During his three-year term on Pella’s Remodelers’ Advisory Board, Ted Brown noticed that the window and door company had a written framework to guide every employee in making decisions. He decided his own design/build firm, Traditional Concepts Inc., should create something similar, and appointed a task force to do so.
The resulting “TCI Excellence System,” an organized pyramid of strategies for dealing with people and reminders about the company’s overall goals, gives Brown and his 18-person business a reliable reference point in any situation. It defines TCI’s mission and values while listing 24 basic principles to remember. “Don’t criticize, condemn, or complain,” reads one. “If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically,” says another.The system has saved many a relationship between TCI and its customers. “Say a set of plans calls for tile to be laid diagonally,” Brown says, by way of example.“It was reviewed in the shop drawings, so we know that for a fact. But the client says it was supposed to be laid square.” According to the Excellence System, the best strategy is to accept responsibility for the problem and re-lay the tile, thus preserving a solid relationship with the client. “It doesn’t make sense to win the battle and lose the war,” says Brown. “That issue may make the difference between our getting a referral from that client or not.”
The Excellence System isn’t the only weapon in TCI’s customer service arsenal. The company has what it calls its “101 Steps”—a checklist of the responsibilities that accompany each project, along with a timetable and a list of people responsible for each step. Then there are the Dale Carnegie self-improvement courses that TCI pays for employees to take in order to sharpen their communication skills. And the company has collectively come up with an “elevator speech,” a quick description of its services and identity that every staff member can use when talking to potential customers.
Traditional Concepts Inc. Lake Bluff, Ill. Type of business: design/build; Years in business: 18; Employees: 18; 2002 volume: $4.4 million; 2002 starts: 22
