This shop's finest hour

Jan. 1, 2020
It’s somehow gratifying to go into a shop named British American Auto Care and be greeted by an owner/manager named Brian England, who indeed sports an accent from across the pond.

It’s somehow gratifying to go into a shop named British American Auto Care and be greeted by an owner/manager named Brian England, who indeed sports an accent from across the pond. But besides enchanting the inner Anglophile, the shop has a solid rep for repairing European and Asian autos.

Located outside Washington, D.C., in Columbia, Md., this former Range Rover technician not only expanded his service line, but has refined his understanding of the market to the point where his company earned the Maryland Business of the Year and the Maryland Businessman Award in 2003 and 2004, respectively.

For one, England has promoted the importance of preventive maintenance with consistent, quality automotive repairs “from day one,” he affirms. “We want to be responsible for the maintenance of our customer’s vehicles and to make sure they are safe and reliable.”

To that end, shop productivity is monitored closely through three reports generated by noon each workday. “The whole shop has a breakeven target to reach,” says England. “When that has been reached, each technician (as well as office staff and service writers) can earn a bonus based on their efficiency.”

Secondly, England has focused on “inbound marketing,” as outlined in a book of the same name by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah. As he puts it, traditional marketing might entail putting an ad in the local paper and hoping people see it, but inbound marketing is based on a strong web presence, designed to draw customers to you through search engines and social networking. “Anyone who does things like Facebook and Yelp or searches for recommendations, that is inbound marketing,” England explains. “I’ll give you an exact example: I write a blog on the Maryland state inspection, and what happens is we have a landing page of that on our website. As people search for Maryland state inspection, they will find my blog, then we will draw them in, just like fishing. There they can download a little booklet about how to get the state inspection done and the process for getting your car titled and taxed; it’s a whole way for bringing people inward as opposed to the traditional ‘outbound’ way.”

Implemented about three years ago, British American’s website was updated utilizing programs like Groupon, Yelp, the aforementioned blog, and HubSpot (from a namesake company founded by Halligan and Shah). In a two year span website visits per month doubled. Retaining the services of Ros Williams, the inbound marketing consultant who oversaw this overhaul, she continues to fine tune the website and occasionally confer with England as to “everyone else’s presence on the web, what they’re doing, what we can learn from them—it’s like one big video game,” he jokes.

England himself has more than 250 followers on Twitter, re-tweeting articles on issues he’s interested in, like electric cars and healthcare. All original blogs are checked by Williams for keywords before posting. “I’m not sure how much Twitter really helps us,” admits England. “But anytime you have a presence on the web, it’s always a good buy. What you’re trying to do is get your Google analytical profile really established so when people use search engines they’re going to come to me.”

But with all the changes wrought over the years, does the name British American still make sense? “Not if you talk to our marketing people,” England laughs. “We’ve discussed trying to change it, but we’ve been in business in Columbia under that name since 1978, so why change it? If someone asks why it’s British American, I say, ‘Well I used to be British, now I’m American.’

In the early days, their lease actually stated they had to specialize in British and American cars, but that’s because of their unique environment, the planned community of Columbia.

Founded in 1967 by visionary developer James Rouse, every aspect of the town — economic, aesthetic, environmental, cultural — was thought out before construction began. “It’s a very inclusive community,” England proudly comments. “(Rouse) would not allow anyone to redline anything. It was one of the first places which became a magnet for all people, all races; we’ve got like 70 different nationalities.”

Shortly after emigrating to the U.S., England and his wife moved to Columbia in 1973. They incorporated their shop in 1976 but didn’t open until 1978; it took two years just to find a location. “It’s not very easy when you have a planned city,” he admits. “You could go into the little industrial areas, but they weren’t very suitable for auto repair.”

But then the fledgling city adopted an idea used in California: automotive services gathered together in one area, an auto park. Different specialties were arranged like a shopping mall (a concept Rouse had helped pioneer); one garage might work exclusively on German makes; another shop might do nothing but detailing. England did business there till the city built another auto park; they moved there for a decade before they had the opportunity to build their own shop in an industrial park zoned for auto repair.

“In the last two auto parks we were tucked away,” says England. “(The increased visibility) helps somewhat, but we’re still in an industrial park; it’s not like being on a highway.”

Yet despite such inconveniences, England still supports the auto park idea. “It levels the playing field for all of us,” he maintains. Location has not been an issue or a factor of doing business in Columbia. However since the death of Rouse in 1996, some of the ideals behind the city’s auto parks are being co-opted by commercial concerns. But like his namesake and place of birth, England isn’t giving up. “We’re fighting,” he states.

England may now be an American citizen, but a certain World War II prime minister would be proud.

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