This RV Repair Business Puts Its People & Customers First

Perhaps Tony Hilsendager, owner of Straight Line RV & Boat Collision Repair & Paint, was destined to work in the RV repair industry — and not just because of his passion for camping.

“Straight out of high school, I got a job working on RVs — detailing them and assisting in the body shop,” he says, adding that he grew up in Oregon, a state that’s home to many RV manufacturers. “I’ve always loved fixing things, repairing vehicles of any kind.”

In February 2008, Hilsendager opened the first Straight Line location in Springfield, Oregon.

“I realize now that as a child, whenever someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, there were a variety of answers over the years, but in all of the scenarios, I was self-employed,” Hilsendager says. “I believe part of that is because my dad was a self-employed truck driver and diesel mechanic, and the other part is that most entrepreneurs are just born with that desire. It was not something I was conscious of; I have just never imagined it any other way.”

This entrepreneurial spirit eventually drove Hilsendager to open a second Straight Line location in Phoenix in 2017. After leasing a building in Phoenix for years, Straight Line is now preparing to buy a building in Buckeye, Arizona — proof that the move to the Grand Canyon State was a smart one.

“A lot of our RV customers are snowbirds who head south in the wintertime, and Arizona is a very popular place for people from Oregon to go spend the winters,” Hilsendager explains. “So I’ve always had in the back of my mind that it would be great to be on both ends of that migration.”

Straight Line began as an auto body shop, doing car collision repairs, customization and restoration, as well as RV paint and collision repairs. Over time, Hilsendager and his team shifted the company’s specialty and never looked back.

“Eventually, the increased demand and better profitability of the RV portion of the business led us to focus solely on RVs — a decision we have never regretted,” he says.

Hilsendager believes Straight Line’s focus on RV repairs is one of the things that sets his company apart from others, especially from businesses that also sell RVs.

“If you’re dealing with a shop that is strictly RV service, we have to be on our game all the time,” he says. “We’re not relying on millions of dollars of sales to carry us through. We can’t get by on mediocre service, because that’s all that we do.”

Hilsendager and his team also take time to listen carefully to customers’ needs so they can be sure they’re offering the most cost-effective, top-notch service, striving to give customers a finished product that they’ll love and save the customer money when possible.

“I think that [for] independent shops in general, we definitely have a big challenge in front of us, but it’s also an advantage because we can connect with customers on a different level,” he says.

Attitude & Trainability

Both first-rate repairs and exceptional customer service would be impossible without a strong team. Currently, Straight Line has nine employees at the Oregon location and three in Arizona, with plans to hire six additional people soon.

What does Hilsendager look for in a team member? “It’s going to be attitude and trainability,” he says.

Time has taught him that a good mechanic or technician with a bad attitude is bad for business.

“A trainable person can pick stuff up really fast,” Hilsendager says. “If they have the desire to do it and a good attitude, you can get them to perform better than somebody who maybe has some of the skills but doesn’t have the qualities and characteristics you’re looking for.”

In fact, Hilsendager adds that one of the ways he measures the success of Straight Line is his ability to attract and retain outstanding employees.

“I’m seeing this momentum to where we’re actually bringing in higher and higher quality employees, and I think that speaks a lot to the trajectory of the shop,” he says. “It really makes everything easier. It makes the shop more productive and less stressful. It really does change everything when you have really great employees.”

True Story

Straight Line will work on any type of recreational vehicle and does a host of different repairs, including full RV, travel trailer and toy hauler collision repair. It handles repairs from water and hail damage, tire blowouts and more. Straight Line also repairs fiberglass, roofs and awnings. The company offers paint repair and customization, along with simple touch-ups and clear coat repair.

Working in the RV repair industry, Hilsendager has no shortage of stories, including one of a customer who, after getting $20,000 worth of repairs to his motorhome following an accident, returned to the shop just a few hours later with an additional $15,000 worth of damage.

One customer didn’t properly apply the brakes to his motorhome while at a fuel station, and the vehicle rolled and smashed into one of the last known phone booths in the area. Another didn’t properly hitch a boat he was towing, only to see it roll downhill into a dumpster, before eventually jumping a nearby curb.

A lot of customers come in after accidentally colliding with animals, especially cows. Even a turkey brought in one customer.

“It was shocking that that much damage could come from hitting a turkey,” he recalls.

Taking Care of Business

Straight Line is a family-owned and operated business. Hilsendager’s daughter manages the Oregon shop, while his stepdaughter helps with estimates in Arizona. Having family to rely on, he says, made expanding the business easier.

“To know that there’s somebody there that you really, completely 100% can trust when you’re gone makes a big difference,” he says.

His wife, Kelli, serves as the chief financial officer (CFO) for the company, and her business savvy has been a game changer for Straight Line. She’s helped with office management and streamlined processes, making sure the company’s finances — from invoices to insurance claims — are in order.

“If you bootstrapped your business and you’ve been out in the shop, and you’ve done every aspect of the repairs, you’re very familiar with that, but the organization of what’s happening in the office needs an equal amount of attention, and it’s a lot harder to do for shop guys that are running a business because that’s not our area of expertise,” he says. “So I would say it’s really going to be worthwhile to get somebody in there that understands that aspect of it.”

Hilsendager believes hiring someone with this skill set will pay for itself.

“The addition of Kelli as CFO has made the difference of us going from just getting by month to month to having a safety net of several months of operating expenses in savings, as well as being able to set enough money aside to allow us to cover the down payment on our new shop in Buckeye, Arizona.”

Though Hilsendager is eager to build on the foundation he’s laid in Arizona with the new shop in Buckeye, he’s quick to say he has no plans for any further expansion. Growing too big, too fast would lead to subpar service, he adds.

“We just want to have two efficiently run locations that are taking care of customers at the level that we demand, and I think that’s going to get us to where we need to be,” he says. “I don’t think we need to take on any more than that.”