The 1990’s – Dedicated Teams and World Class Customer Service Fuel Explosive Growth
Our Commitment to Total Customer Satisfaction
No parts distributor in America serves their customers better than Dixie Sales Company. We gauge our success by the number of satisfied customers we have, not by how big we are, or by how many dollars of parts we ship.
We believe our customers should never settle for, or accept, anything less than the best service possible.
We know that excellence in service does not result by accident, but rather from the results of hard work and intelligent effort.
We ask the customer to judge our efforts by the service they receive, and not by the promises we make.
We believe the customer is the best judge of who gives quality service…and that the customer will “cast his vote” by sending his business to that source of quality service.
We welcome competition because as we see so often in this and other industries, lack of competition breeds mediocrity.
As a company, we promise to always do our best; to continually improve and do a better job each and every day.
Vince Lombardi summed up the spirit that motivates Dixie Sales Company better than anyone, when he said: “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.”
This is our commitment to you.
Written by Jim Starmer, this Dixie Sales Company “call to arms” was consistently read, discussed, and debated by all employees for many, many years. It became part of the Dixie Sales Company culture and helped differentiate us from our competitors because we stated publically what we believed in and stood for…and then we made it happen.
September 1991 BusinessLife Magazine Article On Dixie Sales Company
In the September, 1991 issue of BusinessLife magazine, a North Carolina, Triad-based business magazine focused on local companies, was an article about Dixie Sales with several pictures.
DIXIE PRAYS FOR RAINY DAYS, By Sherry Lewis, BusinessLife magazine, September 1991
Rainy days are crucial to Dixie Sales’ bottom line. The sale and distribution of lawn mower and garden equipment parts make up more than 90 percent of its business.
Like the farmers, Jim Starmer and the employees at Dixie Sales Co. watch the skies.
Rain is crucial for Dixie’s bottom line. More than 90 percent of its business is distributing parts for lawn mower and garden equipment. And as Starmer says, “If it doesn’t rain, grass doesn’t grow, people don’t mow their lawns, and mowers don’t break down.” So it’s not unusual that businessman Starmer can tell you the last year Greensboro went 45 days without rain or admits with a sheepish grin, “When it rains on the weekend, we’re cheering, when everyone else’s golf game is ruined.”
Dixie Sales was not always so maniacal about meteorology. Back in 1914, the company was known as “the rubber tire hospital specializing in vulcanizing and all sorts of tire troubles.” That was three generations agao, when Frank Snyder and son-in-law L.H. (Jack) Starmer, two Ohio natives, decided to go into business together. Under Starmer, who had worked for tire company giants Goodyear and Firestone, Dixie grew to be a Greensboro institution in the field of automotive repair.
L.H.’s son Ernest and grandsons Jim and Richard, who continue to run the family firm, grew up in the automotive repair business. They knew cars, but they never dreamed that one day the company would be a national leader in parts distribution for lawn and garden equipment.
One thing led to another, Dixie sold Briggs & Stratton automotive keys and locks in the 1930’s. When Briggs began marketing washing machine engines, Dixie started selling parts for those engines. Then a local hardware wholesaler asked Dixie to carry repair parts for the new lawn mowers it was selling.
Today (1991), Dixie stocks more than 60,000 parts for lawn and garden equipment. It ships an average of 900 packages per day to 40 states. Customer service representatives take orders from Dixie’s 5,000 active customers on 15 toll-free phone lines. The firm sells parts to individual consumers, independent repair shops, mass merchandizers such as K-mart and Sears, and hardware stores. Five Dixie salesman travel the company’s territories, which range from a few counties in North Carolina to several states, depending on the parts line. In the case of one line, for example, Dixie’s area of responsibility includes the Carolina’s, Georgia, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and Tennessee.
The company has 54 employees, most operating our of a 40,000-square-foot administration building and warehouse facility on Summit Avenue. The automotive repair division which use to be Dixie’s total business, but now accounts for less than 10 percent of the company’s sales, has been located on Battleground Avenue since 1952 and remains a neighborhood garage for the downtown area.
For decades, Greensboro drivers have trusted Dixie mechanics, and that reputation for quality and knowledgeable service continues. Dixie’s mechanics frequently stay with the company for many years. But when a job opening does occur, the widely-respected company doesn’t have to advertise to locate an abundance of eager job applicants.
About 50 cars go through Dixie’s garage each day, and it’s one of the few garages in the area that calibrates speedometers for the North Carolina Highway Patrol, as well as police departments from Greensboro to Martinsville, VA.
Starmer attributes the success of both the automotive repair and the lawn and garden parts divisions to never-ending attention to the company’s philosophy. The spirit that motivates Dixie, Starmer says, is best summed up by the late Vince Lombardi, who said, “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.”
