Charlotte, North Carolina — Maaco Collision Repair and Auto Painting recently held their North American Maaco Convention virtually on Dec. 2, 2020.
The theme of the 2020 Maaco Convention was ‘Moving Mountains, which was chosen because of the efforts made to deliver 2020 results in the face of one of the most challenging years the industry has faced.
Chris Dawson, president of Maaco, applauded the Maaco family to franchisees for their resilience in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I am very proud of our franchisees and our support teams for how they met the challenge head-on,” said Dawson. “The entire Maaco organization — operations, marketing, fleet and franchisees — rallied together and reacted quickly to adapt to the situation. We enlisted the help and input from our franchisee Advisory Council, and the overall results were outstanding.”
Franchisees were recognized for their outstanding performance, leadership and operational excellence as “Best of the Best” for 2020. There was a unique twist due to the virtual nature of the event, where Maaco operations team members surprised the winning store by showing up to the facilities with their awards. The winners were unaware that they had won until their names were announced during the convention broadcast.
Another highlight from the event was seeing the marketing team showcase the continued strength of the Maaco brand and outlined a refreshed marketing strategy and expanded resources to support franchisees both nationally and in their designated market areas.
With a new contactless sale process, Maaco was one of the first to market with a paint pricing online estimating tool to accommodate the hands-free environment and drive new business. Already, the online estimating tool has added thousands of cars to the system and is engaging a younger demographic, the next generation of Maaco customers. Intending to drive more cars to the door, the additional marketing support is working as the marketing-driven car count grows.
Maaco centre certification continues to gain momentum, growing over the last six months, as owners took advantage of the temporary slowing of the business to invest in training and equipment upgrades necessary to meet the criteria of the Gold, Planum and Dimond levels of certification.
Certification ensures that each Maaco center ascends to be the best version of itself, representing the brand, and opening doors to fleet work and insurance company Direct Repair Program (DRP) opportunities.
Certification goes together with the national fleet program, which continues to grow, providing these franchisees with the increased flow of business to supplement the retail auto painting and light collision repair.
From an operations perspective, the team focused on ensuring solid execution, helping franchisees follow the operations playbook and sharing best practices from top-performing franchisees throughout the system. As vehicles change and become more complex, the operations team helps keep entre prepared to repair vehicles safely and properly, now and in the future.
Visit MaacoFranchise.com to learn more about franchising opportunities.
