How to Estimate Auto Damage repair - Part 2/2

How to Estimate Auto Damage repair - Part 2 Dan: My name is Dan, this is John. We’re going to talk to you about what goes in the writing estimate and what skills are needed to use being able to do this job. John: One of the job responsibilities you’ll have when giving an estimate is to ensure a positive costumer experience, comparing the estimate from the insurance company with your own and you’re also going to have to verify repair order authorization and required payments. You have to have the ability to make your decision like your own when it's time to get help on something you can’t run to the manager for a question, some money that you have a decision and make judgment calls on certain things that maybe aren’t negotiable. If you have a costumer compliant, you have that good costumer service. And looking over the vehicle before giving back to the costumer, you got to make sure that it's totally repaired—it’s detailed. If referred—business on the—it’s going to look good, so if you're not going to repair it— Dan: You’ll have to be around high levels the noise because you handed up the shop all the time and these—all the different types. And basically, at any point of the business and by that I mean everyone comes to you tell them that your car is done and the customers come to you to get the estimates and then you and then even shop manager will come to you and ask you if there’s any problems, if you ordered parts and just things like that. John: Some of the skills you’ll need to be an estimator is going to have to have an excellence sales ability, if you’re part salesman, you’re part estimator. I mean you can write the best estimate in the world, it would dead on, but if you can’t sell your company, no one’s ever going or come to you. If they know about automobiles, I mean estimating and just the basic functions of the car if you don’t how the car works, you’re not going to able to estimate the damage. You’re going to spend a lot of time on computer and use computer based estimating systems most of the time, so if you have good knowledge on computer and the system for your work. It’s time to be able to spread yourself pretty thin and still get the job done good and you're going to have communication skills for—trust me. Male: We got seventeen digits, that’s a good number and tell them things about the car. The first digits are going to be your security number. One or four is U.S.A., two for Canada, three for Mexico. The second letter is ED, it's going to tell you what kind of—the vehicle is and the letter and number. And the third digit is the vehicle--and then the four through eight digits are going to tell you what kind of features they have; interior package. Your 10 digits— And we got—there are two main key main programs of the—the individual and then— Male: Some of the disadvantages of this program are that it calculates in the numbers by itself which is either the parts of the vehicle and that sort of thing. There is less computer error than human error because it calculates on its own. It gives excellent records for the estimates at least in one. And one advantage on the numbers is the code itself. It has the correct parts, correct number for the parts being installed— materials and you can easily send pictures to any insurance company or lines and stuff like that. Male: You make it after a vehicle has been estimated and you got the job and you started it. You may be halfway through the job before you realize that there is extra damage that you haven't included in on the estimate and at that point you have to contact the adjuster or that digital pictures of the damages found and if the experts allow it, you can email them the pictures and they’ll add supplement under the original estimate. Therefore, you get paid for the time and parts to the estimate that you’ve found. And if the insurance company doesn’t allow this, they still have to send adjuster out. You may be waiting a day or two on your shop to show up that and includes the labor, the parts included on the supplement. This has a lot to do with towing the vehicle and the vehicle is already turned for towing and they didn’t find any damage—only the original estimate and then they found it later, therefore to save your vehicle from being towed out and the shop still gets the work, so it’s kind of a win-win situation. So the insurance will definitely take care of that and reprint you an estimate with the supplement added on to the original. —on the estimate, added on is the hidden damage problem which is explains itself. I mean they’ll add on to the original estimate for hidden damage that wasn’t seen or found by the adjuster and it’s always better to go over the vehicle with the adjuster and so that mistakes like this are avoided and you can keep the flow of your shop going. Donnie Smith: Well, that concludes our five lessons. It was five student lab lessons and I could mention where we’ve had a—it’s a lot of information to cover and we have a very limited time to cover all this information. So again, I commended these students for—well, get up here and try to learn this stuff and share with others.