Scott Jones can’t take his kids anywhere without bumping into a customer. In an urban area of 300,000 people, it’s a good problem to have.
“I’ve repaired their car! The kids hear about it everywhere I go,” he says, with a laugh.
It’s good to be recognized. Jones is the owner of Northside Collision, a six-shop operation around Syracuse, N.Y. Jones has owned Northside for almost 30 years and enjoys every minute of it.
“It’s incredibly gratifying to see people I hired 25, 30 years ago are now running things,” he says. “Their professional and private lives are improving based on what they learned here.”
Three decades of quality repair makes for a lot to learn. In that time, one thing Jones stresses most is OE parts. Over 90 percent of parts and components Northside provides are OE, and he trusts CollisionLink Shop, from OEC, to help his team provide like-new repairs on his 300,000 customers’ vehicles.
OEM = Safety & Service
For Jones and his team, OE parts are the obvious choice. Jones enjoys his role in the community and he sees Northside Collision as a valuable provider of service and safety.
“Believe it or not, people are pretty savvy about parts,” he says.
“It’s like buying soup; they know the difference between OE and aftermarket or generic.”
Jones knows there’s a lot of information out there. It takes five seconds for customers to Google something or fire up a web search on their phones as they pass ads or other businesses touting aftermarket parts.
“They know OE is better quality,” he says.
“We talk to them about the repair. OE fits better and speeds the repair. It’s good for us, and it’s even better for our customers. It’s even good,” he laughs, “for the insurance company! Everybody wins.”
He cites the benefits to his staff as well. Using OE parts helps with long-term employee retention. He describes the fix-it frustration factor (the FFF) is diminished considerably in the shop. His technicians were wasting anywhere from 5 to 15 hours per week trying to make uncommon aftermarket parts fit for his clients. No more, he says—productivity has increased, along with car count, technician efficiency and hours per repair order, and that equals revenue.
The Collision Difference
Yves Pierre-Louis is the director of business development at Northside.
“It’s a complicated business we’re in,” Pierre-Louis says, “and there’s a lot of moving parts. How can we improve our processes to keep moving forward and please our customers? They get in an accident, it’s traumatic, and we’re here to ease that process and get them back on the road as safely as possible.”
Pierre-Louis sees CollisionLink Shop and its access to OE parts as key to that process.
“CollisionLink Shop is a simple and clean platform to order parts from,” he says. “It allows all our shops to order parts electronically, eliminating most phone calls and faxes.”
He says that customers also get a copy of the estimate. Pierre-Louis stresses that Northside is committed as a company to not only strive for the best repair process for the technicians but to improve the lives of its clientele.
“We really do commit to over 90 percent OE parts, and CollisionLink Shop is a primary channel for us to provide that service for our customers,” he says.
“We have a great repair plan and method. We can order parts immediately off CollisionLink Shop; even if the estimate is aftermarket or recycled parts, we know up front we can get that price-matched and bring in OE parts from day one. Digital access also improves the speed of ordering the parts, and vendors can ship parts immediately.”
Pierre-Louis and Jones are adamant that OE parts can make the difference in a collision.
“In terms of safety, it’s absolutely the difference,” Jones says.
“We’re talking about the quality of the repair, which dictates the safety of the vehicle and the people inside it. We’re not here to just repair cars—we’re here to keep people safe. We’re here to save lives,” he says.
For Northside, CollisionLink Shop doesn’t just provide parts—it provides safety.
“Our clients trust us to make the best repair, and they’re right,” Jones says.
To learn how to get the best OE parts at the most competitive prices, check out CollisionLinkShop.com.
