Girls, Girls, Girls! Running A Small Business

I work full time for a small business that deals in auto body repair. The unique thing about this business is that it is run by women! It was started in 1985 by a man with a family. He had a wife and three children, and two of those children are girls. Both girls, along with their mother, are keeping the business running after the death of their father a couple of years ago. It is a very active business that gets the largest majority of auto body repair business in the county where I live. I am fortunate the be a part of this family run, family oriented business.

In addition to the family members, there is one full time female employee (me) and five technicians. We work hard and we manage to have fun while doing it. I am very good at paperwork, computer, and general office work which is what I do most of the time. I also help with the bookkeeping and filing, with an emphasis on customer service. In addition, I handle parts delivery and make sure the technicians have what they need to get the job done.

The younger sister checks in the damaged cars and oversees quality control, while the older sister cranks out the estimates, deals with the insurance companies, and keeps the rest of us working. It is a well run office and it has the respect of the community at large. The girls’ mother heads up the financial end of the business and makes sure that we all get paid.

In addition to the five technicians, we have another employee that details and waxes all repaired vehicles. Each of our guys have their own unique skills. There are three guys that fix the actual body damage and one guy that paints. The painter has a helper that washes, buffs, and sands cars as needed, and lastly, there is the guy who cleans up after everybody. He details the cars to a degree that I have not seen anywhere else. He is the first step in quality control and customer satisfaction and, thus, he a very important part of the business. Everyone that works for this company is focused on customer satisfaction because we understand that without that, there may be no job to go to, and thus, no paycheck.

What makes this small business work so well is the personal attention that every customer receives. You wouldn’t think that this type of business would get very much repeat business, but we do. We also do very well with word of mouth advertising. In addition, we get very nice references from peripheral businesses. I am happy that i was able to find such a nice family to work with and I plan on staying for a long time.

Personal attention to each customer is what makes this small business thrive. From the first phone call, the customer is assured that "we will take care of it". Most people are already upset when they have had a car accident and then dealing with the insurance company just makes it worse. We take all of that out of their hands and get them into a rental car and on their way. Within a few days, in most cases, their car is ready for pick up, often looking better than it had before the accident. This is how we get repeat business and referrals. We treat each customer as if they were our cousin.

Once we have repaired a car for someone, many people tell their friends and co-workers about their experience and refer them to us. Word of mouth is a great advertising tool. It is very important to make sure that the customers experience with us is positive or the word of mouth can turn on us. We do all we can to please the customer, including going to bat for them with the insurance companies. In addition, this company stands behind all of their work as long as the customer owns their car.

Finally, we get many peripheral references. That is, other companies that we deal with, such as, car dealerships, part suppliers, and material suppliers often refer their customers to us. On a daily basis, we deal with tire stores, glass companies, and alignment shops, among others. It is extremely important to keep a good business relationship with all of these because it could mean the difference in having plenty of work or very little. Even the pizza shop where we get our lunch may send a customer or two our way. That is why everything that we say or do has the potential to either reflect well or reflect badly on the business. I have worked with many a company in my time and have never found any that treats their customers better than this one.

It does make sense. Without customers, there is no business, small or otherwise.