By Mike Davey
Hamilton, Ontario — December 20, 2016 — Certification and accreditation programs have been with us for years, but typically tied to a specific OEM, such as BMW or Toyota. Recently new players have entered the game, such as Certified Collision Care and AIA Canada’s CCIAP program.
Collision Repair magazine recently surveyed our readers on what they think of these programs. Our next survey is on aluminium repair. You can participate in that survey at this link.
The majority of respondents to this survey indicated they were shop owners or managers, with a small number of collision repair executives and shop staff also participating.
The results indicate that these programs are of tremendous important to the industry. One of the questions the survey asked was “How important are certification and accreditation programs to you?” There were four possible answers to choose from for this question:
– They are the future of the industry.
– They’re necessary to ensure safe repairs.
– It doesn’t affect me or my business.
– I don’t want my shop to be certified or accredited.
Not one survey respondent chose either of the last two answers (“It doesn’t affect me or my business” and “I don’t want my shop to be certified or accredited”). Respondents to our survey clearly believe these programs are important, with a full 75 percent of respondents choosing “They are the future of the industry” and the other 25 percent choosing “They’re necessary to ensure safe repairs.”
We also received some comments on this question. As always, we present these comments with minimal or no edits:
– These programs are a great way to keep shops & techs up to date, but care should be taken to keep these programs affordable so all techs can properly trained.
– Providing the shops on the list actually know and use proper OEM procedures and that shops that are certified list own the tools and equipment required and did not get tools loaned or borrowed on certification walk through day just to pass, something heard of going on with bigger multi-stores and franchises, we all need to be in the same playing field, paying someone off in some way is not a proper OEM certification.
Next, we asked “What do you think the future of certification/accreditation will be?” This turned out to be another question where two of the responses weren’t necessary. The choices were:
– It’s a big deal right now, but it will pass.
– Eventually all shops will be need to certified or accredited in some way.
– It will stay pretty much the way it is now.
Literally every respondent to this question chose “Eventually all shops will be need to certified or accredited in some way.” While it’s never possible to predict the future, this one seems like a certainty, at least to the repairers who completed our survey.
We also asked respondents to indicate if they were currently pursuing any certifications or accreditations. Please note that respondents could choose multiple responses to this question.
The majority of survey respondents (58 percent) indicated they were currently pursuing an OEM program, such as BMW, Toyota or Honda ProFirst. Half of the respondents (50 percent) indicated they were pursuing CCIAP or ARA of BC accreditation. Looking at third-party certification, again half of the respondents indicated they were pursuing this.
Our next weekly survey focuses on investments in aluminium repair and training. You can check it out here.
