On my recent trip to Europe I visited two shops in Germany and one in the UK. If you’ll excuse the a moment of mushiness it’s clear that bodyshop folk the world over have one thing in common – they’re friendly, pragmatic, hardworking people who you can’t help but like. I say this about Adrian Davenport, the operations manager at Twickenham ARC who showed me around, despite the fact he thought I was an Aussie and couldn’t believe I’ve spent the vast majority of my life living five miles up the road. This £5million facility was built around three years ago, initially as a satellite shop for FixAuto Isleworth, formerly Feltham Coachworks which owner Andrew Dowsett founded 35 years ago.
The idea was to get the processes right and take the overspill from its sister shop.
BUMPER BADGE SHOP
A shop of this calibre with its stunning, modern architecture, state-of-the-art equipment, in a prime location with plenty of parking was bound to attract attention of the industry and so over time it was decided to change focus and become a ‘badged’ shop. Twickenham ARC is now an approved repairer for Jaguar/Land Rover, Audi/VW, Suzuki, the Fiat family,
Jeep and Mazda.
Having all those badges doesn’t stop this business deriving most of its work from insurance companies and like repairers the world over, the Brits struggle with the rates paid by insurers. “We need the labour rate to increase,” said Davenport, “particularly for the high end vehicles. It makes no sense to pay the same rate for a manufacturer trained technician working on a Range Rover as for a technician working on a Ford Fiesta.”
“We had to invest heavily to future-proof this shop. The complexity of vehicles is ramping up and those who don’t invest in training and equipment now will miss out and they won’t even get a sniff of any of the prestige market.”
The fact that investing in the business and staying ahead of the curve doesn’t seem to be recognised by insurance companies who pay the same rate regardless of training and facilities is a global grievance for repairers. In the UK many believe that the industry has reached a tipping point. If shop owners can’t afford to invest,then insurers won’t have the network they need to get their customers back behind the wheel and then it will be a journey up a well known creek without a paddle.
Twickenham ARC’s team is made up of four panel beaters, seven spray painters, six METs (mechanical, electrical technicians), a stripper/fitter, three estimators, a workshop managers, parts manager and three receptionists. The crew repair around 60 cars per week and can handle 90 cars on the site. The shop also also offers wheel alignment and a tyre service. There’s a fleet of liveried courtesy cars include a couple of electric models.
Inside the shop every technician has a lift to work on the cars easily. The centre of the shop is for stripping and fitting, the spraybooths are sideloaders with an easy slide system. It’s spacious, well organised with a great workflow. The wash bay and detailing bay are at the opposite side of the large car park.
“The car park is always a good indication if we’re getting out of control.” Davenport said: “We always try to keep customer bays clear.” I can vouch for this as I was asked to move my hire car as soon as we met. “I think its the worst thing you can do – your customer drives up and there’s nowhere to park – not a good start.”
Customer service is the shop’s avowed complete and utter focus. “If we do get it wrong, we do our very best to set it right.”
SPECIAL CUSTOMER SERVICE
They have an excellent flagging system for those special customers – you know the ones, the people who find fault with everything and are practically impossible to please. The official title for them is ‘gold star’ customers although there might be a different term used internally. A flag is put on their file so that everyone goes the extra mile, keeping them constantly updated and generally making sure they are treated like royalty.
The team allocated a generous budget to the business’ website, www.twickenhamarc.co.uk and it shows – professional photography, great design and easy to navigate. Customers are encouraged to leave reviews on the website and facebook page and there’s a customer survey built into the website. Of course when you get it right, word of mouth and customer referrals are always the most cost effective and potent marketing force in any service industry and Twickenham ARC having been acing it.