EP #56 Building Trust and Transparency in Auto Repair

Ever wondered what happens when someone who's spent 15 years feeling frustrated with how auto shops operate decides to build their own? That's exactly the story behind Crown Auto Repair, a family-owned business that's redefining vehicle maintenance in Fredericksburg.

Jesse Matthews, alongside his wife and son, launched Crown Auto Repair nearly three years ago after realizing there had to be a better way to run an auto shop. Their customer-first approach recently earned them recognition in the Best of the Berg awards, but what truly sets them apart is their commitment to transparency. While Jesse identifies pricing misconceptions as the industry's biggest challenge, he's built his business around educating customers rather than exploiting their knowledge gaps.

The Crown Auto difference centers on their digital vehicle inspection process. Rather than presenting customers with a single, often overwhelming repair bill, they photograph issues, rank them by urgency, and help customers understand what needs immediate attention versus what can wait. "We don't just sit down and tell somebody you need to put $3,000 into your car right now," Jesse explains. Instead, they prioritize safety items while helping customers budget for less critical maintenance—a refreshing approach that builds lasting trust.

For car owners, Jesse offers one invaluable piece of advice: always get a pre-purchase inspection before buying. Too often, customers arrive with recently purchased vehicles needing more work than they're worth. And for aspiring entrepreneurs? "Hire a business coach," Jesse recommends without hesitation, crediting this decision as transformative for their business growth. Visit Crown Auto Repair at their Four Mile Fork location or online at crownautoworks.com to experience their customer-focused approach for yourself. Your vehicle—and your wallet—will thank you.

Jesse Matthews

Crown Auto Repair

crownautoworks.com

[e-mail]

[phone]

4727 Ewell Road, Fredericksburg, VA, United States, Virginia

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast
, the place where localbusinesses and neighbors come
together.
Here's your host, Dori Stewart.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome back to another episode of the FXBG
Neighbors Podcast, where weshare the stories of our
favorite local brands.
I'm excited to introduce you tomy guest.
Today.
We have Jesse Matthews herewith us with Crown Auto Repair.
Jesse, welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
I'm excited to learn about you and your business.
So let's start there.
Share with us a little bitabout Crown Auto Repair.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
So we are a obviously auto repair business.
We're family owned.
My wife and I both own it andoperate it, and we our son is
also working in the business asa technician.
So right now it's just a smallfamily owned business.
We did this year earn a awardfor Best of the Berg.

(01:03):
We didn't.
We weren't the winner but wewere second or third place.
Whatever the award winnerposition is.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Nice Congratulations.
That's a big honor and I lovethat it's a family owned
business, so congratulations onall your success.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
So tell us a little bit about you.
I want to hear your backstory.
How did you get into this?

Speaker 3 (01:26):
I've been working on cars for about 15 years, working
in dealerships and someindependent shops, and
throughout the years I wasn'talways happy where I was working
, no matter what the benefitswere or what they were offering
With the money I was making.

(01:46):
I was never really happy withthe places I worked at and I
knew there had to be better waysof auto repair shops being ran
and being operated so that therewere happier employees.
So I started doing a little bitof research and found some
other podcasts on how to runrepair shops and started doing
side work and it took off betterthan I expected, and so my wife

(02:07):
and I sat down and discussed itand decided to try to start our
own business.
And here we are this end of thismonth it'll be three years
later we've been in business.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Nice, nice.
Well, it's such a convenientservice.
I'm not surprised that you'redoing so well.
I love the business model of it.

Speaker 3 (02:28):
Yeah, we did start out mobile for a little while,
but we have a shop.
We have a brick and mortarlocation right in Four Mile Fork
.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Nice, nice, that's awesome.
So tell me, do you find thatthere are any myths or
misconceptions when it comes toyour business?

Speaker 3 (02:46):
Where do I start?

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Oh, wow, that many.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
Yeah, there are a lot .
I think the biggest one that weget is price.
A lot of people think autorepairs shouldn't be, it should
be cheaper than it is, or maybethey just believe that it's
cheaper than it actually is.
We get concerns aboutwarranties, things like that as
well, so, um, I I but I think um.

(03:11):
I think price is probably thebiggest one.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yeah, Okay, what uh advice would you give?
Like, do you have like onepiece of advice that you would
give car owners that you wishthey knew that would save them
time or money?
Have you ever thought aboutthat?

