President Jeff Lagges and other company executives discussed how Alldata is reinventing itself for a changing market, and its commitment to providing OEM repair information and business solutions to help automotive service professionals increase their competitiveness, elevate productivity and profitability, and forge stronger relationships with customers.

Lagges pointed out that one of the major components in the company’s success, and its 90% customer retention rate, has been to maintain direct contact with customers, primarily through a direct salesforce. “We measure our success by our customers’ satisfaction,” he said.

As the company looks forward, its goals are to continue to build more awareness in the marketplace, focus on the health of the industry in general, continue to help improve productivity at the fender and the counter so that shops are growing and not just surviving, and to continue its mantra of focusing on customer service and support.

Steve Gill, vice president of program development, echoed similar remarks in talking about industry issues and the need for best practices for shops to remain competitive and survive. He emphasized that the most pressing issues facing shops are vehicle reliability (which can be offset with proactive maintenance), diagnostics representing an increasing portion of repairs, the continued need for tech experience and training, and new vehicle technologies where integrated system repairs will require OEM data.

Gill offered ‘best practices’ advice that encompassed profit margins and ways to increase net profit, shop work mix, productivity, aggressive marketing programs and insurance relationships. (Tire Review/Akron)