You would think this would be easy.
How hard could it be to find a professional to apply paint protection film (PPF) and ceramic coat our 2013 crystal red Corvette Grand Sport project car? It’s not like Atlanta is some small town nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains.
Metro Atlanta is the ninth largest and one of the fastest-growing metro areas in the U.S. Home to 6 million people in 2019.
Every other street corner has someone offering to put on window tinting, apply the latest, greatest PPF, and ceramic coat your pride & joy.
Apparently, even for a Corvette magazine based in Atlanta with thousands of readers, this is a tough ask. What we thought would take a few inquiries to nail down turned into an all-out month-long, Holy Grail level quest.
The Search Begins
We started, as any digital-only magazine would, online. We dutifully filled out the “Contact Us” forms of a handful of prospective installers and eagerly waited for a response. After a few days, nothing, nada.
Eventually, we went old-school on the problem and physically drove to these shops. Only then were our eyes opened to the underlying problem.
While the shop may look professional on the website, most are run by one or two people, and they are busy scavenging for business every day.
In the end, few returned phone calls. Some couldn’t be firm on a completion date, and others wanted us to park our Vette outback until they could get to it.
They may have been competent installers, but their lack of customer service was a non-starter for us.
After a diligent search, thankfully, we found our quest, AP3 Precision Paint Protection.
Five-Star Treatment
As soon as we darkened the doorstep of AP3, we were genuinely impressed with the way they handled their clients. Instead of wandering the shop looking for the owner, there was someone to greet us at the front desk.
Instead of explaining why we were there, they pulled out our preprinted file with all of our information. Ten minutes after dropping off the Vette, we had a text sitting on our phone thanking us for using AP3.
Every customer touchpoint is polished to enhance the overall experience. Each day our project car was in their professional care, we received several photos of that day’s progress.
While most detail shops try to do polishing, wrapping, and ceramic coating in one room, AP3 uses separate buildings. This separation ensures a level of cleanliness that is normally reserved for hospital surgery rooms.
This constant attention to cleanliness stops cross-contamination during select phases of the process.
Walk into most shops, and you’ll see a few of the Camaros and Acuras they’re scrambling to finish. At the AP3 facilities?
Name plates such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren, Porsche routinely roll out of this facility on time, as promised.
Chances are, if it is a top-tier exotic sports car that calls Atlanta home, it has been here.
Learning The Business
While AP3 has several talented PPF installers on-site, we were fortunate to have Tiaan Krige, the owner of AP3, offer to do our XPEL Protection Plus installation.
Naturally, we seized the moment to learn more about this dynamic and very successful entrepreneur. What follows is the edited transcript of our conversation.
Rod Worley – Editor – So Tiaan, you’re 28. When did you know you wanted to get into automotive detailing?
Tiaan Krige – AP3 Owner – Rod, it was around the time I was getting ready to go to college for computer science that I got a job at a car wash to pay the bills.
What I quickly surmised was that the machine washing was cleaning the cars but also scratching them.
So I started to learn how to clean a car without marring the finish and how to take out existing paint scratches. It was around 2010 when auto detailing got popular on YouTube.
I got deep into the automotive detailing world, watching those videos and learning as much as possible. That led to getting a job at Lamborghini Atlanta doing new car prep and detailing.
It was a great gig because you get a chance to work with some fantastic vehicles. It was a multi-brand exotic car dealership, so it wasn’t just Lamborghini.
I paint corrected and detailed Aston Martins, Lotus, McLaren, Koenigsegg, Rolls Royce, and many other exotics. The dealership had a vendor who came in to install the clear bra, but he was routinely late and didn’t do a great job.
So the dealership contacted XPEL about doing an in-house program. I had never heard of the product, but once I learned you only have to polish a car once, apply XPEL, and you never have to polish it again, I was sold.
I knew it was the future of automotive car care.
Reputation Built On Trust
Rod Worley – Editor – Since your beginnings four years ago, AP3 has prospered with substantial sales growth year after year. While other automotive detail shops have one to three employees, you’ve got a staff of 10 or more.
All this begs the question, what’s your secret?
Tiaan Krige – AP3 Owner – It’s really no secret, Rod. We build the AP3 reputation by exceeding our client’s expectations with every vehicle that leaves our shop.
Our reputation is literally built one client at a time.
I was fortunate early on to apprentice under a gentleman who showed me the dos and don’ts of running a business. Combining what I learned there with my experience with Lamborghini showed me how to provide a high level of customer service.
It showed me what was important from a client’s perspective and how to deliver it consistently. I’ve always believed you have to do right by people.
Sometimes you get tested on that philosophy, but you have to always be managing your reputation in an ethical way.
Your reputation in business matters. It matters more when your clients are bringing in ultra-exotic vehicles worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Amazing Results
We searched Atlanta for the right detailer to install PPF and ceramic coat our sixth-generation Grand Sport Corvette project car. Our diligent search landed us finally at the front door of Tiaan Krige and his talented team at AP3 – Precision Paint Protection.
Finding someone you can trust to install PPF and ceramic coat your car can be a nerve-racking experience.
Here’s the good news that will save you time, frustration, and heartache. AP3 is your paint protection service.
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