COVER STORY
TERRAIN TAMER: INNOVATION MEETS OLD SCHOOL SERVICE On the surface, the Terrain Tamer story is simply one of a spare parts business that has grown to see international success
But at its heart, it is one of a company that has not only survived but thrived thanks to a consistent, ongoing culture of listening, problem solving and customer obsession. Coupled with an innate understanding of what is needed to take on the Australian Outback, this culture is what has driven five decades of innovation. When 24-year-old Frank Hutchinson and his business partner Don Kyatt started their company in 1969, they did so with little more than their computer-like minds for Parts Interpreting, and a few hundred dollars. But more than this, Frank’s acute will to serve and commitment to service would become the driving force behind what would eventually become the company’s true north, the Terrain Tamer brand. This emphasis on service was made clear to everyone who worked with Frank. Without the customer, there was no business, so when someone came in with a vehicle, they wanted to make sure they got the right part. If it wasn’t in stock, they would find it from somewhere and if they couldn’t get a new part, they would try reconditioned. If a part had failed, they looked at why and how it could be strengthened or upgraded. Frank’s ‘service first’ policy and determination to get whatever was needed, delivered as quickly as possible, was how he would repeatedly win customers to his business – customers like tour operator Bill King, who operated out of Melbourne and pioneered tours into the red centre in the
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Australian Automotive Aftermarket Magazine October 2021
1960s and 70s, at a time when there was no Stuart Highway, no road houses or roadside assistance and more often than not, no other people in sight. There was no beaten track, and this meant taking his tourists through rough, uncharted terrain and private cattle station gates to eventually reach their destination of Ayers Rock (Uluru). Of course, with these conditions came breakages, and in the isolated and unforgiving outback, where a poor-quality part can literally be the difference between life and death, a need for something stronger and more reliable arose. When Bill King remembers the early days of his business, he recalls Frank’s dedication to customer service. “When I visited a dealer, I was just another customer, but when I went to Frank for a part, I was Bill,” Bill said. Frank’s determination to really talk to customers
like Bill, find out what they needed and create a solution, was the foundation of Terrain Tamer. And as the 4WD community grew over the years, the goal was to do the same for the problems of mine operators, cattle station owners and recreational drivers around the world. In the early days, others weren’t interested in creating parts that were stronger than OE, seeing it as simply trying to fix what wasn’t broken, but Terrain Tamer was. Innovation had driven them from the start and the ideas they had, that came from talking to their customers, watching how people actually used their vehicles and how mechanics did their work, was the future they envisioned for their business. Terrain Tamer invested heavily in overseas travel throughout the 1970s and 80s, allowing the team to meet with the OE manufacturers of the world and come up with solutions to these customer problems, essentially laying the groundwork for the future. The customers themselves couldn’t do it themselves, as it requires such a large-scale investment in tooling. The manufacturers couldn’t do it because they didn’t have the required understanding of the customer. And Terrain Tamer says the opposition couldn’t do it because they weren’t focused specifically on 4WD customers. It was only Terrain Tamer that had the critical mass needed to bridge the gap and bring the solution together. Everything that was done was grounded in dayto-day use, and the information that Frank had gathered from his customers, not just on what the Terrain Tamer team thought would be better. If it wasn’t going to improve the use of the vehicle, no one would want it and it wasn’t worth modifying.
