage and go to the estimate portion. The estimate will then show up, line by line, along with all of the necessary information needed to do the repair: OEM procedures, alerts, vital repairs and manufacturer positioning statements.
I was skeptical about getting it because of the cost, but it was able to more than pay for itself with just that one cost [$1,600] that I was able to avoid
The Review:
Windham says one of the biggest pros in purchasing Collision Advantage is that it’s allowed him to get paid for his work.
“It’s just like anything—you can get paid for the work but you need the documentation,” Windham says. “Collision Advantage provides great documentation.”
Collision Advantage allows users to print off the recommended repair procedures or any position statements and attach them to the estimate. That way, when it’s sent to an insurer, the documentation for why all of the completed work is right there. This has been a huge help for Windham, especially with getting paid for pre- and post-repair scanning.
“I can search OEM position statements,” Windham says. “Nearly all of them require scanning, so now I can print that off with the estimate and get paid for it.”
Another aspect that Windham really likes is the fact that with Collision Advantage, everything is documented. That way, he can show proof of everything that his shop did to a vehicle.
“A few weeks ago, we did a repair for some folks from Oklahoma,” Windham says. “When they got home, they took it to a shop because their crankshaft sensor was leaking. The new shop tore the car back down and tried to charge us for repairs that they said we didn’t do. I printed off the ALLDATA documentation and was able to prove we did it. That was a $1,600 ticket they were trying to stick me with.”
The ROI:
“I was skeptical about getting it because of the cost, but it was able to more than pay for itself with just that one cost that I was able to avoid,” Windham says.
Another job came into Windham Body Shop recently that looked to be a total loss. Windham looked at the information in Collision Advantage and saw that there was a recommendation for fixing the frame rail. Because of that, he was able to salvage a total loss and obtain a $10,000 job.
On top of obtaining more work and making sure his staff is not accused of not doing work that they performed, Windham also says that he’s paid for $250–$300 worth of work per week that he had a difficult time getting paid for before. Now, because of the documentation he can provide, he’s compensated for all of the repairs.
A Tutorial of ALLDATA Collision Advantage
ALLDATA gave FenderBender a live tutorial of its award-winning program at the 2017 SEMA Show. Watch the video here:
  |
This story was originally published in FenderBender magazine in February 2018. Tess Collins is the custom content producer for 10 Missions Media. Along with providing custom content, she also writes for FenderBender and Ratchet+Wrenchmagazine. FenderBender is the leading progressive media brand exclusively serving collision repair shop owners and operators through examining in-depth real-world struggles, successes and solutions from the industry, providing our readers and users the inspiration, tools and motivation to help them succeed in the collision repair industry. View the article here.
|
Are you new to ALLDATA? ALLDATA Collision Advantage combines ALLDATA Collision with Estimate Integration, which analyzes an estimate in seconds and displays OEM procedures, OEM alerts, Vital Repairs, and Manufacturer Positioning Statements – all on a single screen. Winner of the 2017 SEMA Best New Product Award for Collision Repair and Refinish.
If you would like to read more articles like this one please subscribe to ALLDATA News.
