Franklin Building Supply September 2017

Take a look at our newsletter this month!

OWNER -TO- OWNER www.franklinbuildingsupply.com | 208-514-2200 | 9222 W. Barnes Dr., Boise, ID 83709 SEPTEMBER 2017

WE ’ RE RE A L LY in the Hospitality Industry

else — and when we’re trying to grow our market share, that’s the opposite of what we want.

When we broke down the ways that our company could grow its market share, it kept coming down to one particular thing: hospitality. Providing good service, with a smile, at a fair price. That’s good news for a company operating out West; Idaho and Nevada are home to some of the nicest people on earth. Break down on the side of the road, and you won’t have to wait long for a good Samaritan to stop and help out. And if you’re down on your luck, or the victim of tragedy, you can count on folks in your community to pitch in. But why is hospitality so important to a company like ours? Well, with 12 stores and six design centers open to the public, many of our owners deal with the public every day. We want people to have the same great experience at each of those stores and centers. Our locations are part of their community, and it’s a small world. If someone doesn’t have a good experience at one of our stores, not only will they remember it, but they’ll also spread the word. And although people spread the word about good experiences, too, it always seems to me that bad news travels faster than good. Next time, that person might go somewhere

Even our owners who don’t deal with the public

on a regular basis can help out with hospitality. Building a load that has everything requested, making sure cabinets are exactly to spec, and putting

together tresses that work on site all go towards a hospitable company that people want to do business with. The contractors we work with don’t think about hospitality in the same way the public does, although they appreciate smiles and good vibes. To them, good hospitality means no callbacks or back orders. Our company mission is this: “We want to be a world-class supplier of building materials and services.” Most folks will tell you that a vision should never say “we want to be,” and instead state what you are. But saying

something doesn’t make it so, and it’s important that we’re all reminded that it’s a continuous process. We’re only world-class transaction by transaction. We want to be the dealer of choice in our industry. In every field there’s always one company that’s ahead of the pack, and if we focus on hospitality, that company will be Franklin Building Supply.

President and CEO Rick Lierz

COMPANY SPOTLIGHT Ain’t No Party Like a Makita Party

a job site, start cooking, and give away free lunch to everybody who’s working hard at those sites. We’re not really trying to sell as much as we’re trying to show our support for the clients and customers who keep us in business. We like to give back to the communities that we’re present in, and who doesn’t like a barbecue lunch? If you want to play with the Makita tools, you certainly can — they make fantastic power tools with the best battery technology out there — but that’s not the point. It’s really just about giving back.

Most building suppliers have close relationships with their vendors, but we don’t know of any that have a full-time party trailer like we do with Makita. Franklin Building Supply and Makita have partnered to buy a brand-new pickup and a pull-behind trailer custom- wrapped with both companies’ logos. As cool as it looks, the real fun starts when you peek inside. Not only is the trailer loaded with some of the latest, greatest Makita tools, it’s stuffed with all the supplies you need for a lunch party: chairs, a barbecue, burgers and hot dogs, you name it. Our very own Grayson Mohr has the cool job of driving the Makita Party Trailer from town to town, job to job, in all of our communities. He’ll stop in a subdivision or near

Look for the Makita party trailer in a town near you!

www.franklinbuildingsupply.com

How We Can Offer Disney-Level Hospitality

Pay Attention to Details At Disneyland, if it’s your birthday, you not only get a special badge to wear, employees will greet you with a “Happy birthday!”

Once upon a time, a man started a magical theme park that provided world-class hospitality (and it still does today). All the people who visited lived happily ever after. Sound familiar? Yes, we’re talking about Walt Disney, the creator of the happiest place on Earth. Disney was masterful at providing exceptional customer service, and we can learn a lot from his example. He understood it was crucial to make magical experiences for guests to keep them coming back and that his staff would be responsible for creating those experiences. So, how do you make a customer’s experience magical? Here are just a few Disney-inspired ideas to complement your already great customer service. Anticipate Customer Needs Go above and beyond just addressing your customers’ needs by anticipating their desires. At Disneyland, certain sections of the park emit a scent to go along with a theme — freshly baked bread, for example, in a French section. Obviously, smelling freshly baked bread is going to make your stomach grumble, so what is right around the corner from this tantalizing scent? Actual loaves of freshly baked bread! Anticipating needs before a customer even has them makes them feel like you’ve got their back.

throughout the theme park. Know your best customer’s birthday is coming up? Why not send them a card or wish them a happy birthday next time you see them?

Say It With a Smile When Disney employees begin their training, “Say it with a smile” is an important customer service technique they learn. It’s a concept that is so easy to carry out, and yet, sometimes we forget to do it. Don’t let another day go by forgetting. Deliver that consultation with a smile. We know our business is a lot different than Disney’s, and we don’t really want you to wear your Mickey Mouse ears to work. But how easy would it be to use just a couple of these techniques the next time you talk with a customer? If you do anything this month, say it with a smile during your next interaction.

