The 'Secret Sauce' to Success
“A quality shop, with quality people, that does quality work.”
“I can’t give this place more than 5 stars, but they deserve 100.”
Those five-star Google reviews sum up Mr. Dent Collision to a tee, and they’re just two of hundreds the shop has amassed, all praising the excellent customer service, high-quality repairs, and friendly, helpful staff customers find at all the company’s shops.
Started by Brent Martin and his wife Kim in 1993, Mr. Dent Collision is still a family-owned-and-operated business, and now includes Brent and Kim’s son, Logan, and his wife, Larissa, who co-own and operate the business as 50/50 partners.
Together, the foursome is growing the business across southern Missouri, currently operating three locations — the original in West Plains, a shop in Seymour, and a newly constructed shop in Ozark, right outside Springfield — and there are no plans to stop there.
While the Martins don’t aspire to be a “great big MSO,” Brent says, the intent is to continue growing the business. “We want to stay relatively small, because we want to do a very good job of taking care of our customers and doing quality work. That's our primary focus.”
“A lot of times there can be strife when families work together, but we're super fortunate that we don't have that,” adds Logan, which he credits to the confidence he and his father share in one another to make wise decisions and give 100% effort to the business every day. “We make a great team.”
From PDR to Full Collision
“When people ask me how long I’ve been working on cars, I tell them I cut my teeth on a 3/8 ratchet; I’ve been around it my whole life,” says Brent, whose father was a rebuilder with his own business in which Brent grew up and worked from 1983 to 1991.
In 1991, with the realization that the rebuilder world was “dying,” and with the encouragement of his father, Brent decided to enter the paintless dent repair (PDR) business, going to work for a shop in Springfield, Missouri. In 1993, he moved back to West Plains and opened Mr. Dent, in space rented from his father. That same year, Brent married his wife, Kim.
“She’s been with me every step of the way from the beginning, my partner in the business from day one,” he says, adding that Kim is still heavily involved in the financial side of the business to this day.
By 1994, Mr. Dent had outgrown its rented space, leading Brent to build his first shop in West Plains. Initially most of the work was PDR, with rebuilding and insurance jobs sprinkled in through the winter. Eventually, however, that side of the business grew to the point that he needed to hire help, and things kept escalating from there. All the money Brent made “chasing hail” was invested directly back into the body work side of the business, and eventually Mr. Dent morphed into a full-blown body shop — Mr. Dent Collision. The original building had to be added onto twice to accommodate the influx of work, before Brent constructed the current shop in 2010 (which has also had two additions).
“The business really took off after we built that new shop,” he reminisced.
Then came an unexpected development — Logan decided he wanted to join the business, after going to college to become an accountant.
“Growing up in the industry, I thought I wanted to do something different,” he admits. “But after I did something different, I realized I missed the shop environment and everything that comes along with it. I love the camaraderie. The sales component. The repairs. It’s a rewarding industry, and I missed it.”
His affinity for numbers is a huge boon to the business, praised Brent, who says Logan’s strength in the front office is the perfect complement to his own strengths on the shop floor.
Not only that, his return motivated Brent to grow the business — without Logan’s involvement, he says, it’s likely he’d still be content with one shop.
“I knew from an early age I wanted to work on cars,” Brent says. “But did I ever dream of owning multiple shops? No. I just wanted to have a retail body shop, that was my goal. Logan coming along and being interested definitely helped me find another gear.”
With new wind in the sails, Mr. Dent Collision grew from one shop to two, with Logan joining his parents as partner and co-owner of Mr. Dent Collision’s Seymour location in 2017. He then married his wife, Larissa, in 2019; shortly thereafter, the family acquired a shop in Ozark in 2021.
After just three short years, the business had once again grown to the point of necessitating an expansion — which resulted in the construction of the brand-new, state-of-the-art shop the team just moved into in Ozark. The 22,800 sq. ft. building has 35 bays, including two paint booths and three prep stations, positioning them to take the business to yet another level.
“The efficiency we’re going to gain, that’s what I’m looking forward to most,” says Brent, whose operations were split between three separate buildings at the previous Ozark shop. “We’re really excited about the workflow aspect.”
Even though Brent had prior experience building in West Plains, this new shop, he said, was a different beast. The project took a little over two years from start to finish and came with its share of challenges, given that Ozark is a much larger market with “more hoops to jump through.” But, he says, it was a great learning experience that will speed the process of building up in the future.
And while an acquisition would be the ideal scenario for a fourth location, according to Logan, they’re open to brownfield or greenfield projects as well. “We’ll likely do a combination of all three moving forward.”
Whatever they decide, they’ll do it as a family…just as they always have.
