Refurbishing a refrigerator requires even more expertise: in addition to the electrical aspect, special certification is needed to handle the refrigerants and to clean the systems. Most appliance restorers don´t have the required know-how or certification. But because Jowers TV & Appliances was already in the business of selling new appliances, John had a pre-assembled team of qualified servicemen and technicians.
John has no plans to take his new appliance sales online. While Internet sales for niche items like vintage appliances are skyrocketing, the competition to move new inventory is stiff. He knows he would likely only lose money trying to compete for online sales with a large outlet like Sears.com or JCPenney.com.
He does, however, believe that his new appliance sales will be helped as more and more manufacturers begin adding search engines that allow customers to find authorized dealers in their geographic area. He has seen a few sales locally that have come to him via GE.com, and feels that this allows smaller dealers to profit without investing in building a site.
John´s dad still works two days a week at the company he started. He enjoys working on the appliances just like he did in ´55. Marvin saw the value in Cyberspace when John showed him the check from his first sale.
John acknowledges that, when he left for college, the last thing he thought he´d do was to come back to a small town and work in the family business. But his work experience while in college made him realize that he really enjoyed taking full responsibility for customer satisfaction, something that is vital to a family business, but often of secondary importance to larger stores.
"As a teenager, when I went out on deliveries with the other guys and there was a problem, believe me, the customer would address ME with their concerns because they knew I was my father´s son!"
"In college, I went to work part time in a local home improvement center. During my first week there, I saw my boss, the store´s assistant manager, make a woman mad over a can of red paint. I went into his office and I said, `you may fire me for saying this, but you´ve done the worst thing you could have done. If you had given her another can of paint, she would have walked out of the store satisfied, and never said a word about it. But mark my words, you´ve made her mad, you didn´t give her another can of paint, and now she´s going to walk out of here and tell everyone in her bridge club and her church group, and you´ve probably lost 12 customers over a can of paint.´"
"I went home that night and asked myself what I wanted to do with my life, if I could really be happy somewhere climbing the corporate ladder but having no say-so about customer satisfaction, where you´ll always have to hand it off to another person. Suddenly, the family business seemed like the right choice."
Business profile courtesy of
Family Business Strategies.
About the author: John Jowers can be reached via http://www.antiqueappliances.com.
