Everett, Wash.--As business partners, Shayne Hedahl and Kerry Triboulet take a bit of an unusual approach to dividing up responsibilities. The co-owners of Special Interest Autobody said they have each taken responsibility for one of the shop's two largest direct repair programs through Geico and State Farm.
Hedahl, for example, said he oversees teardown and estimating of vehicles through the Geico "Auto Repair Xpress" program, jobs that are handled by a team of technicians that works solely on those vehicles. It's a system that Triboulet said he would like to replicate with State Farm and some of the shop's other direct repair programs.
But the two are also quick to point out the additional strengths and skills the other brings to the business partnership. For example, Triboulet has the technical background to oversee scheduling and working with the production manager, Hedahl said.
"And Shayne handles more of the business and financial part of the business," Triboulet said. "I have more of a car background, so we're a good fit that way. We're not just two bodymen trying to figure out how to run a business."
"Kerry has a lot more experience under his belt, and I've got youth on my side," Hedahl said.
"Yeah, he's half my age," Triboulet said, laughing. "But we share the same vision that this isn't just a body shop anymore. It's big business, and you have to treat it as such. There are a lot of things we want to implement toward that goal and vision for the future. We want to stay a step ahead of everybody else in terms of technology and the way we treat our customers to make this process as painless as possible."
The two, in fact, pointed to Nordstrom and Les Schwab Tire Centers as role models for the type of exceptional customer service they hope to provide.
"The way we approach warranty work and our customers here I think far exceeds the industry standard," Hedahl said. "We go above and beyond."
The shop enables customers to pick up and drop off rental cars onsite, for example, or offers shuttle service to their home or work, Hedahl said.
"If a customer comes in with an older car, some body shops won't even write them an estimate," Triboulet said. "We'll at least go out there and go over the damage with them and see the best approach. We don't ever want a customer to feel it was a wasted effort to come in here."
Though only in their second year of ownership, both Triboulet and Hedahl have ties to the business that date back much further. Triboulet said he joined the company as general manager about 12 years ago. Hedahl, who has worked at the shop in a number of capacities for several years, said he is the nephew of Doug Tuengel, one of the founders of Special Interest Autobody back in 1978.
Tuengel, who still works at the business as marketing manager, had some health issues that led to his selling the business, something he said he approached Triboulet and Hedahl to discuss.
"I wasn't going to sell it to someone who didn't run the business as I would want it run, so Kerry and Shayne were the natural choice," he said.
There have been no shortage of changes to the business just before and after the sale. Two years ago, for example, the company sold the NAPA parts store that was housed in a building adjacent to the shop and in that space built a covered estimating area as well as shop offices and a customer area filled with car-themed movie posters, model cars, and antique toys, the partners said.
The company has seen sales double in the past 18 months, Hedahl said, and it now has 30 employees working in four buildings totaling 18,000 square feet. The growth has led to a need for additional equipment, including a second Garmat spraybooth, a second Chief electronic measuring system, another Chief frame rack (giving the shop a total of four) as well as some floor pot pulling equipment, he said.
"We're also looking at whether there's a way of adding a measuring system in the estimating bays so we can get a better picture of what we're looking at," Hedahl said, adding that he is considering several brands to determine which would be the easiest and quickest to use.
The company recently joined the Automotive Service Association of Washington (ASA-WA) but has been a member and participant in the Autobody Craftsman Association for some time, Hedahl said. ASA-WA provides them with updates on what is happening in the industry, offers an employee referral service, and provides opportunities to get to know other shop owners, he said.
"I also went and toured some other shops in the Assured Performance Network down in California and joined that because I have been impressed with what that group wants to do in the future," he said. "They really promote quality."
The shop has sprayed Martin-Senour paint products since 1999 and recently joined a "20 group" through Sherwin-Williams, Hedahl said. He said his goal working with that group is to help implement some "lean processing" practices to reduce the shop's expenses.
"We want to continue growing our facility here and basically use this as our training grounds, developing our systems at this location," he said. "I would like to see us grow to three locations over the next 10 years. I see us (adding locations) further north from here."
"We're both still learning how to run this company," Hedahl said. "We've done a good job just through hard work so far, but now we want to really start putting our education and experience to work for the company as well."