Dunn got his start in the collision repair business in the early 1970s when he was 16. A high school dropout, he got his first management job in a local car dealer's body shop at the age of 20. When the shop burned down two years later, Dunn opted to start his own company on the same site where it exists today.
One of the first important management lessons that Dunn learned from outside the industry came from Ken Blanchard whose One Minute Manager books were on best-seller lists in the 1980s. "His basic tenet was that you hire character and teach skills," notes Dunn. "We follow that as almost a religious mantra around here. Part of our success is because we train our own people. Virtually every one of our 25 employees was trained from scratch here."
That approach has paid off in terms of employee turnover. "We have 10 employees that have been here 15 years or more and 15 that have been here for 10 years or more," Dunn says proudly.
Another big influence on Dunn and his business was Charles Coonradt, author of "The Game of Work." "His main tenet is scorekeeping, which is different from measurement," says Dunn. "Scorekeeping is done visibly and publicly and it's dynamic. Measure-ment is after the fact."
Dunn credits scorekeeping with helping his technicians make major advances toward the holy grail of a dirt-free paint job. If he would have taken the measurement approach, Dunn said it would have had a de-motivating impact on employees, as every little defect would have been reported. Instead, the shop had every painter write his name on the board every time he achieved a no-buff paint job. "All of a sudden we didn't have to police it because it was pleasing to the technician to write his name on the board rather than to be measured," he says.Today, 95 percent of the paint jobs that Dave's Body Shop completes do not require buffing in comparison with an industry average of 80 percent.
Since Dunn started his shop, Galesburg's population has dropped from 40,000 to about 28,000 due to a loss of manufacturing jobs. But that hasn't prevented the company from growing. It has expanded several times over the years. With a talented and loyal staff, now under the management of general manager Bill Nixon, Dunn says, "When I was about 30, I was able to step away from daily operations and start a consulting business."
That business also was successful — so much so that it became increasingly difficult for Dunn to fit all potential clients into his schedule. The solution was to start a training school so clients could come to him.
"We offer classes on a variety of management and a few technical issues," he says. "All of our teachers are currently practicing professionals. They're people who are feeling the pain every day."
Classes are held in a nearby office building, but include visits to Dave's Autobody, which Dunn says, keeps everyone in the shop on their toes. "Hundreds of people tour our facility every year, which keeps the onus on us to cross our t's and dot our i's."
Although most students are from body shops and related businesses such as paint companies, in recent years people from the health care industry also have begun to attend. Dunn attributes that phenomenon to a book he wrote himself 13 years ago, titled Liquid Amalgam.
"It describes a management philosophy that places appropriate emphasis on procedures but more on the principles behind that that are unchangeable," he says. Like the collision repair industry, the health care industry also must strike a balance between serving clients and serving insurance companies.
The core values at Dave's Autobody are honesty, excellence, profitability and accommodation — or giving customers more than they expect, Dunn said. Company employees are inculcated with those values through quarterly performance reviews in which they are asked how the company's four "unchangeables" affect their jobs.Another important aspect of Dunn's management strategy resulted from observations about how people make purchasing decisions. "About 50 percent of the buying public is relational and 50 percent are transactional," says Dunn. Most body shops treat their business as transactional. The problem with that is that transactional businesses feel more price pressure, he said.
"We've decided to market ourselves as an upscale relational company," Dunn says. To make sure the company can control the customer's experience, it has its own suite of rental cars. "We buy brand new from local car dealers, which develops a better relationship with the dealers and it doesn't hurt to be friends with them because they're in a position to make recommendations to you."
Dunn's quest to become more of a relational marketer also led the company into the detailing business. Unlike collision repair, which is need-based, detailing is want-based. "If we create some traffic from detailing, we start to capitalize on the ability to develop relational rather than transactional customers," Dunn says.
Dave's Autobody has obtained a registered trademark for the slogan "Detail for Life," which brings customers back to the shop four times a year for free detailing. As people get into the pattern and habit of visiting the facility on a regular basis, Dunn said, they are more likely to view the business in a relational manner, even when they come in for collision repair.
Dunn also extends his emphasis on relational business and marketing to the insurance industry. He avoids direct repair programs that emphasize discounts — a hallmark of a transactional approach.
In keeping with its upscale marketing strategy, Dave's Autobody has an upscale look. The shop's interior includes white porcelain tile, and the company pays for technicians' toolboxes, which provides a uniform look. A $250,000 paving project is planned for the shop's front lot.