ABAT Webinar Highlights New Resource for Technicians
by Alana Quartuccio
It’s ABAT’s mission to give all collision repairers in the Lone Star State a voice.
The resources and tools they provide aren’t just intended for shop owners. The association encourages technicians to be involved. Displaying their support, ABAT hosted a technician-focused webinar last month to introduce them to a new social platform that speaks to their needs.
“We want to create good outreach for our technicians,” ABAT Executive Director Jill Tuggle told the virtual audience. “Our technicians are the lifeblood of the industry. They hold the safety of these repairs in their hands and we don’t put enough emphasis and importance on that. We want to connect with them directly and hear about what they need from the industry.”
Industry expert and technical educator Jason Bartanen (Collision ProAssist) introduced the audience to BackBay, a portal he designed to help technicians obtain easy access to the resources they need.
Born into a long line of repairers, Bartanen learned the trade from his father and has accumulated a wealth of industry experience along the way, including serving on the I-CAR team that created the Repairability Technical Support (RTS) portal. He stressed his support of technicians even branding himself with the title of Chief Technical Advocate to really drive his mission. “I really want to be an advocate,” Bartanen insists.
“I’ve long felt that technicians are the least supported group in this industry,” he noted. “They are not at SEMA or at association meetings. Technicians are my people and I want to be available to them.”
With BackBay, Bartanen set out to bridge the gap between technicians and those who make the products they deal with every day. If a technician has a question about a product, they can go to the site and ask product manufacturers directly.
He noted that the avenues that technicians have had in the past don’t always easily lead them to the right answers: “You can ask the technician in the next stall but you may get an incomplete answer or tribal knowledge that has been incorrect for 30 years.” Where jobbers can be helpful, they may not always know every detail about every product they sell. “If you have a question, you want a genuine answer because you want to repair the vehicle properly. So I have assembled a team of subject matter experts from vehicle and equipment manufacturers waiting virtually in BackBay. It’s a way to connect you directly with the products you work with.”
Bartanen gave a live demonstration of how BackBay works. Technicians who subscribe can start a thread for their query. If a technician has a question about a certain piece of equipment, they can go to the page for that manufacturer, post the question and a representative can respond directly to them.
Not only does it give technicians a line of communication to ask questions, but they can also submit suggestions to manufacturers via this platform. “Perhaps you have an idea for a feature you wish a product had,” Bartanen suggested. “Now you have direct contact with the representative. You can contribute ideas right to them.
“It’s not peer to peer,” Bartanen added. “It’s about asking a question and getting an answer from an expert. It’s a support community built by technicians for technicians.”
Tuggle reminded the audience that technicians can join as individual members of ABAT independent of their body shop for just $25 a year. For more information, visit abat.us.
Want more? Check out the September 2026 issue of Texas Automotive!