Speaker 3 (03:35):
I have, I think the biggest one that we constantly
push in.
It is pre-purchase inspections.
A lot of people don't do thosewhen they go out looking to buy
another car, and we have gottenseveral people that have come
into the shop.
Hey, I just bought this car aweek ago, a month ago or even
yesterday.
Can you look it over and itneeds more work done to it than

(03:59):
the cars work.
We do get people that do them,but there's a lot more that
don't.
And we try really, really hardto get people to understand the
value of a pre-purchaseinspection.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
That's really good advice.
Thank you for that.
So, being a family run business, I imagine it's sometimes hard
to get away from the business.
So when you're not working,what are you doing to have fun?

Speaker 3 (04:33):
We have six acres at home so we do a lot of stuff at
home.
We've got four wheelers andsome farm animals, so when we
get away it's really at homemore than getting out.
When we get away, it's reallyat home more than getting out.
We are going on a cruise thisyear, but we get a cabin on the
Shenandoah River and spend timethere.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
That's about it Nice, nice.
Well, I imagine that there havebeen a lot of challenges along
the way in growing and scalingyour business, so what advice
would you give someone who isthinking about starting their
own business?

Speaker 3 (05:12):
Hire a business coach .
They're they're hard to find,especially if you can find one
that's industry specific.
But I can tell you, uh, ushiring a business coach was and
has been probably one of thebest things that we've done.
They, they understand the insand outs of just running a

(05:32):
business in general, but, like Isaid, if you can get one that's
industry specific, it's it'seven that much more valuable.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
That's really good advice.
That's really good advice.
Thank you for that.
Has there been a hardship or achallenge that you've been
through that?

Speaker 3 (05:51):
now that you're on the other side of it, you can
say you're stronger for it, assimple as it sounds making
decisions.
I mean there have been some,some decisions we've made like,
uh, leaving me leaving thedealership to go to pursue this
business full time, um.
Or signing a lease on abuilding when we don't even know
, you know, um, how muchbusiness we're going to get and

(06:15):
if we're going to be able to paythe bills or not.
That's really been it.
But not long after that wefound a coach and, like I said,
that was a big.
It helped us out a lot.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
Nice, nice.
What is something that you wishthe listeners knew about?
Crown Auto Repair.

Speaker 3 (06:43):
We advise people on the best ways to take care of
their vehicles.
We don't just hand somebody.
We do digital vehicleinspections.
So when we do the everydaymultipoint that all shops do,
ours is digital.
So we'll take pictures ofeverything that we find and then
we put those repairs in orderof importance and we sit down

(07:03):
with the client.
We explain to them you know,these things are safety items.
They need to be done right now,while the other things at the
bottom of the list you can waitthree months or six months and
budget for them, and we'llremind you after that time frame
to let you know these thingsstill need to be done so that
you're able to budget for them.
We don't just sit down and tellsomebody you need to put $3,000

(07:24):
into your car right now.

Speaker 2 (07:25):
Nice, nice.
Your customers are verygrateful for you for that, I am
sure.

Speaker 3 (07:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
That really sets you apart.

Speaker 3 (07:35):
Yes, it does.
We get a lot of people thatcome back for that work for that
reason, because they're able totake the time to budget for it
and they are still able to drivetheir vehicle, because they get
what's most important done andthey know when they leave here
that it's still safe and it'sstill going to be reliable and
what's left are maintenanceservices or some of the minor

(07:57):
things that need to be done.

Speaker 2 (07:59):
Amazing.
Well, congratulations onbuilding that trust with your
customers, because that's goingto give you lifelong customers.
It's hard to find in yourindustry.
I feel like Once you find abusiness in any service industry
that you know you can count onand you trust, you're just going

(08:21):
to keep coming back to themover and over and over again.
So congratulations on that.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
So if the listeners want to find you, want to
connect with you, where can theyfind you?

Speaker 3 (08:34):
We have a website.
It's crownautoworks.
com.
We also have a Facebook pageand they can visit us here off
Ewell Road, right in Four MileFork.

Speaker 2 (08:48):
Awesome, Jesse.
Thank you so much for being myguest on the podcast today and
sharing Crown Auto Repair withus.

Speaker 1 (08:55):
Thank you for having me.
Thank you for listening to theFredericksburg Neighbors Podcast
.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go tofxbgneighborspodcast.
com.