We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lucas Calcena . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lucas below.

Lucas, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Have you ever seen (or implemented) a really awesome way to show a client you appreciate them

I’m not sure about the best thing, but over the years I have been increasingly putting effort into showing the clients what they mean to us. I know how hard it is to earn money and I know how hard it is to have to spend it where you might not want to. (car accident).
We appreciate our clients choosing our small family business to have their problems solved.
Aside from always chasing quality we always try to give the client a positive experience by returning their cars fully detailed and with a branded air freshener to feel like they have a fresh start with their vehicles.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I started in this business by coming to work with my dad. At first it was just a place for me to kill time and basically play because I was so young. But as I got older and started to take the business more seriously I was able to slowly create my own client list. Before even getting to that point I was only worried about painting. I’ve always loved art so I figured painting cars would come pretty easy to me.
As I got better and started to understand the process, I started to work on my friends cars. That slowly progress to actually working on strangers cars, and that’s when I really started to understand costumer service and to actually care what I put my name on.
As my client list grew, I felt even more obligated to constantly keep putting quality first.
I like doing this and I think it’s made me grow as a person. I never thought I’d feel fulfilled from pr doing a service, I only wanted to paint because of my selfish reasons. But I ended up enjoying helping people solve their problems. I educate my clients on the situation they’re in. I help them understand the repairs and why they are giving me money. Oppose to just serving them with an estimate and no explanation behind the work we would be performing.
I take pride in being able to breakdown an estimate for my clients so they are comfortable leaving their vehicles at my shop, but also understanding what they are getting for they money they spend here.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I think what helped us stand out is our quality. We are quality driven and not only that but we are open to being wrong and making mistakes. We always try to do our best but when we fail, we always take responsibility and take it head on. There’s no hiding, there’s no sending the client away or looking for excuses. I think this mentality helps to keep us honest and true to to goal, quality and client come first.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

My dad did all of the hard work for me to be where I am today. My dad had a shop in Argentina, when we came here he worked for other people until he was able to open up his shop. No loans, just money he saved and hard work got him to where he could open his own business without a partner.
I started working with him full time in 2010. As the years passed and I gained experience, I started to take more control of the shop. Now my goal is for him to retire with a successful business running for him.

Contact Info:

• Website: Calcenabodyshop.com
• Facebook: @calcenabodyshop
• Youtube: @lucascalcena
• Yelp: Calcenabodyshop
• Other: [email protected]