Founded in 1959, loyal customers dating back as long as 40 years but no insurer contracts: SE Ison & Son is a ‘typical’ independent bodyshop – with a twist. Mark Hadaway visits the Hemel Hempstead based business to find out more.
It’s been 18 months since Steve Whiston bought the SE Ison & Son bodyshop business. During a period when the world over has faced economic hardship, SE Ison & Son has gone about its business and taken steps to not only secure its future but also create ‘different’ and interesting new revenue streams.
‘I bought the business back in March 2010,’ explained Steve. ‘I previously worked for another local repair business but saw this as a great opportunity to invest in something of my own. The business really hadn’t moved with the times, the owners were looking to shut-up shop and when I took it on they were working a four day week and it was very quiet. To give you an example, estimates were still being done on a typewriter... thankfully, we now use Audatex and digital imaging to provide a fast and efficient estimating process.’
Steve’s buyout included taking on the business name and retaining the current staff, including previous owner Gerald Ison. Since the late 1980s, the SE Ison & Son business was run by the original founder’s sons – Raymond and Gerald. Their father, Sid founded the business in 1959, starting out as a small unit at the end of a gravel track before buying some land to build a workshop on the site of the current business. ‘Sid worked on the shop floor in the business up until 1978 and finally retired in 1988,’ said Steve.
‘At this point Raymond and Gerald, who had worked on the shop floor, took on the management of the business but they had different ideas as to its direction and as a result it remained static.’
Today, the business has six staff with an abundance of skills to hand. A good balance of experienced and young, enthusiastic staff work alongside one another to give the business a dynamic edge. ‘We want our people to learn this business the correct way,’ said Steve. ‘All our staff are kept up-to-date with regular training to ensure competency but also to ensure we are providing the most cost effective solutions for our customers such as plastics welding and smart repair methods.’
Focus
Over the past 18 months, SE Ison has seen a steady increase in business with an average 15 cars per week passing through the shop. ‘I very much believe we need to treat each customer’s vehicle as if it were our own – the customer is always our focus,’ Steve explained. ‘We put ourselves in the customer’s shoes and look at the situation from their perspective. They don’t care that we repair hundreds of cars every year. We just need to treat them like they are our only customer. We pride ourselves on caring and making sure every customer is happy.’
Something Steve is very much in favour of, and which has been a major contributor to the success of the business, is delivering on his word. ‘If we say we are going to deliver something, we make sure we do it,’ said Steve. ‘For example, we aim to reduce the time a clients’ vehicle is off the road by pre-ordering parts and painting them before the vehicles arrive resulting in a quick turnaround.’
Loyalty
SE Ison is proud to have customers dating back as long as 40 years. ‘Customers have stayed loyal to us for the fact we go that extra mile to make their misfortune less painful’, explained Steve. ‘We find many individuals who use us will keep coming back and refer us to friends and neighbours. I strongly believe people miss building rapport with local businesses. We all like to remember the days when we knew our local shopkeeper or had a dedicated family doctor for example. Here at SE Ison, we genuinely enjoy the human aspect of our work, as well as the hands-on side, and I believe our customers feel that.’
To ensure such loyalty continues to be the norm rather than the exception, SE Ison has customer satisfaction measurements in place which include follow up letters to customers along with comment cards. Satisfaction ratings are enhanced by the operation of its own recovery service and utilisation of seven courtesy vehicles. ‘It’s something you have to offer in the business we are in,’ said Steve. ‘All our vehicles carry our logo and that branding goes a long way to being recognised locally.’
And it is this philosophy which has seen the business secure and maintain several local fleet contracts. ‘We don’t currently have any insurance approvals and really don’t think PAS 125 is for us. Our quality of workmanship is unsurpassed and PAS 125 accreditation offers no added value to our standards nor our customer delight. The insurer/PAS125 business model is great if you are geared up for it and operate a purpose built facility, however that’s not what we are and instead focus our efforts elsewhere,’ said Steve.
Different
This ‘focusing of efforts’ has given SE Ison some very different revenue streams including classic Ferrari and Lamborghini restoration and repair work. ‘I had built a very strong relationship with a local independent Ferrari garage, DK Engineering in my previous job. Once they knew I was changing roles, they immediately redirected the work to me,’ explained Steve. ‘They were so pleased with our work that since that time they have put the likes of Ferrari 250GTOs, 360s and 430s our way. And it hasn’t stopped there.
Another local engineering firm heard of our business and now directs its work to us which has included some Lamborghini refurbishments – one coming all the way from Australia for a full refurb.
‘These jobs take up some serious man hours,’ continued Steve. ‘Our aim is to have no more than two big projects on the go at any one time as it can be quite demoralising working on the same vehicle for weeks or even months.’
Steve points out that this supercar restoration wasn’t part of his original plan, however it came at the right time and now allows Steve to be a little more selective about the work he actually takes on. A big focus of SE Ison is to continuously ‘juggle the work flow’ and ensure enough day-to-day work is still coming through the business to maintain cash flow, which seems to be working at present – although Steve feels there is potential for more.
SE Ison’s current location is currently on the local council list for redevelopment – phase two of a project in housing development. ‘If it does happen, then all well and good – we can then re-assess the situation, but in the meantime we have to keep pushing on with business and develop further,’ said Steve. ‘Our main focus now is to get some extra throughput, maybe by looking into gaining a small volume approval to give us that continuous work flow.’
‘Within any business there are always things to do and our immediate focus is to change the reception area to try to bring the current building up to scratch,’ said Steve. ‘We now recognise that although we are proud of the fact we have picked something up and elevated it to its current level, this business never stands still and we need to keep moving ahead.’