Our Story
Hello and Welcome to Individual Specialist Cars first ever Blog and we are looking forward to sharing some interesting articles, news and any other information you would like us to discuss.
As you know we were recently appointed Approved Repairers for the Volkswagen UK, Volkswagen Group Paint & Body Network and we were given the opportunity to share our story with them which has recently been published by Volkswagen UK. We are very proud to share this article with you and would like to thank Volkswagen UK for allowing us to tell our story:
The secret to ISC’s success is great service, and it’s immediately apparent that Amer and Zee were born to give customers exactly that. In 1935, the brother’s great grandparents started selling Austins, Morrises and Buicks to the Maharajas of India. After India gained independence in 1947, the family moved to Pakistan and opened the first Peugeot dealer in the country in 1955, followed by a ŠKODA dealership. Even in the days before Every Body Counts, the family took great pride in making customers happy to guarantee repeat business. In 2013, it’s obvious that the grandparents’ spirit lives on in Amer and Zee.
“People walk through the doorway of bodyshops expecting to be exploited or taken for a mug,” explains Amer. “But we treat everyone that walks through our door as a person, a friend and a customer for life. The first thing we tell our employees is that their job is to make friends with our customers. Every customer has mine and Zee’s mobile numbers, and we tell them they can call us any hour of the day or night to talk about their repair. And they do!”
“If a customer walks in to our reception ,” continues Amer, “I ’ll get out of my office and make them a coffee. If we make them feel like a customer, we’ve failed. We want them to feel like our friends, to be our friends. We want that person to tell the other 100 people they know about the service they had here."
“If a customer can’t afford to have a repair done and their car isn’t too battered I’ll say ‘It’s still drivable. Save your money and have the repair done in a few months when you can afford it. I don’t want your money, I want you to be happy.’ I understand that people have other things to think about than their cars. That makes the difference. A salesman would be shaking his head in disbelief at some of the things we do to keep our reputation, but in the end we just want to make our customers happy.”
Six months ago, ISC added the Volkswagen Group Paint and Body approval to its Porsche authorisation, and they’ve made a name for themselves repairing other high-end cars such as Bentleys and Lamborghinis. They use this to their advantage when dealing with all their customers.
“I want a customer to bring his Golf in for repair and know he’s being treated exactly the same as a customer with an Audi, Bentley or Rolls Royce ,” says Amer. “ There’s no difference; we want them all to be happy with the work we do.”
ISC didn’t spring up in the centre of Birmingham overnight.
Amer and Zee picked up the family tradition for satisfying customers when they started apprenticeships at BMW.
Amer pauses on our tour of the crowded and crop-free workshop to remember when he and Zee went it alone: “We left BMW after 18 years and with £400 we bought a van. We started a company called Individual Interior Design, and we painted fixtures and fittings in houses as if they were car parts; we even used Glasurit paints and primers. We’d paint radiators with pearlescent paint that changed colour in the sun, or spray ordinary white kitchen cupboard doors metallic black. It was a glimpse of our future; we were selling workshop hours!
“It was tough at the start. My wife said she’d give us six months to make the business work. Zee moved back in with mum and dad and we didn’t even have change to buy fags.”
In 2006 the brothers saved up enough money to pay for three months’ rent on their first workshop. Their infectious charisma and work ethic meant they had enough car repair work lined up to call time on the interior decorating business and focus on fixing cars.
With the bodyshop up and running, and the customer base growing rapidly, the pair’s belief in doing the best quality job and giving the best service possible became tougher. They’ve made several hard decisions and leaped plenty of hurdles to keep their reputation intact.
“We’ve always been bombarded with work,” says Zee. “The quality controller does his final inspection of each car in the workshop because that’s where the best light is. I’d prefer he does it in the valet bay, but I want him to be happy that he can give customers the best final result. Things will never be perfect, but you’ve got to do the best with what you’ve got.”
Zee and Amer’s ambition to make ISC the best bodyshop in the country seems unquenchable. To them, one thing is clear: being the best at what you do needs the support of your customers.
“We lose a lot of money by redoing jobs but it’s the only way to ensure the quality is as good as possible,” says Amer. “However, in seven years we’ve never had a customer annoyed with the work we’ve done on his or her car.”
Seven years with no complaints and brothers’ dedication and ambition.
