Why its important to implement
Dirt/grime prevents clear damage visibility and assessment accuracy. Cleaning reveals additional damage for upselling and removes safety hazards like glass/blood.
Safety Hazard Removal
Also cleaning the vehicle is also for safety to remove anything thing of danger (syringes - blood- broken glass).
Inspection and Upselling Opportunity
Washing the vehicle even for minor damage will allow a clear inspection and even provide opportunity for additional damage being noted and upsold to the customer.
Vehicle Cleaning for Visibility
Most vehicles come to the body shop with road grime and dirt on the vehicle and in some cases when there has been rain, snow or mud on roads it will be very difficult to impossible for the VDA to see the damaged area clearly and this may cause them to miss damage in the surrounding areas that need to be added to the estimate.
Business Impact
Missed damage causes work provider relationship issues and lost upselling revenue. Discovery delays block bays and impact productivity. Safety hazards cause injury downtime.
Profit
If damage is missed it will cause excessive additional requests from the work provider which can affect the business relationship.
Profit
If damage is missed that could be upsold the business is missing out on additional revenue.
Productivity
If damage is discovered after the productive staff begin there will be delays in continuing the repairs while waiting for approval and then parts to be delivered, this could block the bay if the damage is larger and the vehicle cannot be moved.
Body Shop Productivity
The above effect will heavily impact the body shop's productivity as this is where the vehicle process will be blocked.
Safety
Can lead to down time due to injury.
action steps
Implement vehicle washing process, train detailing staff on hazard recognition, enforce cleaning policy with warnings.
Vehicle Cleaning Policy Enforcement
Strong internal warnings if policy not followed once established.
Detailing Staff Training
Basic training for the detailing staff to understand what they are looking for and the dangers.
Vehicle Cleaning Process
Implement process for all VDA's to have the vehicle washed or at least pressure washed prior to the vehicle damage assessment.
Related tasks
Milestone:
02: Streamlining VDA Processes