Here's the most simple success formula ever. It will drive business success by driving customer and employee trust.

This formula is especially effective when thinking about customers - their experiences; what you want them to feel, think and do; and what kind of processes and systems you need to build to support them.

1. Treat people the way you want to be treated without fail.
2. Given that human beings are involved you will fail at some point. When it happens see #1.
   

Imagine you're about to walk into the waiting area of a body shop. What's the first image that comes to mind?

Dirt? Grease? Noise? What waiting area? Some dark, post-apocalyptic movie scene?

Happily there are those in the auto collision repair industry who are awakening to the power and value of putting the customer at the center of their business strategy. There's a revolution starting in the industry and it's having a profound impact for early proponents.

Auto collision repair shops are making these changes based on the principles of Lean Production. I'll spare you the details but suffice it to say that Lean starts with identifying value from the customer perspective and eliminates whenever possible anything that doesn't create value. Customers should also be able to receive value throughout the auto collision repair experience.

Here's a brief case study about the positive impact for car owners.