Garage door industry magazine for garage door dealers, garage door manufacturers, garage door distributors, garage door installers, loading docks, garage door operators and openers, gates, and tools for the door industry.
Issue link: https://idoi.epubxp.com/i/255259
DOORDEALERDIALOG the quaint feel of a summer vacation resort, but without the tackiness common to many tourist destinations. Seaside is livable, small and neighborly. It is the type of community where a business cannot afford an unhappy customer, because the entire town would likely fnd out about that customer's experience. To Jim and Linda Anderson, that town culture suits them perfectly. "Anytime we go downtown, we run into people we know," said Jim. "We want our company to be high profle as for our professionalism, as shown by our trucks and uniforms. We charge what we are worth and give our customers value beyond what they pay us. But, at the same time, if I go out on a service call and it's something simple that I can correct in fve minutes, I won't charge the customer for that. In many markets, charging for those calls is justifable. There's travel time and the value of people and equipment. But in this market, I get more out of helping a customer for free than I would get out of charging them a minimum service call. When I help a customer, I'm helping a neighbor, and they will tell everybody else about their experience with us. It's what helps build our reputation." Hard Work and Good Fortune Help the Start-Up Company There were two critically important things that happened in the early days of the company that had an impact on the growth of Coast Garage Door. One of them was by design, and the other was by good fortune. Linda Anderson explained: "The frst thing I learned was that our business grew just because I was answering the phone. We went up to $300,000 a year in sales just because of that. We had four other competitors in town, but none of them answered their phones. Whenever anybody called them, they got an answering machine. But, when they called us, they got to speak to a living person. To this day, we always answer our phones." Secondly, she said the company got some unintended, but highly welcomed, marketing power thanks to the U. S. Forestry Service. "They (Forestry Service) were selling off a bunch of their trucks to bring in some new ones, and Jim bought one of them to use as a service truck. We put our name on the truck, but we left the original obnoxious green paint the way it was. Next thing we knew, people all over town thought all of the Forestry Service trucks were ours. People thought we were this big company and our trucks were all over town. It gave us a lot of visibility, even though it wasn't really us doing it. We now have all of our trucks completely wrapped with our imaging, but we kept the green color scheme, although it's a nicer shade of green now." Community and Industry Involvement Once the door business became the Anderson's full-time vocation, Jim Anderson quickly sought involvement in the Northwest Door and Operator Association. He would make the nearly two-hour trip to Portland to attend dinner meetings without any anticipation that he would become the organization's president. Continued on page 23 Jim Anderson and Juan Lira loading a door onto one of the company's trucks. The green paint scheme on the trucks derives from the frst vehicle purchased by the company, from the U. S. Forestry Service. (continued from page 19) 1/24/14 10:50 AM