Reinvestment in Repair - Mo Givian

If you’ve kept up with our perfect storm series, you’ll see that there’s hope on the horizon.

While the problems our industry faces are real, and they are serious, everyone we’ve spoken to has an idea about how best to get through these challenging times.

It could be an investment in training a new generation of repairers, or a new approach to business relationships. It could be the sort of changes in attitude Cogent Hire has championed for the past 18 months, or it could be something entirely different.

 

Yes, there are real problems. But there are real solutions.

This week, Kirsty caught up with Mo Givian, manager at Fix Auto Luton. Like repairers up and down the country, Mo is at the sharp end of the problems we all face.

And like everyone we talk to, Mo has ideas about how all of these problems can be solved. It’s all about seeing the opportunities that tough times can present.

 

“We’re repairing cars that would have been written off.”

At Cogent Hire, we believe that every challenge creates an opportunity. That’s what our business is built on. The credit hire market is full of frictional challenges, and we decided to solve them.

The challenges repairers face today aren’t frictional. But Mo knows what they are, and he’s decided to solve them.

“The issues we face today are day-to-day. The pandemic, Brexit, semiconductor shortages, lack of new car stock, and obviously the huge rise in used car sales values. All these things combine to make our job more challenging.”

More challenging, but not impossible. And straight away, there’s an opportunity. With the lack of new cars, and used cars becoming ever more expensive, there’s now an incentive for repairers and their customers.

 

Mo explains:

“We’re now repairing cars that would have been written off about a year, 18 months ago. We’re having to repair them now, and that’s not always a bad thing. We have a skillset, opportunity to use green parts and total loss avoidance schemes and some extremely skilled technicians that can repair over replace.”

“Where previously parts used to be quite easy to source, available next day, or in two days, we’ve now almost gone back in time, replacing parts only when absolutely necessary and safety related, our culture is to repair. We’ve re-invested in our repair strategy, approach and resources. And the results have been quite surprising.”

Getting back to the basics of the repair trade. Fixing what’s broken, instead of stripping it out and replacing it with a new part.

It takes skill and expertise, but if it can be done safely - and with Mo’s team it can - you bypass so many of the delays the perfect storm is causing.

 

It’s time to go green

For any repairer, safety is paramount. It’s one thing to repair cosmetic damage to a vehicle, but when a part is key to keeping drivers, passengers and pedestrians safe? There’s no room for compromise. Mo knows that even with the skills at his disposal, he still needs replacement parts for safety-critical repairs.

And he’s found them.

“The quality and availability of aftermarket parts has increased over the years. We always prefer original equipment, but green parts can be just as good. They’re playing a massive part in our day-to-day resourcing of parts and equipment.”

Green parts taken from salvaged vehicles might seem like the simplest way to get around a new parts shortage, but how do you get your hands on them?

 

Mo knows.

“We’ve actually employed more human resources in our procurement process. We’ve hired additional staff to review every job, identify parts unavailability and source from an alternative supplier or find a green solution nationally.”

This new hire isn’t just there to find parts. They keep things running smoothly, improve customer journey and keep deliver service to companies & individuals footing the repair bills.

“We found that we either have customers waiting for a booking in date or cars onsite parked up with 80% of the repair parts available but waiting on the remaining 20% which is on back order. And we’d have to review and re-estimate the same job three or four times. To start with the estimate would have a new part, but then due to back ordered parts we’d be forced to have to find green parts, so the price and the repair method would change. Our average repair time used to be six days. Now it’s nine to ten.”

 

It’s time to invest in repair

Mo is reinvesting in his company, and he believes this needs to happen for the industry as a whole, to make sure everyone has the skills needed to work to the highest standards.

“Training needs and skill set is very individual. Every bodyshop offers a unique skill set and it comes from it’s people, our greatest assets. We all have individual with outstanding skillsets and amazing repair techniques that aren’t necessarily used across the industry. So not every customer will have the same experience in their repair journey as the repair method and speed of service will vary based on the craftsmanship that the bodyshop employs.”

How do you solve that? With the right skills, and the right repair processes.

“Our technicians are very highly skilled craftsman. We invest in market leading, innovative repair equipment with a robust and ever developing training program that encourages all of our people to continuously upskill. The training and development of VDA’s in particular leads onto a more accurate vehicle assessment which forms the most important aspect of the repair process, it improves efficiency, customer journey and reduces overall wastage and carbon footprint.”

The right skills. The right techniques. The right standards. Sounds like a solution to us.

 

The main problem isn’t the shortage. It’s communication

While Mo has seized the opportunities that investment in repair skills and adoption of green parts have presented for his company, he’s noticed a bigger problem. That people aren’t being informed of the issues the industry faces.

“These challenges are industry wide. Everyone’s affected by them, and we’re all broadly facing the same problems. Even insurers are prepared for an 18 month delay before we see improvements in parts supply and new vehicle stock.”

If we all know there’s a problem, then Mo thinks it’s time that customers know too.

“It’s about managing expectations. That’s what we’ve always done with accident repair journey. We always did that from day one - even when parts were available and we didn’t have a shortage of skilled experts, and everything was hunky dory. We still managed expectations.”

“We just facing much longer cycles now. We still need to manage those expectations. It does help for customers to be informed.”

 

It’s all about adapting

Mo is full of ideas for getting through the perfect storm. He’s the sort of repairer that Bob Linwood would speak highly of, and takes on a new apprentice every year. [link to post #4] But Mo knows that it’s all about being flexible, being ready to change, and not falling for doom and gloom predictions of the future.

“I don’t make too many plans for the future. You can’t really. If you look too far ahead, you can end up painting such a grim picture because you don’t really know what’s going to happen tomorrow.’”

Is that a fatalist approach? Not at all. Because Mo’s confident that things will change. He just thinks we need to be ready to adapt.

“Don’t get me wrong. This will eventually sort itself out. When? I don’t know. In the current climate it’s all about looking at today and the challenges in front of you. Just manage what you have, and make the best of what you’ve got and remember everything happens for a reason.”

“This too shall pass.”

 

Make the best of what you’ve got. That’s an approach we can all get behind.