President's Message: March 22, 2018
Posted on: 22, March, 2018
Jeff Peevy, AMAM
Profitability - "the degree to which a business or activity yields profit or financial gain." For a collision repair operation this begins with a well-written estimate. Now some may argue they no longer write "estimates," but regardless of how you arrive at what you charge for the work your shop performs, matters. In fact, it is where profitability starts or in many cases, doesn't. This means the individual in your collision repair business who is determining what you will get paid for and who works with customers and insurers must be smart and well-trained. So how can you be sure they know their stuff? Let's start with credentials. Last summer, AMi launched a comprehensive professional designation program for Collision Repair Estimators. It's comprehensive because it requires non-technical training, including soft skills development, negotiations, DRP management, and much more. It requires technical training from I-CAR, estimating system training or successful completion of an online estimating system assessment and for the masters level, ASE B6 certification. These professional designations are identified as ACE - Accredited Collision-Repair Estimator and AMCE - Accredited Master Collision-Repair Estimator. In the future one of these designations should be required to even get an interview for an Estimator position. For more information: Estimator Designations