Newport Beach, Calif.--Farzam Afshar likes to say that it’s not what you realize you don’t know that is likely to come back to haunt you. It’s all the things that you don’t even know that you don’t know that should be the concern.
Afshar, a former collision shop owner, is a founding partner and CEO of VeriFacts Automotive, a company with the tagline “Coaching the collision industry to higher-quality repairs.”
“Our goal is to go into shops and evaluate their work quality and coach their technicians on what they’re doing right and wrong rather than waiting for a repair issue to get them into court and conflict,” Afshar said.
Afshar said the vision for the company began when he operated several collision shops (eventually sold to a consolidator) and a quick-lube business that also did vehicle emissions testing.
As oil-change and smog-check customers would ask him to check used vehicles they were considering buying, Afshar said he began envisioning a business that would allow consumers, shops, or insurers to have repaired vehicles checked by a third party to ensure that quality repairs had been made.
That concept evolved until 2003 when Afshar said he and business partner Mark Olson launched VeriFacts. Rather than just inspect for quality after the fact, Afshar said he and Olson developed services that now enable shops to help ensure that quality is built into the repair process.
“The type of shop owners who hire us are those who are interested in knowing how they compare with other good shops across the country,” Afshar said. “They tell me, ‘I’m pretty sure we’re doing high-quality repairs, but I want to check so I can sleep better at night knowing another set of eyes have checked.’”
The VeriFacts service, now used by shops in 19 states and Canada, begins with what the company calls a “launch,” a meeting with technicians that lays out “the rules,” 20 fundamentals of repair that technicians need to understand, Afshar said.
Those rules focus on the “four pillars” of repairs that form the basis for VeriFacts vehicle inspections: welding, corrosion protection, measuring, and OEM repair methodology, he added.
The launch also includes some benchmark testing of technicians and inspection of in-process or completed vehicles to gauge both individual and shop knowledge and performance levels, Afshar said.
Then on a monthly basis, a VeriFacts coach and trainer makes unannounced visits to the shop to conduct more vehicle inspections and to work with technicians on areas where improvements are needed, he said.
“We aren’t just trying to catch them doing something wrong,” Afshar said. “We help them understand that even when people are at the top of their game-–Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods-–they have a coach.
“I’m a swimmer, and I have a coach, and I have a business coach to help me focus on my strengths and work on my weaknesses. Technicians often start out resistant and try to avoid us. After a few visits, however, they’re often asking us to stop by their stall to show us something. They want to hear an ‘atta boy.’”
For Steve Vlaszof of DC Auto Craft in Burbank, Calif., it was this coaching that he said really sold him on the VeriFacts service about two years ago.
“Other people will come out to audit something, go through a checklist, and maybe tell you what you didn’t do right,” said Vlaszof, whose 38,000-square-foot shop specializes in repairing high-end European vehicles.
“But VeriFacts sends in highly skilled personnel who actually work with the technicians, explaining the repair techniques that should be used and why,” he said. “Telling someone why reinforces why a certain process is better and what the best practices are in the industry.”
Vlaszof said his shop and others using the VeriFacts service receive complete reports on each vehicle inspection, including nearly 300 items that are checked, and a monthly report showing how the shop’s performance stacks up to other VeriFacts clients.
In addition to the coaching and inspection reports, VeriFacts offers its shop clients three other services, Afshar said. First, technicians and the shop are given a toll-free number to reach the VeriFacts team when they need help in, for example, understanding an OEM repair procedure.
When the VeriFacts inspector arrives, he also brings a “topic of the month,” such as a newly released OEM repair procedure that is shared with both the shop’s office staff and technicians.
VeriFacts also offers mini-clinics tailored around a shop’s individual needs based on the vehicle inspections.
“We may see a shop needs some help with suspension diagnostics and put together an hourlong clinic on that topic, something that can be done quickly during the day at the shop,” Afshar said.
In addition to helping a shop owner “sleep better at night” and perhaps have a marketing tool-–reinspected quality-–that others do not, the VeriFacts service offers several other benefits as well, Afshar said.
“One shop manager couldn’t believe the level of communication between techs that even just the launch process itself started,” he said. “It helps build teamwork because they all start to see that if a job comes back, it reflects on them all.”
It also helps the shop and its technicians see and improve on any weaknesses, Afshar said. A VeriFacts coach, for example, might help a tech see the need for I-CAR or vendor welding training, or help a shop realize that it doesn’t have the right power source for the type of welder it is asking technicians to use, he said.
It also puts an end, Afshar said, to the all too common presumption that technicians are supposed to know everything about ever-changing vehicle technology and repair techniques.
“I’ve never met a single technician who walks into work thinking, ‘I can’t wait to screw something up,’” he said. “They want to do a good job. Like all of us, they often just don’t know what it is they don’t know. Some just never got the right coaching and information.
“Our goal is to give them the tools they need to execute quality repairs and to help them feel good about themselves and the place they work.”
