Last year when Mesa, Ariz.-based Invision Auto Body took its first Top Shop honors, ABRN described the business as a "marketing powerhouse" and for good reason – a reason that helped return it to Top Shop status in 2011. Few shops, even other top performers, can approach its commitment to building its name in the market.
Co-owner Leslie Danielson runs the marketing program, which employs a full-time representative tasked with building relationships with insurers and the local community. Invision utilizes services such as Salesforce.com and Constant Contact to organize calling efforts and maintain contacts with insurers.
In its community, Invision is a member of both the Gilbert and Mesa Chambers of Commerce and sponsors the Mesa chapter's annual chamber golf tournament. It participates in Recycled Rides and the NASCAR Angels program and sponsors both Ford AAA Student Auto Skills and the Arizona Skills USA Championships Collision competition.
Just in case potential customers aren't contacted by these efforts, the shop also utilizes a unique corporate logo and color scheme it features on its uniforms, along with shirts, hats and promotional items.
Invision maintains a significant online presence with a website that was built around search engine optimization and is regularly updated with news, customer reviews and videos, along with links to a Facebook page and other social media.
The shop also has captured a number of industry and business awards that help promote its services. In 2009, Invision became one of just two shops to receive the AutocheX Customer Satisfaction Premier Achiever Award. In 2009 and 2010, Invision collected the AAA Top Shop Award. In 2010, along with being named an ABRN Top Shop, the Mesa Chamber of Commerce recognized Invision as Business of the Year for mid-sized businesses.
Moving into 2011, Invision set about adding to these accomplishments by building on its considerable reputation and planting seeds in an another location. General Manager Kyle Danielson, son of owners Chuck and Leslie, is putting a business degree he earned at Arizona State University to work to make this happen. Previously, he worked as an estimator and a mechanic for the shop.
Danielson says a big part of his contribution to the business is bringing the lesson he's learned at the university into play at the shop. Specifically, he focuses on business financials and other areas away from the repairs.
One area Danielson is giving particular focus is Invision's Internet presence, where an important part of his job is building and protecting the shop's image. This is a vital chore since Invision has labored long and hard to create a public image through its extensive marketing efforts and through its 25 years of work repairing cars and being active in the Mesa community. Making this even more of a challenge is the very nature of being part of the Internet community.
Complicating these efforts is a problem Invision and every other business building an online presence faces. Along with the genuine feedback from actual customers, they have to deal with illegitimate comments and criticism from Web-based marketing firms. The shop doesn't shy away from this challenge. Danielson deals with it head on by addressing all of Invision's electronic feedback.
"You have to protect your image. You have to maintain a positive image," he says.
In 2011, Danielson and Invision also addressed another challenge head on – expanding the business's operations.
Invision operates two locations in Mesa. Like many other successful repair businesses, and many of this year's Top Shops, Invision looked at 2011 as a year to expand if the right opportunity presented itself. That opportunity turned out to be an existing shop 20 miles away in Chandler that was having major problems managing its operations but no problem finding customers.
Invision was particularly well suited to deal with this opportunity because, according to Danielson, his business was management heavy. So successful was Invision in training and producing leaders, it had more management overhead than it needed. Shifting that overhead to another shop obviously was a great way to handle several different problems at the same time.
Danielson reports transforming its third site into an Invision location has been relatively smooth due to the available management and because of Invision's particular business culture. Invision always has been a family operation.
"Our management already knows our business so well that my dad, or I or someone else can work over at the new shop and it doesn't affect anything at our other locations," he says.
Invision also has a solid plan in place to transform the new site. Before Invision began offering repairs at the Chandler site's October opening, it used the business as a satellite shop. It handled estimates before sending vehicles over to the Mesa locations for the actual repairs.
Those repairs, regardless of location, use Invision's version of lean operating procedures. Danielson says Invision's lean operations focus on utilizing accurate blueprinting and parts ordering for the ultimate purpose of avoiding supplements.
"As far as lean goes we aren't looking to run at the head of the pack," he says. "We're more comfortable with doing things our way. It's a new way and definitely not the old school way of doing business."
Invision's way of doing business is very good business, generating more than $6 million a year in revenue and growing in a number of areas. That includes profits, locations and reputation.
