"This organization is acutely aware that our success is tied with that of our professional installer customers," Douglass said.  "That's really what being a customer-driven organization is all about."

Douglass said he began his career as the owner of a repair business that specialized in brake and front-end work, and, as his business grew, he purchased a two-step distribution company and a small brake manufacturing business.  He said he sold the manufacturing business in 1984 to focus on the distribution business.

The distribution company became known as Reddi Brake, Douglass said, which went public in 1993 and would eventually expand to 100 locations.  The experience was bittersweet, he said, as he was edged out of the company and watched it eventually go bankrupt.

After leaving Reddi Brake, Douglass said he spent much of the next 12 months considering the meaning of life and thinking about the business concept and how it could be improved.  In 1996, he opened Fast Undercar in Ventura, and by 1998, it had six locations and was ready to launch a franchise system, he said. 

 
"If you filter it all down, it's about culture," Douglass said.  "That's what differentiates one organization from another.  Just about everything about Fast Undercar is customer driven." 

 
Customer feedback quickly led to a series of changes that helped define how the company would do business in the years to come, Douglass said.  "We changed our strategy to offer an immediate delivery model, so that as soon as a ticket is pulled, the part is on the road within five minutes," he said.

  
"We're looking for the best service that we can offer," he said.  "It's consistent -- the customer can depend on that part being on the road minutes after it is ordered."

Joey Montilla, Owner of the Oakland and Stockton warehouses, said his staff is trained to go the extra mile to offer superior customer service.  "For instance, if there is something that a customer needs that is not available, with his permission, we will call around to other local suppliers to find it and get it for him," Montilla said, "even if that means we have to buy it from a competitor.  We make sure that everyone in our organization -- drivers, salespeople, warehouse personnel -- understand that we want to set the trend for service.  We are not the followers, we are the leaders."

Mike Hawkesworth, owner of the Bakersfield franchise, said his branch runs 30 delivery vehicles to serve a 30-mile radius from his branch.  The speed of the delivery is important because it directly impacts the profitability of the repair, he said.

  
"A shop owner has to ask himself what his rack time is worth," Hawkesworth said.  "Each owner has his own idea, but let's just say it's worth $60 an hour.  That is a dollar a minute.  If you have to wait 40 minutes for the parts to show up, it's a disaster.  The real concern is productivity, not saving $3 on a set of brake pads."

John Dick, manager of the Kent, Wash., and Portland, Ore., warehouses, said their service has a direct affect on their customer's bottom line.  "If you can save $2 buying a part from another supplier but it takes an extra 30 minutes to get it, are you really saving money if your rack time is worth $60 an hour?

 "I think our service -- immediate delivery and no hassle return -- sets us apart," Dick said.  "This is a customer satisfaction driven business.  We try to make it as easy as possible to do business with us."

Fast Undercar has also instituted a "no-limit" warranty regardless of who made the part, Douglass said.  "We didn't start out with a no-limit warranty," he said, "but customers told us they couldn't keep all of the different warranties straight.  Customers wanted to be assured that they could take care of their customers without confusion or concern.  We took a variable and made it a customer-driven constant -- end of worry."

The foundation of any customer-driven organization is its employees, and in this case, its franchisees, Douglass said.  "It's all about personnel," he said.  "Having the right people who are talented and have the aptitude tied with a long-term commitment to the industry.  Training and programs are no substitute for a motivated individual."

Douglass said that from the beginning, he wanted owner/operators -- "someone who is making a full-time commitment to the business.  Not just an investor."

While he said he knew a number of potential franchisees that he wanted to work with from his Reddi Brake days, few had the capital to open a franchise, so Fast Undercar developed a "farm system" to get them started.  "We provided the inventory and capital to get started and had an agreement that turned the franchise over to them after five years," he said.  "We chose key people who we were sure could be successful but who didn't have the capital."

The result is an organization uniquely motivated to take care of its customers but whose members are also loyal to the larger organization, Douglass said.  "This is a group that really stands together, which results in the best customer service and strong supplier relationships."

The success of the initial franchises solidified the company's reputation as a profitable franchise opportunity and attracted other capitalized franchisees to continue the company's growth, Douglass said.  "We are still very selective and turn down about four applicants for every one that we select," he said.

By recruiting people who are knowledgeable about the industry and deeply involved in their businesses, it has led to strong franchises and improved the whole organization, Douglass said.  "We have learned a lot from our franchise system.  It includes a lot of creative and aggressive people."

The franchise owners are then encouraged to surround themselves with the best people they can hire, Douglass said.  "We hire only experienced counter personnel," he said, "and then we give them the tools to be extraordinarily productive."

While the company has a robust Web site where customers can look up and price parts, including photos to confirm that it's the correct part, Douglass said more than 90 percent of orders still come in by phone.

"If you're going to provide good service, that starts with the phone inquiry," he said.  "The phone must be answered within two rings or less -- period, the end.  That requires an adequate number of people to handle the orders and making sure they have the tools to expedite the call.

"We've built our business by leveraging information technology as the central enabler of competitive advantage," Douglass said.  Among the tools he points to is a bar code system for inventory receiving and management, state-of the-art electronic cataloging, Voice Over Internet Protocol connecting all of the branches, and automatic inventory replenishment on a daily basis.

"We have also built some proprietary products to manage deliveries that are browser-based, which allows us to measure that performance and manage it," he said.

All of these things are critical, Douglass said, because in the end, Fast Undercar is a service business.  At the same time, installers demand the best-quality part available, he said.

 "We are looking for the best quality that we can find in the automotive aftermarket," he said.  "Installers are telling us that quality is the most important thing, and price is running a distant second."

To maintain quality across a full line of coverage sometimes requires the company to offer products from a range of manufacturers, Douglass said.  For instance, he said, the company has six radiator suppliers -- one of the few nonundercar product lines the company covers.  "We are finding ourselves using more OE suppliers again," he said. 

The consolidation of suppliers over the past several decades combined with the financial instability faced by many industry manufacturers have made the job of finding a dependable supply of quality parts more difficult in recent years, Douglass said.

Fast Undercar's business model requires that it be focused on quality parts, Douglass said.  "If a 'no-limit' warranty is more than just a marketing trick, it has to be backed up with the best-quality parts," he said.