Shop View: inMOTION Auto Care
1. Designing the Space
After the dealership-turned-independent-used-car lot/shop that Sherri Stock worked at closed, she purchased all of the facility’s equipment and built her own repair shop across the street.
With experience working in dealerships in the past, Stock knew exactly what she did and didn't want incorporated in her new shop.
“I wanted to have lots of light and windows, with upper quality furnishing so the customers had a really nice place to stay while they were waiting,” she says.
She spoke with her architect about everything she intended to incorporate at her new shop. Impressed with how well he listened and understood her vision, she said yes on the first drawing.
inMOTION Auto Care took roughly 10 months to build, and is now a shop at which her employees are proud to work.
2. Adding Warmth
When designing the layout of her shop, Stock said she wanted the lobby to feel comfortable and open—that way, her customers and advisors could talk freely.
To add to the comfort and warmth of inMOTION Auto Care, Stock centered the lobby around a cozy fireplace. The hominess continues throughout the space with book shelves, a coffee bar and pieces of art. Near the fireplace is the seating area, with welcoming leather chairs that Stock says customers enjoy so much so, that they tend to take naps in them. There are also heated floors throughout the entire shop.
“We didn't want it to feel or smell like a car place,” said Stock. “So when we were designing it (the lobby) we wanted it to have an upper-scale feel to it, but still feel comfortable.”
3. Bringing the Outside In
Stocks’s shop also includes a bit of nature, with large trees inside inMOTION Auto Care. The lobby is home to large Ficus trees, as well as a Norfolk Pine.
All of the shop’s service desks are made out of oak, so they look like highline cabinetry, says Stock.
This all adds to the mission of making the repair shop feel both warm and welcoming to all who work at and patron the business, with a focus on female customers.
“It’s less intrusive when a woman walks in and sees that the shop is nicely decorated with nice cabinets, and all the brickwork,” explains Stock, “it puts them at ease.”
4. Integrating Your Interests
Stock will then use some of the freshly grown produce to make meals for her staff in the shop’s full sized kitchen. She will go in and cook for company potlucks and meals.
The space has a stove, oven, microwave and dishwasher. She included this kitchen because she used to have to cart the food she made for her staff back and forth from her home to the dealership she worked at, and wanted to be able to quickly put things together in a space connected to the shop.
“I kind of wanted it (the shop) to be self-contained,” says Stock.
5. Growing a Culture
Stock also brings the outside in with a 1,250-square-foot garden that sits behind the shop. Each spring, she takes her love for gardening and plants everything from cucumbers and beets to radishes and cauliflower.
The garden yields pretty well, says Stock, and she is then able to give the fruits of her labor to both employees and customers.
“I thought it would be a unique benefit for your employees to have fresh vegetables,” she says.
She picks the crops and brings them into her shop, offering up the supply to anyone who wants it.
“I’ll have customers call me and say, ‘Hey, can I stop by and get some tomatoes,’” Stock says, with a laugh.
