By Steve McLinden
Like most body shops, Aimes Collision of north Dallas took a sizable hit when COVID-19 struck.
“At first, we went into a stall like everyone else,” said co-owner Olga Herrera. But Texas “re-opened” in mid-May and potential customers started commuting again, with the resultant fender benders once more accelerating shop patronage.
Aimes has made several concessions to COVID-19. The shop places customer keys immediately in zip-lock bags and thoroughly disinfects and washes all vehicles before they’re returned to customers, among other measures. Through the second week of July, COVID-19 cases in the North Texas area have numbered around 70,000. Dallas, specifically, has been one of the harder-hit metro areas in the country this summer.
Olga and husband, Eddie Herrera, opened Aimes Collision in 2011, expanding to the current site from a small industrial suite where they spent three years building up business. Trying to avoid a traffic jam one day, Eddie took a short cut home. As he drove past a dormant auto-repair building on Reeder Road, he began envisioning how the family business could expand into it. He happened past it again, just after a “for rent” sign had been posted.
So the couple seized the chance and took over the 5,800-square-foot shop at 11436 Reeder, a few blocks south of the corner of Interstate 35E and Interstate 635 loop, finding themselves near one of the busiest intersections in the state.
A strong customer-service ethic is the backbone of the shop, said Olga Herrera. “I always try to make customers feel like they are of the highest importance, not like they are just another person in line with ten cars ahead of them,” she said. “I communicate with them constantly about their repair and email them progress reports on a daily basis; I will even call them every day if that’s what they want, because it’s important we’re always on the same page; that’s how we’re different from a lot of other shops.”
The couple had to take a few hair-raising risks along the way. Early on, they emptied their personal and business bank accounts to buy the needed parts, paints and other materials to repair a high-dollar vehicle. The satisfied customer, fortunately, was quick to pay.
Since Automotive Report’s last visit in 2014, Aimes has added a full-time body worker and full-time painter, both who served as part-time contractors at the shop before being formally brought aboard. One came from a large corporate chain, and has very happy to switch over to an independent shop with a strong culture of precision work, Olga Herrera said. Aimes backs its repairs with a written lifetime warranty for any work the shop has performed.
Co-owner Eddie Herrera is less active in the physical aspects of the trade these days and has gracefully segued into the role of staff accountant.
“He is a good numbers-cruncher, and he really enjoys that part of the business,” she said.
Aimes works on all types of cars, SUVs and personal trucks, but is at its heart a European auto specialist, repairing such models as Porsche, Mercedes, BMW and Audi. Aimes’ webpage exclaims: “Warning! Do Not Trust Your Luxury European Vehicle With Just Any Auto Body Shop!”
The shop’s mission stated on its website is “to achieve the highest standards in the collision industry and to promote quality workmanship repairs and excellent customer service…and educate and effectively communicate professionally to our customers and our vendors.”
Aimes’ detail orientation and push for excellence reflects a greater allegiance to clients more so than insurers, said Olga Herrera, who has PPG-certifications in Product Time and Cycle Management and Advanced Collision Estimating. Hence, the shop’s unwillingness to serve as a preferred shop for insurers.
“It takes time to get jobs right, and that’s one reason we aren’t tied to [insurer] timelines and other demands,” she said.
Still, the co-owner characterizes her relationship with adjusters, whom she said trust Aimes because of its consumer-satisfaction reputation, as a positive one. Because most adjusters now rely on digital photos instead of in-person visits due to streamlined company policies and COVID concerns, repair approvals are taking a bit longer these days. Some internal car damage can be hard to pinpoint on even the clearest images. The shops tools of the trade include a computerized PPG mixer and downdraft paint booth, frame puller and Dent-Fix system.
Among the vehicles in for repairs on a recent summer morning included a new-model Mercedes-AMG GLE 63 S Coupe and a Range Rover.
“We have lot of high-end clientele such as doctors and attorneys who like that special attention we give,” Herrera said. “We’re working on the car of a well-known professional baseball player right now.”
Given the shop’s European car expertise, customers come from all over the Dallas-Fort Worth area and even as far away as Amarillo. A sampling of recent reviews reflect the shop’s ethic: “When I asked my mechanic where I could get some cosmetic work done on my 2005 Mercedes Benz E500, he sent me to Olga at Aimes,” wrote one man. “She and Aimes were honest and forthright in assessing the work, accurate in the timeline and they kept me posted all along. Going forward, no one else will touch my car except them.” A woman wrote glowingly that her car was “like new after their expert workmanship; they go the extra mile and even noticed important needed repairs that we hadn’t seen and called to get the go ahead to complete the job. They even delivered the car to our home after completion.”
Aimes uses an outside contractor to create its social-media presence on such sites as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and to maintain its own website, dfwaimescollision.com. The shop also partners with the local towing firm, Graham’s Wrecker Service, and Enterprise Rent-A-Car for added customer convenience.
It’s been a relatively quiet year in a region infamous for being a “hail belt.” Aimes has had just a trickle of hail-repair business this year, but none that required the addition of a paintless-dent repair person as has been necessitated multiple times in the past decade.
What does the future hold for Aimes? Soon, the clean, tastefully-decorated reception area will be overhauled with new carpet and different colors. In totality, the shop holds a maximum of 15 cars and is a little too compact for comfort, plus it lies in a largely commercial-trade area with fewer neighborhood households than Aimes would prefer.
“So in the future, it has been one of our dreams to get a larger location near more housetops, once we have our team together…and when things return to normal,” Olga Herrera said. •