“We pride ourselves on being a family business,” says Brent, who adds that everyone is actively involved and takes a hands-on approach. “We don’t stand back and point — we’re in there, in the mix, getting things done. That’s the only way I’ve ever known, and it’s the way Logan’s been taught. To gain the respect of your employees they have to see that you’re willing to get in the trenches with them and help them solve problems.”
The “Secret Sauce”
Both father and son readily agree that the “secret sauce” to their success is simple: great employees.
“A lot of it, for us, just comes down to our people,” Logan says. “We believe you win with people. We can have the best shop, processes, and equipment…but if you don't put the best people in there, you're not going to win.”
With nearly 100 miles between each location, Brent and Logan rely heavily on their team and managers to carry out daily operations independently. And with around 50 employees now, it’s more important than ever that processes be kept tight and aligned with the business' goals, to ensure “everyone is pulling the rope in the same direction.”
A great deal of effort goes into “getting the right people through the door the first time,” the duo says, and ensuring they’re offering the training, benefits, and work environment that attracts the highest level of talent.
“Nine times out of ten you’re better off hiring the high-level employee who ‘costs’ more,” Logan says, “because that person will more than make up for the value they bring to the table.”
And the father/son team is always on the lookout for people eager to learn — that’s a non-negotiable prerequisite to work at Mr. Dent Collision, where all the shops are I-CAR Gold Class.
“We firmly believe the best people want to be taught; they want to be trained,” Logan continues. “We have people flying somewhere all the time for training,” Brent says. “We’re not afraid to invest in our people.”
The shop’s training is largely driven by the duo’s commitment to OEM certifications, of which there are currently 16 between the three shops. Certifications, Brent says, make the company better…plain and simple.
“We like to have certifications that have some teeth to them,” he explained, noting that they pursue certs that have substantial, beneficial training components, and will satisfy the needs of a shop’s market and dealerships. The Ozark shop, for example, recently acquired the Mercedes-Benz Elite certification at the request of the local dealer.
Up-and-coming technology will also play a role in selecting certifications in the future, added Logan, pointing to the GM and Mercedes-Benz collision assistance programs as examples. In addition to guiding a driver through the proper steps of documenting and reporting an accident, the apps also help a driver find a certified repair facility.
“How will these OEMs help us drive revenue and drive work?” Logan wonders. Time will tell, but he’s “excited to see what the OEMs will keep coming out with.”
In keeping with their commitment to high-quality repairs, they even have their own calibration company and do mechanical work to keep as much in-house as possible.
“Not only do we control our quality and deadlines that way, we keep the profit in-house, too,” Brent says.
One Team, One Dream
“Learning how to manage people — going from just Kim and me to over 50 employees in three locations — there’s been some definite learning curves,” says Brent, who believes investing in the human side of the business is of the utmost importance.
“Fixing cars is always a focus, of course, and it’s something we work on every day…but that’s nuts and bolts, reading, studying, educating. Managing people, on the other hand, is a fluid deal. Every person working for you is different, and taking the time to understand them and listen to them, that’s essential.”
There are two things Brent believes you must know about every employee: what motivates them and what triggers them. Knowing that, he says, will go a long way toward creating a happy, cohesive work environment, and solving problems in a way that satisfies everyone.
Effective communication is also something they “preach a lot,” added Logan.
“No matter what role someone is in, we believe 95% of every problem, if you look at the root cause, comes down to some form of breakdown in communication.”
Remaining flexible, listening to your team, and taking feedback to heart is imperative, too, continued Brent. “We want the whole team involved — that’s how we design processes.”
Both Brent and Logan are humble men, and that’s a character quality they expect their managers and shop workers to embody as well…especially in customer-facing situations.
“We want to be truly helpful to people in their time of crisis — we want to embody that spirit of help in people’s time of need and take care of them.”
They’re certainly achieving that goal, according to their customers.
“In a world where genuine customer service is becoming a rarity, the team at Mr. Dent Collision shines brightly,” says another five-star Google reviewer. “I wholeheartedly recommend their services to anyone seeking superior quality auto body work. A heartfelt thank you to Brent Martin and the entire Mr. Dent team. They have restored my faith in quality craftsmanship and excellent customer service.”
Helping people and building relationships with customers and employees is Brent’s favorite part of the job, and Logan also enjoys the human relations side of the business most…particularly developing employees. Both men love seeing their team grow, professionally and personally, and find that to be an incredibly rewarding part of ownership.
“To know that the decisions we make directly affect our employees, and that they trust us to steer the ship in the right direction…that's a huge deal to us,” Brent says.
“The sky is the limit for us right now, and it's up to us to follow through and execute,” Logan adds. “We have some big goals and, hopefully, we can achieve them.”
No doubt they will.
