Good to Great

Every time the phone rings at an Oxford Automotive shop, the team member who answers has the company’s long-term success in mind.

For customers with a mechanical issue? Schedule them as quickly as possible, usually within 24 hours, so they don’t take their business elsewhere. Then provide an accurate diagnosis and a clear estimate promptly, too, to finalize a sale.  

For callers needing body work or other services that Oxford’s five locations don’t provide? Take the time to provide a referral to another trusted business and even volunteer to call ahead to help arrange an appointment.

“If you just say, ‘Sorry, we’re booked out,’ or, ‘No, we don’t do that,’ and click, you hang up, you’ve lost that customer,” says James Church, owner of the Columbus, Ohio-based business. “Instead, we always need to explain what we CAN do and offer something of value.”

From Farm to Formal Shops

Founded in 1979 on a 55-acre family farm with a single service bay, Oxford Automotive has been in a period of rapid growth over the past eight years.  
The independent company has opened four new locations in central Ohio since 2018 and hopes to have 10 in place by 2030. Sales topped $11.5 million last year, with a projected $14 million for 2026 and a goal of $30 million by 2030.

Church, who took over the business from his father in 2000, gives much of the credit to his 42-member team—“the best of the best,” he says—who service all makes and models, including hybrid vehicles, with an average repair order of $650.

“I worked by myself for so long—lots of nights and weekends—or just with Dad or a few high school kids I could afford to pay at first, that I still pinch myself at seeing a full team of professionals working here,” he explains. “They make it all a success; I don’t ever take that for granted. My role is to pay them well, create a culture of respect, and not micromanage them.”  

One recent mindset shift that has helped Church succeed is switching from a “family” to a “team” mentality. With high expectations of his employees, he no longer hesitates to part ways with low-performing members—even if he has love for all of them.

That approach has benefitted the high-quality service advisors and technicians who do stay, not to mention Oxford’s customers, he says.

“Good advisors want to work with good techs, and vice versa,” he notes. “I only want the techs who have gasoline in their blood, real passion for what they do, and the advisors who consistently put in the effort to help our company win. Those are the people who deserve the high paychecks, growth opportunities, and support to have fulfilling careers.”

Church also has worked to build consistency across his locations, such as providing the same types of free loaner cars and car inspection reports at each. The company has a standard three-year, 36,000-mile warranty for all services as well.      

And techs have a green light to invite customers back to the shop floor for explanations of ongoing work. “All of it builds trust,” Church says. “We want to be about transparency, clear communication, and integrity.” 

As the industry has evolved, Oxford Automotive has provided advanced training and tools to its technicians while overhauling its website this spring to add an extensive Frequently Asked Questions section on common auto problems, solutions, and parts.

The answers are not only helpful for existing customers, but for directing traffic to the site when people look up a topic online in a search engine or AI assistant finds the information on Oxford’s page. The company also has a “Happy Cars, Happy Clients” feedback section with client stories and experiences to attract business.  

Born to Lead

Church, 53, grew up the second-youngest of seven siblings on a farm in Oxford Township, Ohio. His father, Richard Church, was a full-time farmer who fixed vehicles for friends and neighbors on the side until he transitioned to an automotive repair career in 1979.  

By age 5, Church was tagging along as his dad worked on lawn mowers, tractors, and cars, assisting on small tasks such as cleaning wheel bearings and pushing cars into a small on-site repair space.  

Church also had a homemade go-kart cobbled together with mower parts, wood, and flexible piping—his pride and joy—which he learned to repair whenever it broke. That was often, he reports with a laugh.

“I was brought up that if I want to have something, in most cases, I needed to build it or fix it,” he explains. “We weren’t a family that just bought new things. I remember my dad bringing our washing machine back to life at least three or four times.”

Although Church always liked working with his hands, he took his academics seriously and graduated as valedictorian of his high school class. He wasn’t sure about entering the automotive business but still joined his father at age 18 as the family expected.  

The partnership was admittedly a bit rough early on. But Church eventually realized that his business ambitions paired well with his dad’s preference for working alone on cars. Soon, he was handling much of the customer relations side of the shop and planning for growth; he also earned his ASE Master Technician certification in 1996.  

“It was a special time working with Dad,” he recalls. “I learned from him that any problem, no matter how difficult, can be solved. Customer needs always come first. The better I got at this business, the more fun it became. And something I found out about myself was that I enjoyed the people problems more than the car problems.”

Church also came to appreciate that the automotive industry would never be obsolete: “It’s AI-, recession- and outsource-proof. People are always going to need us, so the biggest challenge now is to keep developing a skilled and motivated labor source. This simply means we must create a better environment for the best people to grow with us.”

The Church duo worked together for nine years until Richard Church retired. Today, while James Church is ASE Master-Certified in all eight core areas of technical competence, with Advanced Engine Performance Specialist (L1) Certification, he is no longer turning wrenches.

Lifelong Customers

Oxford Automotive’s business is about 60-70% American and Asian cars and 30-40% European models. Speed of service is especially important for owners of European vehicles, Church has found, because specialty shops for those brands frequently don’t have open appointments for days or weeks.

Another lesson for him is that many customers don’t understand the industry as much as shop owners assume. For example, callers regularly ask if Oxford does oil changes and tire service, thinking those jobs might happen only at places such as Jiffy Lube, Valvoline, or Firestone.

“If you patiently explain everything we do—treat them well from the start—that simple oil change customer can become an established customer for life,” Church points out.

A Family Affair

Knowing his father was proud of Oxford Automotive’s growth is another source of fuel for Church. His parents, who passed away about two years ago, lived to see the business expand to four locations.

Today, Church is set to move his own family back to the farm where he grew up, minus the auto shop next to the main house. He and his wife, Rachel, have nine children ages 13 to 30, along with four grandchildren.

While all of Church’s kids so far have gravitated to other fields—military, police, healthcare, and cybersecurity among them—they have pitched in on many shop jobs and at community events over the years.  

“Moving forward, we only want to keep getting stronger in our market,” he says. “This has been an exciting time for us to go from good to great.”