Founded with a Purpose
To paraphrase an old ad campaign, Brad Chesney isn't just the owner of a body shop, he was originally a customer. Before starting his business in 2011, Chesney was working at a law firm when he was in a car accident. He took the car to a shop he knew, where a friend worked, but he was surprised when the work was done that the fit of everything just didn't look right. Chesney's friend explained that it was because Chesney's insurance policy called for only aftermarket parts. Chesney was shocked, but also inspired to start a shop that did things, in his view, the right way. A short time later he did so, with that same friend as the body man, at first renting a single stall in a mechanical repair shop where they now run the entire building.
"That's one of our, call it a claim to fame is," says Chesney, owner of Orlando Auto Body in Orlando, Florida. "We started this in May 2011 and we've never had an aftermarket part be installed on a customer's car for an insurance repair. It has been all OEM parts, 100% of the time has the car left with an OEM part on it."
The shop started out with just Chesney, the body guy, and a painter—who is still with the shop today. Gradually as they took on more jobs they took over more of the facility as other tenants moved out. After a couple years, the owner sold the entire building to Chesney. With no desire to own more than the single location, it's safe to say the shop has its permanent home.
"We're always going to be, you know, you hate to say always, but we will always be a single location shop," Chesney says.
For the Customer
Orlando Auto Body does not advertise. Its website features just the basic info. The shop doesn't even have a Facebook page. But Chesney says it all goes back to standing on the shop's reputation as doing repairs with the best possible quality—that is what gets the name out there.
The shop strives to go the extra mile for the customer. In its early days doing a relatively low volume of repairs, cars even received a full detailing and a tank of gas. Today, Chesney has instituted a $100 policy for each car stating that if there is something extra the shop can offer that's less than $100, employees are empowered to do that without approval.
"Our goal is to give that car back to them not just as nice as it was before the accident, we want to give that car back to them nicer than they've ever seen that car," says Chesney.
Knowing their Role
Orlando Auto Body doesn't perform in-house calibrations or work on electric vehicles. While Chesney acknowledges that "may be the death of us at some point," he's not willing to compromise the things his shop does well on. It's related to his philosophy on staff and why the shop has had a loyal set of long-tenured employees—it's allowing people to do what they do best with minimal interference. The shop knows what it does well and focuses on that.
"My thought now is it's like, you know what, we got a good gig right now. And if it's not broke, don't fix it," says Chesney.
