Old Dominion owner emphasizes marketing and service that is memorable

Old Dominion Collision Repair ABRN Top Shop collision repair auto body repair

Looking for some interesting ideas on how to attract business? Look no further than Old Dominion Collision Repair Centers.

Put yourself in the place of a customer picking up a vehicle. You check over the work on your car. You note the restored finish and clean interior. Before sliding into the driver's seat you see something interesting – a fresh rose placed inside. Odds are, you aren't going to relate the quality of the repair to anyone. You expect the work to be done right.

However, you'll probably tell practically everyone you know about the rose. There's a good chance they'll think of that shop when they need repairs. In this case, that shop is Old Dominion Collision Repair Centers, a Eugene Ore.-based business that takes big and small steps to keep its name in customers' minds.

Many shops shy away from marketing, preferring instead to let their direct repair program contracts draw in business or sporadically investing in short-lived sales efforts when business slows down. Not so for Old Dominion owner Patricia McConnell who says her belief and interest in marketing is largely a product of her education.

"I have a liberal arts degree, but my focus was in marketing," says McConnell. "I learned early on it's a very important thing for every business to do, no matter what you do. You never cut back on it, especially when things slow down. That's when you really want to be marketing. It's a part of working in and knowing your market."

To help McConnell get to know her market better, when she took the reins of the business in 1988, she asked the University of Oregon to perform a customer survey.

"I wanted to know who my customers were and what they wanted. From there I put together a marketing plan. We adjust it every year, and we've been doing it for 20 years."

Old Dominion adopts a philosophy that marketing and sales are long-term commitments. It utilizes a steady rotation of radio, television and bus back ads consistently throughout the year, every year. It makes sure those ads are unique so they're memorable. In particular, Old Dominion stresses the fact that it is a woman-owned business.

"Oregon has more women business owners than any other state in the nation," says McConnell. "Sixty percent of our customers are women. I do all the ads myself in that I'm the voice. We've discovered that our customers like that we're owned by a woman, and they like hearing the voice of a woman."

The ads focus on education instead of boasts. McConnell said customers will ignore claims that a shop's work "is the best" and prefer to hear that the repairs will be done correctly and that they will be treated with respect. "One of our bylines is 'we take care of people while your car is fixed impeccably," she says.

Along with these highly visible marketing efforts, Old Dominion utilizes more personalized, individualized steps such as personalized on-hold messages, thank you cards and follow-up phone call to each customer. It also reaches out specifically to insurers by holding continuing education programs for agents. McConnell says these classes have proved particularly popular and are now available online via the shop's Web site at www.olddominioncollision.com.

The site plays a significant marketing role and is currently being updated with features that put a more human face on the shop, such as car care tips, customer responses and employee of the month profiles. Rotating customer comments also are being added.

While marketing is a significant part of her shop's success, McConnell is quick to point out that behind the buzz, the shop has to live up to the image being presented. Most recently, Old Dominion has addressed this imperative by adopting lean processing.

Three years ago, Old Dominion joined a Para-Kaizen/MVP group through its paint vendor. Using the lessons from that group, the shop now disassembles and creates a repair blueprint on every job. For each phase of the repair process, Old Dominion has instituted a quality control checkpoint. Both Old Dominion locations limit the number of vehicles processed to six or seven incoming and outgoing each day.

Going lean has proved to be a great marketing piece in itself.

"Eugene, Oregon is a pretty environmentally aware area. Having a green, sustainable operation is very important. Our customers, insurers and our community love it. That's made our shop stand out. Customers like that we've created a different kind of body shop," says McConnell.

Also making the shop stand out are a number of business certifications. Old Dominion is Volvo certified and has been named a Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program Facility by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (the shop satisfied strict safety criteria set by the federal government). It also has received both Austin Family Business Certification and Small Business Development Certification.

Even with these accomplishments, what still remains most in the minds of customers are the roses. McConnell says the most frequent comment she receives on satisfaction surveys is "I love the rose."

"Even the men love it," she says. "It makes our customers feel special. That's how we want them to feel. A body shop isn't exactly a place people want to come."

When they need a shop, Old Dominion already has laid the groundwork to make them feel welcome.