every job since he joined us in October 2015. He has been with us every step of the way. His business card says Operations Manager, but a more accurate title would be Mr. Everything! I don’t know what we would do without him. He is selfless and treats the business as if it were his. Don’t any of you get any ideas. Julio has no interest in leaving Tulsa! MARK: What percent are you in auto vs. flat? RUSSELL: In Quarter 1 of 2017, we are at 35 percent Auto and 65 percent Flat. We use Service Station to field the majority of our Auto calls. Jimmy and his team do an outstanding job! MARK: Are you doing showers yet? RUSSELL: You better believe it! This was an area we identified very early on as an opportunity. Our volume isn’t where I would like for it to be yet; however, it is growing consistently. We are being very intentional about growing our shower business. We are running 15-second spots on TV. We have directed more of our PPC budget toward this initiative. We just participated in our second annual Tulsa Home & Garden show where our biggest focus last year and again this year was on showers. Finally, our new showroom will be dedicated to showers. MARK: Are you using status codes? RUSSELL: Yes, we are. We were an early adopter of the status codes. Ben encouraged us to implement the status codes as soon as possible and we did. Julio was instrumental in getting our shop up and running on status codes. This was the right thing to do for our business, and I would encourage anyone who isn’t currently using status codes to get on board. MARK: What about MobilePRO? RUSSELL: We have used it in the past. We believe in it. This is an area of opportunity for us. I’m big on technology and using technology as an enabler in your business. As we help our Specialists become more tech savvy and the capital is there to invest, we plan to equip all of our Specialists with MobilePRO. MARK: Culture. With every transition comes a transition in culture, too. How did the team adapt to the different culture you created?
happening. The team had been together for a long, long time. They were used to doing things a certain way. I think most of us have some degree of resistance to change. As you look at what I would call the “change continuum,” you have two extremes. At one end, you will find those that are unwilling to change. At the opposite end, you have the change agents, those who create change. I think I more closely resemble a change agent. When a change agent comes in, it can be very unsettling to people who have done it a certain way for many years. Changing policies and procedures pales in comparison to trying to change the culture. We do try to ensure the new people we bring on board are the right fit for the culture we are trying to create. I once heard a speaker say, “Culture eats strategy for lunch!” I couldn’t agree more. BRENDA: With resistance… Russell took the advice of many and implemented changes very slowly. So, it’s taken time to create the culture we want. We have an opportunity to build the “dream team” (#teamtulsa). Our goal is to be the employer of choice when it comes to a glass company in Tulsa. We have been amazed (and thankful) at the new employees that we have been able to add to the team. I think we are learning how to train our team and place a demand on our team to align with our culture. MARK: What type of marketing do you do besides pay per click? RUSSELL: We have been running ads on TV for over a year now. We joined the Tulsa Home Builders Association (HBA) and the Tulsa Apartment Association (TAA). The number of organizations you could join is unlimited. We felt these two groups would give us the biggest bang for our buck. Julio has been tasked with going deep and owning the TAA while I focus on penetrating the HBA. As I previously mentioned, we just finished our second Home & Garden Show. The savings we realize on our booth rental at the Home & Garden Show because of being a member of the Tulsa HBA pays for our membership. We’ve done some door hangers and we are planning a Grand Opening soon once we are finished with our remodel. We also do some print advertising, however, I have scaled that back considerably. MARK: Does anything produce bigger results than you anticipated? RUSSELL: Free cans of glass cleaner! Soon after we purchased the business, we made a decision to give away free cans of glass cleaner to all of our customers including potential customers. We give people a free can of glass cleaner when we do a measure, even when we don’t know if we are going to get the job or not.
RUSSELL: There are days when it feels like the transition is still
REFLECTIONS® | EDITION 1 2017 17
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