Create systems that make an impact with customers. I’m an expense item. Bottom line: When you buy a forklift, it’s going to cost you money, and it’s a necessary evil for them, so to speak. So what we try to do is create the best efficiencies that we can … show customers how they can save money year in and year out, and at any point in time, they can call and find out what the cost per hour is — which is almost like a cost per mile to put it into the car industry terms everybody knows.
We’ve created an accrual account, and it’s there to support customers. Let’s say a guy takes a chance on getting a forklift, and for some reason, two or three of them break down. … What we’ll do is say, ‘Listen, if you need a part or service to take care of your truck, we guarantee same-day service or same-day part. If we can’t get you up and running, because our mission is never, never have a customer have downtime … we’ll send you a free loaner. So you’re never, ever going to be down because of me. So it’s very easy to get people to switch from competitors because there is no risk. That’s big from a sales standpoint because that’s the biggest thing that holds people back. They say, ‘I don’t want to make a decision and get in trouble because you’re saying the right stuff, but everybody is.’ We back it up by making sure a customer is never down.
And there’s money just sitting in there to take care of the rental department when they take it out. And the beauty for me is, for maybe a few hundred bucks it costs me to get a truck out to the customer, I’ve taken care of a guy that probably would have told 10 people that we screwed up, and he probably would have gotten in trouble with his company and etc., etc.
Hire, train and then listen for new solutions. You have to be a good listener, you have to be a good implementer and then you have to get out of the way. Manage and get out of the way. It’s really training and trust and delegation.
That all comes down to trust, and in the beginning, we teach our processes and teach what we do. I want people to understand what we do and then really, once they get involved in it and understand it and understand their job, I make sure that rather than micromanage the job itself, I follow them around and make sure the delegation happens and the action steps happen. Once you get trust going, and you know that person can add a lot of value, then you start listening to feedback. Everybody wants to be an impact player. For example, (our CFO) is an impact guy, but he had to learn our system. Once he learned it, from there he comes back and teaches us to do it even better.
We won’t bring people on who aren’t customer-driven. We talk and talk and talk to them, and if they’re not customer-driven, and we get any negative feedback on the road or don’t like their attitude in house, we can’t have that. I’ll tell you what, it’s probably one in every three just doesn’t do it in the interview process; you can say, ‘That guy just doesn’t have it.’ And if they haven’t experienced it, they’ll probably have a hard time doing it.
How to reach: Interstate Lift Trucks Inc., (216) 328-0970 or www.ilttoyotalift.com
