By CRM Staff
San Diego, California — January 17, 2017 — Mitchell International has officially wrapped its Canadian and US Roadshows, and provided a preview of some of the stops the company will make in 2017.
Over the last nine months, members of the Mitchell sales and marketing teams visited collision repair shops across Canada and the US – stopping in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Nova Scotia, Texas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan – to meet with customers utilizing various Mitchell products, including the company’s RepairCenter solution.
According to a statement from Mitchell, RepairCenter provides a customizable workflow, is now offered on mobile devices and enables shops to quickly locate OEM repair procedures, find real-time insight on cycle times and labour costs, as well as connect directly to third party vendors.
The Canadian leg of the Roadshow kicked off with a visit to Fraser River Paint & Body, owned and operated by Frank Borri. Located in the community of New Westminster, British Columbia, the shop started out in a 7,000 sq. ft. space with a staff of six. Since then, it has grown enormously.
Today, a total of 27 people work at the business, which occupies 26,000 sq. ft. spread over five buildings. Fraser River Paint & Body is actually comprised of three distinct operations: a commercial fleet shop, a car shop and a restoration shop, Roadhouse Paint & Body. Keeping everything organized and running smoothly has been a major task, but Borri and his team are up to the job.
While Borri has been a shop owner for just five years, his experience in the industry goes back more than four decades. Frankly, he’s seen it all. Today, he sees a challenge that impacts almost every shop across the country: there just aren’t enough qualified techs.
“The industry as a whole is going to have a big problem,” he said. “There just aren’t skilled people to do the work. My solution is to start them from scratch and train them.”
The “grow your own” method of developing technicians can work, if you have the time and people to train them.
It should also be mentioned that Borri is a hands-on owner. When things get busy, he puts on the coveralls and gets dirty. Borri has seen a lot of changes over the years, but there’s at least one thing that hasn’t changed.
“I’ve used Mitchell from day one,” he said. He depended on the hard copy books for years, but he and his facility were starting on a new journey when Collision Repair magazine interviewed him at the kick-off the Mitchell Roadshow.
“We’re really getting going on RepairCenter,” he said at the time. “When I can use Mitchell, I do. We use Mitchell
Estimating for every estimate we can. I fnd it gives me more accurate results and nothing is left out.”
In 2017, Mitchell is once again hitting the road, and will feature stops in British Columbia, Ontario and Newfoundland. Selected Mitchell Roadshow shops are featured in Collision Repair magazines. To submit your business for consideration for upcoming Mitchell Roadshows, please contact your local Mitchell sales rep.
