A tale of two shops

Click here for more photos.

How appropriate that Network Auto Body, which is based in Hollywood, Calif., would create a business model from the same notion. Network leverages the virtual shop it created online to generate significant revenue for its business.

On its own, without the amped-up virtual business, Network could be a top shop. Founded in 1985 by Rocky Fasone, who’s president of the two-location shop, the business repairs 50 vehicles a week with an average repair ticket of $3,500. That translates into $9 million in annual revenue. Network provides amenities such as online quotes for customers who send digital photos of damage to its website, free deductible financing and a 100-percent warranty on all work.

Network also performs restoration and custom work like the pinstripe job on this 2010 Mazda 3. Click here for more photos.

Before opening his own shop, Fasone worked as the body shop manager for a Cadillac dealership. He built Network quickly on dealer work. He says that just several years into ownership his shop was the largest indoor repair facility in the nation and was generating $600,000 a month.

“When we started out, everybody was concentrating on the insurers,” he says. “We went the other direction. Today, we have no DRPs, and we’re not interested in getting any.”

Network remains the preferred or authorized collision repair center for a number of nearby dealers, including those selling Mini Coopers, BMWs and Toyotas. The relationship with Toyota has proven particularly fruitful. In 1986, Network became the authorized shop for Toyota of Hollywood. In 2001, during the introduction of the Toyota Prius, Fasone’s techs became manufacturer certified for hybrid repairs. Repairing Priuses constitutes the majority of Network’s business.

Network’s unique business model helped set the stage last year for its foray into the virtual repair world. Fasone decided, with the suggestion of long-time friend and entertainment industry veteran Bob Schott, to upgrade his Web presence and create an entirely unique, multimedia experience for collision repair customers.

Network founder and president Rocky Fasone was the manager of a dealer body shop before building his own shop on dealer business. Click here for more photos.

Network bills itself as “The Body Shop to the Stars.” A number of celebrities have brought work to its door. Schott convinced Fasone to play off the Tinseltown tag and build a site laden with well-produced educational and promotional videos with a movieland twist. After months of uploads, the site features dozens of videos, the most prominent of which focuses on collision industry issues the shop believes directly impact its customers. These videos feature Network employees such as Fasone’s twin sons, Ralph and Joe, speaking to viewers to explain insurer steering, customer rights, de-nib and polish issues, and basecoat reduction.

“We want to educate and entertain,” says Schott, director for Global Media Products, a producer of Web and broadcast content. “With a lot of shop sites, you’re going to get quick hits from possible customers. We want people to stay on the site for a while and get to know the business.”

Along with videos on repair issues, the Network site also features films about frame repair and hybrid work, along with customer testimonials, including those from dealers who send work to Network.

To boost interest in the site and attract more customers, Schott added a number of public domain films, including Flash Gordon serials, Gene Autry westerns and the cult classic “Santa Claus vs. the Martians.”

Each of these films is paired with one of Network’s consumer awareness videos to attract attention. Recently, Schott added his own creation, a film called “Attack of the Bondo Hounds,” which meshes footage from the classic zombie flick “Night of the Living Dead” with new footage from the shop. The film serves as a warning to customers about the dangers of substandard, insurer-directed repairs.

“We like to do the entertaining stuff because that’s what people remember,” Schott says.

The impact of the site is giving customers a sense of understanding and comfort as they learn about the shop and the industry.

“Our attitude is that the site should do everything for the customer except actually repair and paint their cars,” he says.

Schott believes web users are spending plenty of time on the site – statistics show some remain on it for hours. Once customers find the site, many come back. On average, 80 percent of the people who come across the site a month add it to their Web browser favorites list, Schott says.

“We get about $100,000 of business a month brought in from the Internet,” Fasone says.

To put that into perspective, that’s 30 customers brought in monthly via the virtual world. What’s your website done lately?