S E P T EMB E R A NN I V E R S A R I E S

LOCATION - EMPLOYEE - YEARS

S E P T EMBER BIRTHDAYS

Long Haul Fruitland Jaguar Jaguar Boise Boise Truss Boise Caldwell Gooding Jerome Truss Twin Falls McCall Jaguar Jaguar

Norgard, Gregory Penrod, Scott Millick, Rhonda Dowen, James Mosgrove, George Gill, James Beck, John Walters, Elizabeth Whillock, Bobby Ranstrom, Scott Clark, Karl Estes, Danny Ruffridge, Jake Steiner, Brad Bryan, Lana Hernandez, Lupemedrano Martinez, Jose Christensen, Robert Montgomery, Kevin Chandler, Cory Cruz, Pablo Drennon, Darrell Flanary, Timothy Luker, Bryce Keeney, Jeff Magnelli, Jeff

34 34 26 25 20 19 16 16 15 14 14 14 13 11 11

Boise Burley Fruitland Boise Fruitland Jerome Truss Boise Truss Gooding Boise Sawtooth Door Boise McCall Sawtooth Door Sawtooth Door Fruitland Pocatello McCall Fruitland Boise Truss Elko Boise Jerome Truss Pocatello Jerome Truss

Griffith, Cory Smyer, Robert Brundtland, Rickey Corn, Cameron Donahue, Brian Fraker, Asia Freestone, Russell John, Dory Lopez Jimenez, Walter Treglown, Kathryn Vreeland, Cody Whalen, Kyle Davies III, Robert Florence, Barney Gutierrez, Estefania

4 4 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Dick, Gregory McCoy, Nancy Cabezas, Luis Spurgeon, Rachel Castillo, Ciriaco Moore, Mike Drennan, Kenneth Benson, Brent Smyer, Robert Johns, Allen Way, Scott Schofield, Gregory Bush, Jarrod Strout, Keith Vincent, Jacob Hohnstein, Dusty Brown, Christopher

14 15 15 16 17 17 18 19 19 19 20 21 21 23 24 24 24 24 26 26 26 27 27 29 30

1 2 3 3 4 4 4 5 5 5 6 7 7 8 8 8 8

Condon, James Birdwell, Jordan Pavlovic, Aleksandar Jobe, Kent Green, Jason Williams, Devyn Diehl, Daniel Caudill, Dakota Diener, Duane Giambruno, Tyler Blanchard, Earnest Beebe, Chad Lamm, Steven Lopez Perez, Daniel Shippy, Anthony Anderson, Christian Davis, Ermine Trautman, Craig Hover, Michael Roberts, Michael

Pocatello Pocatello Boise Twin Falls Twin Falls

8 8 7 6 6 5 5 4 4 4 4

Houston, Stuart Jensen, Jeffrey Lang, Nicholas Loos, James Metz, Isaiah Powell, Wayne Sant, Michael Sorenson, Dallas Turner III, James Vargas, Morgan Watson, Jeffery

Bellevue Pocatello Boise Pocatello Jerome Truss

Kobrock, Terry Steen, Patrick

12 12 13 14 14

Vorhes, Hannah Waisner, Doyal Keller, John Cardenas, Francisco

Boise Boise

PRST STD US POSTAGE PAID BOISE, ID PERMIT 411

www.franklinbuildingsupply.com 9222 W. Barnes Dr. Boise, ID 83709

1 2 3 3 4 I N S I D E

We’re Really in the Hospitality Industry

Ain’t No Party Like a Makita Party

Disney-Level Hospitality

Birthdays and Anniversaries

Employee Spotlight: Chad Brown

CHAD BROWN WINS ‘EM OVER Chad’s being modest. He’s done a tremendous job growing our market share in the McCall region, and as the economy has swung back, he’s worked hard to make sure that we benefit from the boom. From new contractors doing remodels to production builders like Pinetop Homes, Chad’s ability to connect with — and sell to — our customers is very impressive. His secret? “Honestly, the biggest thing is follow-through,” Chad says. “Get out in front of them, and if you say you’ll call, call. If you forget to do something or make a mistake, don’t pretend like it didn’t happen. Own up to it and make it right.” It doesn’t hurt to be a local, either. Chad’s lived in McCall since he was in the sixth grade, and he knows “just about everybody in town, it feels like.” When he’s not selling to customers or making sure they’re getting taken care of, you’ll find Chad hanging out with his girlfriend, training their new puppy, or working on his own house. “It took about nine months to build,” he says, “and I put a lot of sweat equity into it. It gave me a lot of perspective on what builders go through and how important things like schedules are.” He’d also love to spend more time hunting and fishing, but we keep him pretty busy — and when you sell like Chad, that’s a given!

Like many at Franklin Building Supply, McCall customer sales representative Chad Brown worked his way up from the bottom. “I started at the company driving

in the yard,” Chad says, “but there’s room to grow if you work hard.” From the

lumber yard, Chad moved on to the door shop, where

he worked for over a decade. By the time he was done, Chad was running the door shop and ready for the next challenge. “In the last couple years, I moved into sales,” Chad says. “I’ve managed to sell to a lot of the newer builders in the area and even gotten a few that we’d lost in the past back on board with us.”