Fradella's Collision Shop
Fradella's Collision Centers operates three collision repair facilities in and around New Orleans, with body shops located in Metairie, Chalmette and Slidell, Louisiana. Fradella's delivers peace of mind to the drivers around the New Orleans metropolitan area with $6 million in annual sales, derived from about 55 vehicle repairs each week.
Fradella's auto body repair process is fully transparent—from parts required to accurate costs and timelines. Members of the shop take pride in providing consistent quality auto body repair service, as evidenced by the lifetime warranty they provide on each and every vehicle repaired.
Fradella's quality is fueled by the pride of family ownership: no matter what size the job, its professionals deliver simple, transparent advice backed by a guaranteed commitment to the very best repair possible. Hence the shop's motto: Your Piece of mind. Our Priority.
Established back in 1982, Fradella's Collision Centers is overseen by a successful working triumvirate of leaders: Al Waller, VP/ General Manager; Michael Fradella, Secretary/ Treasurer; and David Fradella, President.
"We are constantly striving to meet and exceed customer expectations. We understand that being in an accident is stressful and at times can be very traumatic," says Al Waller. "But for some people the most frustrating aspect can be the aftermath of an accident. For many of our customers they have never been in this situation before, and they never planned or wanted to walk through our door. We do everything in our power to make a difficult situation as easy and seamless as possible."
“A lot of shops say that: ‘We are here to repair your vehicle,’ but we feel we are here to guide you through the process,” he continues. “In a world where everything is now automated and electronic I believe our customers find comfort in the fact that they have someone that will sit down and explain everything from starting the claims process to setting up a rental vehicle to pick up.”
Waller also notes: “We do this on a daily basis, so for us this is just part of the job it takes us a few extra minutes on the phone, but for a customer it means a lot more than that. We aim to make every customer’s life easier - whether giving them a ride to work, to the airport, or even delivering their vehicle to their house - if we can make it happen we will.
“We are also extremely passionate about the quality of what we do. We truly want to deliver the best product possible. Our customer service, our repairs, and the products make up the total sum of what we provide; and we want it to be the best.”
When it comes to refinish products, Fradella’s only uses Martin Senour products (more than a dozen years) and sees the relationship as more than just paint; it also uses as many of the brand’s other services as possible. Waller notes, “We used the collision repair design services when building our location in Slidell, as well as when we expanded our location in Chalmette.
“We’re also active with its A+ 20 Group. This has probably been one of the best things that we have done to help grow our business and make it better. But it’s the overall service from our Napa and Martin Senour representative, for all our stores, that just goes above and beyond on a daily basis. The whole team there is knowledgeable and makes our jobs much easier. We would not be able to service our customers the same without them,” Waller adds.
A Very Tight Knit Organization
“We have a great core group who care about customers. We have owners who are directly involved in day to day operations, and are more than just profit driven, because we really care about each repair,” notes Waller. “We never lose sight of the fact that we are in the customer service industry. We make sure that we are always performing above the industry standard from repairs to customer service. As our business has grown to multiple locations, we never wanted to lose that feeling of a small family business. Customers will comment on the fact that we all seem very close and like a tight knit group just from our interactions with each other and that is such a huge compliment.”
Waller goes on to tell the story of what he, his family and his company went through that changed their lives: “But we really came together with our families and our great team when we fought through the adversity of Hurricane Katrina to survive and prosper. Pre-Katrina we had one location in Chalmette. Our community was ground zero for the storm. There were 26,000 dwellings pre-Katrina, and all but 200 flooded. 68,000 residents displaced and just under 300 died. It was also the site of the largest urban oil spill in U.S. history happening one day after Katrina. 100% of our customers and all of our team were displaced.
“We made the decision to rebuild. A friend of ours let us know there was a shop next door to his mechanical shop in Metairie, La that was not occupied. We did some repairs before we could start working out of it and ended up having our team literally live at the Metairie shop.
“It was amazing what everyone was willing to do. As soon as we could, we were back at the rebuilding process. We would stay in Metairie and have some guys working there while others were working in Chalmette. This wasn’t just the owners and some family working, we also had employees that were coming in weekly from out of state where they were living with their families to work and rebuild.
Nick Orso's Body Shop, a Martin Senour user for six years, then follows the Vortex basecoat with a clear urethane topcoat.
“We all lived at the shop for several months and in April 2006 we reopened the Chalmette location. The fact that we were affected by this disaster is not newsworthy. There are thousands just like us. The way we reacted and our families and employees reacted, that is something special. We could have given up, and at times the outlook seemed hopeless and we wanted to give up, but we didn’t. Ten years later we are better than ever. We have three locations and a thriving business. We can truly look back on that time and only see the good in people and how our team came together. Every time someone asks me about how Hurricane Katrina affected me I always say I feel blessed.”
And it’s with that positive attitude that the entire team at Fradella’s Collision Centers prides itself in going forward... in servicing its customers and its community overall.
Read more about how Fradella’s has overcome its hardships with Hurricane Katrina in the June 2015 Issue of ABRN
To learn more about Fradella’s Collision Center, please visit their website at Fradellas.com