Autobody News: CCC ONE® Management Suite Does It All for 2-Shop MSO

Carlsbad, CA, October 25, 2016 (Newswire.com) - ​​​Artistic Auto Body in Portland, Oregon juggles 15 DRPs and repairs 550-600 vehicles every month, rain or shine. With more rain than shine in many cases, Oregonians get in their fair share of accidents. When that happens, Artistic's two locations are ready to fix these vehicles and get them back to their pre-accident condition, artistically and with quality and safety in mind. 

Stacy Howard, 34, is the general manager of Artistic Auto Body, a shop that was founded by Terry Mostul back in 1982. In her sixth year at the company's helm, Howard's family owns a heavy equipment business, which gave her quality experience growing up. As a teenager, she started as a receptionist at a body shop in Memphis, Tennessee before moving up the ladder at Artistic Auto Body. 

Stacy learned the business by working in almost every capacity available in a body shop- customer service, parts and estimating. She even touched a few a few vehicles on occasion. "I worked on a few cars, but they finally said no thanks---we prefer you working on the other side," Howard said. "It was definitely not my cup of tea, but I did it to learn as much as I could. It also helped me to write better estimates and to better manage technicians."

It must have been a great learning experience, because rather quickly she was running the Tigard location. "I like this industry and I love my job because I get to do a lot of different things all the time," she said. "They call me 'Ricochet' around here because I am always moving, multi-tasking and getting things done. It is very satisfying." 

Another satisfying experience for Howard and the rest of the team at Artistic Auto Body is their relationship with CCC and its management system. "We work with several top-level people at CCC, because we really try to stay ahead of technology, and my IT guy, Greg Strejan, and I know this program very well. We are one of those shops that is constantly sending the CCC staff suggestions about features that would work well for us. We're always trying to be as efficient as we can, so knowing how to use every module of our CCC ONE management system better is really beneficial.

"We recently launched the CCC ONE electronic parts ordering system with a major car dealership here in town and we were one of the first in the Portland area to do that," Howard said. "Any time new modules come out, we will normally communicate at length with the people at CCC because we want to provide feedback as well as learn as much as we can about the modules."

The estimators and technicians at Artistic Auto Body use CCC ONE Update Plus to keep customers in the loop about their repairs via text messages that include pertinent shop and estimate information. "It really helps us to streamline our customer contact and communicate back and forth through CCC," Howard said. "It also can allow us to identify how to communicate with our customers, which is very helpful. If they want to be updated daily or every other day, for example, Update Plus will tell us that. This way, we don't have to waste any time opening and re-opening files or break down notes on who needs to be called and when." 

Artistic Auto Body uses every module available from CCC, including its parts module and another called Central Review. "The parts module is essential, because we use it to track every part and its status--ordered and on its way or in the shop--and also, of course, returns. With the Central Review module, it allows us to act more like a MSO by providing a single point of contact to our insurance partners. In addition, it enables us to submit documents that are compliant and reviewed internally for consistency before they go out." 

CCC ONE Repair Workflow enables shops to complete repairs faster and more efficiently while capturing more business.  It also features digital signature capabilities, allowing customers to authorize repair work right at the vehicle using the CCC ONE Touch application on a mobile device. "We use the tablets here, which means we can do estimates, check part prices and order parts from the curb, which is very convenient. It's easy to use and once our estimators get proficient at it, they can use it to educate the customer, which is great," Howard said.

To say that Artistic Auto Body is all-in when it comes to CCC ONE is a major understatement. "Almost every one of our 90 employees--technicians, painters, estimators, front office staff--even our detailers use CCC ONE to some degree," Howard said. "The only person here who does not use it is our maintenance guy, but if there was an app to help him with his job, we'd have him using it, too!" 

Artistic Auto Body 
Location: Tigard & Wilsonville, OR 
(503) 639-9200
www.artisticautobody.com

Company at a Glance:
Type: Collision Repair
Facility Employees: 90
In business since: 1982
DRP Programs: 15
Locations: 2
Size: square feet: 65,000 square feet (combined)

CCC Information Services, Inc. 
Company Contact: Tom Williams
Phone: 877-208-6155
Website: www.ccc-one.com  

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Source: Autobody News