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I made out great, the new shop was a stone's throw from our old shop, a half a block away. 100% customer retention plus new customers from the other shop, at the old shop I had 2 techs plus myself now I have 4 techs plus myself and a receptionist. The new shop was over twice the size plus a bigger parking lot and more storage are for vehicles. The shop was a lease purchase, a good start, but in the first 6 months I put a new roof on it and new heaters, new lighting 3 new lifts! The second year was new windows, a good way to spend 45,000. I had to excavate and stone my rear parking lot! Then the 3rd year we had to pour new concrete pads in the front of the doors in front of the building and the rear of the building and repair part of the parking lot, another 50,000. Every year it seems as though I spend about 50,000 on the building, it was in worse shape than I intialy thought. I don't mind it except the ceiling height is like 10 to 12 feet, and that is a little to low. My landlord that I am doing the lease purchase with is great and I am fortunate to have him, I wanted to fix the place up and establish my place before I went to the bank to get a mortgage, and now it's just a matter of timing, I don't want to pay ridiculous interest, so hopefully within the next year I will own this property and will secure my future.

Man this sounds like a dream come true. I hope I can find something similar soon.

How did the move go, did you find yourself having to ramp up again, lose any clients, business drop off? Did you go to a bigger facility? Did you buy or lease?

I agree, but … I often read about “The Customer Experience,” or providing a great customer experience, or exceed customer expectations, but it stops there. I seldom read about what that means or looks like. Jt’s just “go do it.” I have my observations, but I suggest we open this up for discussion as to what that means. And I don’t like what I read recently: Easy appointments, clear explanations minus jargon, quick turnaround and the overused “fixed right the first time.” I think those are routine expectations, not great customer service.

This is so true, many will not tell the owner or person in charge of any short fall, but will tell others. I was in a Wendy's eating a lunch one day and watched a Buick pull in and park and an older fellow with his wife get out. They ordered and sat down across from me. Another fellow walked up and said to them, I see you own a Buick. Just in case you ever need body repair do not go to so and so collision shop. They are terrible and say they are Buick experts. Just wanted you to know and he proceeded to leave and get into his Buick and drive away. You have to wonder how poorly he was treated to stop just anyone and vent his frustration. Did he let the so and so shop know? don't know but that always stuck with me that bad treatment and bad work travels to areas you have no idea about as a shop owner. I always asked my customers if they were happy and if there was anything we could do to improve what they experianced. Sometimes we did get a suggestion and we took it to heart.