| A Sign of the Times . . . Boat and RV Collision Center Opens in Arizona by Don Magary
Business opportunities associated with the leisure time pursuits of the aging baby boom generation is most certainly one of the signs of the times. And being able to professionally service and repair the toys of this new market is never far from the minds of most RV industry professionals. An Arizona company, Auto Body World, has a vision for the opportunity these new markets offer and has established a new boat and RV collision center division and made a substantial investment in a new facility in Phoenix. Although this RV and boat phase of Auto Body World's business started developing in1998, the company held its grand opening for its brand new 12,500 square-foot Boat & RV Body World collision center in May. Focusing on the exterior of vehicles, Boat & RV Body World offers a variety of services including coach structural repairs, doors & windows, collision repairs, custom exteriors, floor repairs and installation, electrical modifications, carpentry, appliance, plumbing and offers a limited five-year warranty on all workmanship. Auto Body World is a family owned and operated company that was founded by Warren Fait in 1946 in South Dakota. In 1962, Warren packed up his family and moved their belongings and the business to Arizona. After Warren retired, the reigns of leadership were turned over to sons Larry and David Fait. Larry became CEO and David took over operations. In 1996 Larry retired and David Fait took over the top spot at Auto Body World. Through the years Auto Body World has become a well-known and highly respected company and today has five locations in the Phoenix area. In 1998 the company was named National "Collision Business of the Year," and in 1999 the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce named Auto World's David Fait "Small Businessman of the Year." In an interview with RV News, David said the move into boat and RV repair developed out of need to solve a real estate issue. Auto Body World owned property adjoining their Phoenix shop and needed to either develop it or sell it. Fait was concerned that the car side of the business wasn't going to grow fast enough to warrant the investment to add more facilities to repair cars. He thought about that for about a year. During that time his personal boat needed some repairs so he brought it into the shop and made the repairs himself. It was at this point he realized that repairing the boat was not a whole lot different than repairing cars. That gave him the idea.
So moving from autos to boat and RV repairs was a natural extension of the core business. David said, "We're in the business of collision repair who cares whether it is an auto or boat or an RV? We already had a great reputation, established relationships with insurance companies and I thought we could do a good job. " But for it all to work, Fait had to have someone with experience who would take the ball and run with it. That man was Don McPhail. McPhail, a former New Jersey RV dealer, was a service writer and at one of Auto Body World's locations so he was Fait's natural choice and McPhail jumped at the opportunity. Fait added, "Don's done a great job." During the grand opening, McPhail took RV News for a per sonal tour of the facility that features eight drive-through working bays and a state-of-the-art, 53- by 18-foot drive-through paint booth. McPhail told RV News that the heated & cooled side-draft spray booth also doubles as a classroom for RV insurance estimating seminars and technician training.
At present, the boat and RV center has a total of 12 techs, and like most service facilities nowadays, finding and retaining qualified technicians is an ongoing challenge. McPhail says he tries to recruit RVIA-RVDA certified technicians, but he admits they are hard to find. He said, "We have to do our own training." And once trained he then faces the issue of keeping them since certified technicians are in great demand. He added, "All you can do is treat them right so hopefully they will stay once we help them receive certification. "Our number one focus is on customer satisfaction, and our second priority is employee satisfaction. The business success formula for our parent company, Auto Body World, is EDI (Employee Delighted Index) plus CDI (Customer Delighted Index) plus good business practices. Since we started the boat and RV side two years ago, we have run 100% CDI -- we serve our customer." When Auto Body World made the decision to expand their business into these new areas, Fait knew there was a difference in saying you are in the boat and RV collision repair business and being in the boat and RV collision repair business. David said, "We knew that you cannot pretend you're in the business. You have to create the image. So we made the investment, put the building up and decided to be the number one performer out there. "We're excited about it, and we think there's a ton of opportunity." RVN
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