Quality Control
While ABC might not be able to pinpoint a missing screw, its drivers use a cell phone to take a picture of a load after every delivery. The photo ensures that drivers are delivering products properly and complete. Sitaro says the branch promises a 24 hour turnaround; orders called in before 3 p.m. are delivered the next day.
Through CSDS, delivery trucks also can be tracked, with each vehicle’s route loaded into a computer system by a delivery system manager. Trucks can be monitored up to the minute, Sitaro says. That’s handy when you have more than 2,000 customers in a 40-mile radius.
Still, there are other methods of prompt, accurate service that often go beyond the product order.
“Our company is renowned for second-story additions,” Geer says. “You can uncover anything when you tear into the roof of a house.” In cases where the unexpected or unknown surfaces, Fannin’s top supplier–S&S Building Supply, also based in Toledo, Ohio–will dispatch an engineering solution to the site within moments. “And the beam is out there on the truck within an hour,” Geer says.
On the verge of $2 million in sales this year, in the early 1980s Fannin ran into financial difficulties, partially as a result of a recession. At the time, S&S was the only company willing to extend credit to Fannin. The rest is history. “Loyalty like that is tough to beat,” Geer says.
“They were loyal to us, and I was loyal to them,” says Richard Schultz, owner of S&S. “Sometimes $50 parts friendships. It’s all about prices and no service from some suppliers, because they don’t care.”
By extending credit to Fannin, and perhaps saving the business, S&S built a long-term partnership with a remodeler who is in it for the long haul, according to Schultz. He describes Fannin as “No. 1” out of the 30 or so core remodelers that the dealer serves.
Treading in the Boxes
Remodelers by far give higher scores–on delivery service, product knowledge, convenience, and even on pricing–to their local building material dealer than to the local Lowe’s or The Home Depot. (See table, page 64.) “You can save a buck on a sheet of OSB, but then you get a six-hour delivery window,” Geer says. “I can’t have a man sitting out there and waiting for six hours.” But Fannin does have home-owner customers that shop The Home Depot several times a month, fall in love with a product, and ask Geer to install it in turn.
Nevertheless, remodelers are still far from turning their backs on the likes of The Home Depot, Lowe’s, or even Menards, for that matter.
Snodgrass, who completes about 60 jobs a year, spends $10,000 to $12,000 a month at Menards, and prefers to order his lumber through the Eau Claire, Wis.-based big-box chain largely because of the service he receives. For example, Snodgrass usually orders twice the amount of lumber he might need for a deck job. “They pick up what I don’t use and credit me back,” Snodgrass says.
But that service can waver at times. The higher the volume of his order, the better the level of service Rebels Custom Designs receives from Menards–namely, the timeliness a delivery is made. What appears to be steady is the level of field service Snodgrass receives from his Menards rep, who visits him often enough in the field to “take care of me.”
Fannin attempts to use local supply houses, such as Gross Electric, when possible and sway customers. “If I can get my customers in that store, not only can I save them money, but they have a phenomenal selection,” Geer says.
Remodeling survey results show that contractors are reluctant to give the boxes major purchases. LBM dealers are remodelers’ preferred supplier for lumber (favored by 81% of respondents), wood siding (77%), decking (70%), housewrap (67%) and molding (65%). (See table, page 57.) Other items LBM dealers fare well on are doors and windows.
Still, boxes garner 42% of tool and fastener purchases, compared to 23% at LBM dealers. The competition is neck and neck for caulk and adhesives, with 42% saying they prefer dealers and 41% opting for the boxes.
Medina says that he will visit he big boxes’ Web sites to research prices for items such as pre-hung doors or storm doors. “I wish Pella windows could publish its retail pricing–we would save a lot of time and effort,” Medina explains, noting that Lowe’s is a major Pella sales point. And with a lack of quality area showrooms, Medina has used Lowe’s as a place to send his customers for items such as light fixtures.
“That’s all I will go in there for: convenience needs, and nothing more than caulk and nails,” Brown says. “Their stuff is second-rate, lacks quality, and there is no service.” If Brown has a broken window or the wrong product altogether delivered to a site, he wants to be able to send it back and not be left hanging.
“At the end of the day, I just want to know I am putting a good product in there,” he says. “I’m not worried about the price.”
