Fine Tuning
Contemplating a redesign of your facilities? Consider incorporating these strategies to maximize your investments and your results.
- Customer focus should be high priority in any redesign. Capital improvements are great, but the types of products and services you intend to offer your current and future contractors are equally important to guiding your choices when it comes to merchandising, divvying up space for showrooms and yard storage, and organizing new traffic patterns. High-delivery yards need to maximize footprint logistics, for example, while remodeler-and will-call-centric shops will want to emphasize curb appeal and specialty product assortment.
- Vendor assistance is just a phone call away. On the showroom front, upstream partners are key allies in assisting product selection and display. Out back, most racking and storage vendors offer design services to help dealers maximize storage space and traffic patterns. Not only do many vendors set aside co-op funds to assist their dealers with facility redesign, but these partners are also a great source of best practices and sharing successful strategies employed by other dealers in their distribution networks.
- Sacrificing ideas will become a necessity as any dealer progresses from planning to the actual nuts and bolts of redesign. Municipal, state, and federal codes and regulations can drastically affect both the cost and time line of a facility wish list. Making compromises on original blue-sky blueprints can get everyone closer to a grand opening and keep the redesign budget under control.
- Empower employees from concept to completion. Load builders and yard personnel can offer primo intelligence on work-area logistics, while counter salespeople are a great source of knowledge on hardline turns, merchandising, and what your customers are asking for on a daily basis. Finally, know that action items will eventually need a point person to make decisions, and the authority and ownership of a project will provide great retention and morale-building experience.
- Celebration time should be factored into any facility redesign. Plan for a grand re-opening where contractors and employees alike can appreciate the results of everyone’s hard work and patience. Post a press release on your Web site and contact your local paper to announce the launch or re-launch of your new location. Beat the drum loudly, and don’t forget to include any vendors and customers who were key allies in pulling your project together. A party is the perfect time for relationship-building.
