Hunter sales rep Brian DeTombeur worked with Charlie Creighton, owner of Colony Tire, to redesign Colony’s Norfolk, Va., location, which caters to retail customers and fleets.
Colony Tire celebrates its 40th anniversary in business this year. In 1976, Creighton founded the company in Rodanthe, N.C., and has since grown Colony Tire to 30 locations in Virginia and North Carolina, including businesses focused on retail, fleets, wholesale auto parts and wholesale tires.
Originally a warehouse location, the Norfolk tire dealership included in the redesign spans 26,000 square feet – not shown is another 26,000 square feet used as a warehouse that will eventually be transformed into a service area. Because of its size, the shop is large enough to handle heavy-duty trucks, but still had a lot of dead space that was tended to in the redesign.
At top of mind with the redesign was creating transparency with customers.
“We believe that the more the customer can see what we are doing, the more trust we can build with the customer and the less mystery there is,” Creighton says. “There is an awful lot of mystery in auto service as far as the normal customer is concerned so we are trying to take all of the mystery out of it.”
1- Instead of one long counter, five kiosks are positioned in the waiting area that are divided into different “teams” by color. Red counters are for express/retail customers, the black counter is for auto part pickup, and the two blue counters are for fleet customers.
2-Colony Tire can display Quick Check results to customers on TV monitors in real time, while they watch the vehicle service through a window.
3- Large windows looking into the service area allow customers to see their vehicle being serviced for complete transparency. The windows also cover the exterior of the shop. DeTombeur was inspired by the modern look of the glass Apple store in Manhattan.
4- The inspection lanes include two complete Quick Check systems that can inspect areas such as tire tread, alignment and brakes in minutes. Due to the large commercial vehicles Colony Tire services, both systems feature Hunter’s more traditional drive through sensor, rather than the newer drive under sensor.
5- Other equipment is spaced throughout the shop, with three general service bays positioned toward the back of the shop, two vehicle alignment bays and one tractor/trailer/truck alignment bay in front of the other set of windows, and two lifts for tire work. DeTombeur wanted to keep the best equipment closer to the windows for customer viewing.
6-A conference area allows management to look into the service area and offers space to meet with fleet customers.
To download PDFs of this design click here.
