If this article were colors, they’d be welcoming and inviting; if a conversation, pleasant. Can we get you a drink?
“Colors evoke emotion,” said Samantha McClellan, who has studied color therapy and owned a decorative painting service before joining husband Rich McClellan in 2022 at Elite Customs, a Tennessee custom shop they own. “They help clients make choices.”
The couple had recently married, blending families, and both their businesses were growing. But, “if I’m going to spread myself thin, I wanted to do that with my children, not a second company,” Samantha said.
She sold hers, and found overlap: she could offer her expertise to upgrade ops at the shop, which has built and worked on cars for people in pro sports and music. Carrie Underwood’s family has been a client, as has Dolly Parton, along with wives of players and musicians, among others.
Shop colors and front office design changed, as did consultations and the customer experience.
Life can be good, even great, and get better. Collision can talk so people listen, listen so people talk.
Color Me Shocked, Now Listen Up
The entrance and waiting area went less “man cave” and more inviting, while adding functionality. The space has vinyl, paint and powder-coating options displayed as art — a comment on work quality combining what the customer can enjoy, with color swatches and paint chips common in other contexts.
It doesn’t throw off men, Samantha said. “It’s just not so aggressive and in-your-face; men are more at ease, too.”
Samantha McClellan.
Conventional custom joints might have woofers on a wall, but Elite realized people don’t want to see speakers, they want to hear music. So now they pull a car around, let someone sit in it, and listen to what’s possible.
“It’s rare we don’t have a $150,000+ car in the shop, or our personal vehicles, which are built to the nines,” Samantha said.
There are still displays — custom rims, for instance — and a bookshelf with shop awards. It’s not going to scare the horses. But it’s “worked into the general décor,” Samantha said. “A lot of times in a custom shop it’s [just] a salesroom.” Clients like “running their hand along a car that’s wrapped.”
The front desk coordinator came from the beauty business: “well-spoken, customer service, Southern hospitality,” she said.
Samantha referenced the seemingly “cheap and inauthentic” and often overwhelming act of walking into a big box retailer stacked to its rafters with stuff few understand.
“This is the absolute opposite,” she said, seeking instead “approachable” and “comforting” and a little luxe, at least a bit extra — as at a resort or, in a body shop, maybe just the room Elite has to take private calls. Rich and Samantha said the approach “gets people excited about their new build.”
Driving the Ultimate Body Shop Machine
Consider the ultimate driving machine. We know who it is and what it’s about.
Experience.
As women walk the hall, it’s lined with “photos of cars we’ve built, blown up to six feet,” Samantha said. Very guy-ish, right? Nope, vehicles are gorgeous, shiny, professionally shot, and often in front of homes. That’s new language, which continues with actual talking.
“I started to sit in on consultations,” Samantha said, “and was able to see where conversations broke down.”
Asking a female real estate agent, “Who’s your favorite designer? She said, ‘Dolce & Gabbana’ and I said, ‘I definitely know your vibe.’”
Elite Customs.
They looked at the website together: “bold, rich colors … metals. We narrowed it down to a beautiful emerald green wrap with rich pewter powder coating on the wheels.”
Samantha added: “Another tool that blows everybody’s mind? Pinterest.”
Have female clients create a board with their colors and styles, and look for commonalities in the images of rooms in a house, jewelry, apparel. “She’s drawn to pastels, or what designers they look at,” Samantha said.
Then discuss.
Samantha sees patterns. Early on in what’s essentially the auto industry, she “started figuring out they were pulling inspiration from interior design and fashion. Fashion was migrating into home décor, now trickling into” cars.
For Nashville, this means Western: “tooled leather, cowhides,” and a wider design technique called “color-drenching” — one color and its tones used on all surfaces of a space. The effect, design media says, is calming, cohesive, immersive, intimate. Intentional individuality for rooms, coming to vehicles.
“We’re not trying to exclude traditional car enthusiasts, but they already have a place here,” Samantha said.
It’s a Man’s World, Until It Isn’t
No question, collision centers are mostly male: customers and employees. But women get in wrecks too — and why not appeal to both. Women are welcomed, Samantha said, and men lower their guard.
“Rich is 6 foot, 285 pounds, bald by choice, covered with tattoos,” she said. A place people want to be for talks they want to have is not a bad thing.
“Listen to the client, hear where they’re coming from, validate them,” find a solution, she said. Avoid technical jargon. Even how employees stand can matter. “Customers are so appreciative we don’t speak down to them.”
Car dealers have learned this. Samantha said a quarter of automobile sales positions are female, maxing out an auto world’s approach. Body shops are catching on. Clayton Millsap’s southern Illinois shop The Damage Co. held a ladies night, drawing 25 people, including new drivers. Speakers — from auto repair and insurance — were women.
“What makes women and men tick is different,” said Laura Gay, who owned shops for 10 years and consults to owners. Create a dynamic “with color, textures, furniture, signage. It’s the whole feel and vibe of a shop.”
Elite hired a woman-owned, female-staffed PR firm, and works with influencers, “not just automotive, not just male,” Samantha said.
Anyway, men also like good music, comfortable surroundings, and of course pictures of cars.
“Men won’t say this out loud, but they like the luxury lifestyle, and want to feel important,” Samantha said. “They’re not going to be put off by this. And guys who say they’re not ‘car guys’ still love their own car.”
That’s kind of a key: some of this is just “what people like” — polite children, obedient pets, a well-lived life.
Rich mentions women wanting to know who they can trust, and that’s a universal — but for body shops, men can already think they know. They often have the lingo down, especially with custom work. Maybe Elite’s notion is men and women see, speak of, and seek the same things, but differently.
“People want similar things but don’t necessarily know how to pursue it” in body shops, Samantha said.
And everything is part of that experience. Everything.
“Women want nice cars, too,” she said.
Paul Hughes