Increasing Gross Profits with CollisionLink...
...Improved Customer Service and Reduced Parts Returns

THE SITUATION
The Fred Beans Auto Group outside Philadelphia has grown – and grown its parts business. The department has 29 phone salespeople, all grouped into teams of three or four. Each rep has specific customers, and the team is their backup, ensuring customers can always reach someone at Fred Beans Parts Warehouse. Each team and its lead concentrates on selling parts for a specific business segment: dealer sales, fleet, mechanical/Powertrain, and collision.

Growing the business even more, without adding incremental expenses, is a challenge for any organization. Fred Beans had a challenge: manage and grow their existing book of business – without adding staff – while maintaining an excellent level of customer service.

AN (UNEXPECTED) SOLUTION AND BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT LEAD TO INCREASED PROFITS
The Fred Beans Parts Department slowly started implementing OEConnection’s CollisionLink online parts ordering and fulfillment system in 2004 – just a few subscriptions for select lines. As collision shops started “going online,” Fred Beans’ CollisionLink orders started to build. During the following years, Fred Beans added CollisionLink for more franchises, so they could ultimately accept online orders for every automaker they support, over 15 subscriptions in all today.

According to Dave Wittlinger, Business Development Manager, "When running reports we see a definite difference between shops that use CollisionLink and shops that don’t. Not only is the difference evident to our shop customers, but also at our parts warehouse – in accuracy, efficiency, cost savings, and most importantly, customer service."

So what happened? Two things. Dave explains, “First of all, our returns to shops using CollisionLink are way less than non-CollisionLink shops. We know that our average parts return rate from all collision shops is 15-16%. But when we run the numbers for just shops using CollisionLink, the rate is 7-8%. That’s a big difference! It’s obvious there’s a cost savings through processing time saved. That means no warehouse staff restocking parts, or going through the hassle of writing the credit for a returned part. This reduction in returns leads to significant cost savings. We have calculated that to deliver a part costs us four and a half cents on the dollar, nine cents on the dollar both directions. You just know there is a cost savings because of the time and energy saved and you could do the math to figure hard costs of not delivering the wrong parts.”

So does CollisionLink really help reduce parts returns? “Yes, definitely,” exclaimed Dave. “The quality of CollisionLink orders and estimates is far superior to estimates that come in by phone or fax.” Which leads Dave to his second business improvement – improved customer service.

“We train our counterpeople to enter delivery information into CollisionLink – things like if a part is backordered or delayed because it’s a cross shipment coming from an alternate PDC. As a result, customers using CollisionLink have complete order information at their fingertips. Our customers tell us this onscreen status is invaluable. It helps them plan their repair schedules,” says Dave. Without CollisionLink, shops need to call for delivery dates and parts order status.

Another aspect of CollisionLink the Fred Beans parts staff uses to help improve customer service is helping shops use more OE parts for repairs. Dave confirms, “Every member of our team always price matches parts when possible. Seeing the non-OE crash parts linked to the OE parts in CollisionLink makes the task fast, easy and helps our team build sales volume. Shops tell us they prefer OE parts because repairs run smoother and faster, and we’re able to meet those needs at competitive prices.”

In the end, Dave credits CollisionLink with adding gross profit to the parts department’s bottom line, saying the benefits truly do help Fred Beans grow the business, do more with less and increase effectiveness and efficiencies. Big benefits – bigger profits using CollisionLink!

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