Starmer believes that philosophy is more than pretty words on a piece of Dixie letterhead. “It’s got to be in the culture of the business. We live it, act it, talk about it all the time – that’s what is important. Every business has a culture and this one is providing service. It’s striving for perfection.”
At Dixie, that means mechanics regularly attend training programs at the General Motors Training Center in Charlotte as well as local clinics sponsored by equipment manufacturers and the Independent Garage Owners of North Carolina (IGONC.) The company also has an education director, who organizes “schools” for Dixie employees and lawn and garden parts customers during the off-season (September to March.)
Dixie is committed to competing on technical service, not price-cutting. It’s toll-free phone lines are manned by “skilled, knowledgeable people, not order-takers,” Starmer says. Armed with computers and microfiche catalog systems, operators answer 2,000 calls on a peak day.
The company takes the same approach to selling a lawn mower blade as it does replacing a fan belt. “Always respect the customer,” Starmer says. “The customer is important.”
Being customer-oriented is not just a cliché at Dixie; it is the way the Greensboro company has built its niche. This is the company that delivers quicker than L.L. Bean, the company whose operators will verbally “walk” a customer through the parts of their lawn mower engine until they find the “thingamajig” that isn’t working, the company that has just invested in a major conveyor system to increase efficiency in its warehouse operations, as well as a new computer and phone system.
“You have to be different to compete in business,” Starmer says, “and a lot of times the only way to be different is to be better.”
At the age of 71, Ernest Starmer is still active in Dixie, riding to work some days with son Jim. Jim, 44, is Dixie’s president; Richard, 41 is vice president. Jim’s wife, Linda, works full-time in the firms accounting department.
Jim works 60 to 70 hours a week during the peak season. He comes into the office on Saturday mornings, but he slips out early on Thursdays to mow his own yard. He won’t reveal sales figures for privately owned Dixie, but he admits the company has grown at an annual rate of 30 percent per year in recent times and continues to add parts lines and territories.
“We cover an area large enough now, that it’s usually raining somewhere,” Starmer laughs. He jokes that the company has considered starting a division for cloud seeding or offering a free fertilizer service.
But with Dixie’s long and successful track record, it’s hard to see the need for that kind of diversification.
POWER EQUIPMENT TRADE MAGAZINE, JUNE, 1993
INDUSTRY VOICES COLUMN – Guest Contributors
OEM SUPPLIERS ARE VITAL TO PARTS MARKET
By Jim Starmer
Many years ago price was the primary reason dealers purchased aftermarket parts. Quality was definitely suspect. While price is, today, still somewhat of a factor, quality of service and availability of parts are the primary reasons one source is used over another. The customer uses his order pad to “cast a vote” for a quality service provider. Charles Stenftenagel’s (owner of Sten’s, an aftermarket parts distributor and manufacturer) article on aftermarket parts (March PET ’93) suggested aftermarket supplier service levels “are often better than the OEM supplier.” And he emphasized the importance customers place on quick delivery, high order fill rates, parts for varied brands, and in knowing a parts availability. Of course, these attributes and many, many more can be found in OEM parts suppliers.
There are many OEM parts suppliers who stock parts for most brands of lawn and garden equipment. Since some OEM manufacturers will not sell parts to anyone other than their dealers or retailers, OEM parts suppliers, in order to offer complete market coverage, source those parts from the aftermarket. OEM parts are inventoried for their OEM lines, and aftermarket parts are inventoried for lines not available to OEM parts suppliers.
This means the reasons Stenftenagel gave to purchase parts from aftermarket suppliers are some of the reasons to buy from OEM parts suppliers. However, there are even more important reasons to use an OEM parts supplier.
OEM parts suppliers buy from the original equipment manufacturer, who, more often than not, produces the replacement parts he sells. These are the same parts the OEM uses in production, and they meet the same high standards required by both manufacturer and consumer. Stenftenagel says Stens sources from over “500 vendors.” In many cases, it’s possible aftermarket suppliers must source from multiple vendors to provide coverage for fast moving parts on a single original equipment manufacturer’s line. Aftermarket suppliers act as multi-line replacement parts distributors, but only for non-OEM manufacturers and only for a limited number of fast-moving part numbers.
A brand name, not lowest price, instills confidence in both consumer and dealer/retailer customers that all expectations for a given product or part will be met. That same OEM “security blanket” cannot be duplicated by anyone, anywhere, at any price.
Aftermarket parts suppliers offer, on average, the availability of 4,000 to 5,000 part numbers. Major OEM parts suppliers offer the availability of tens of thousands of part numbers right from their inventory. And they have the ability to special order hundreds of thousands of other OEM part numbers available that they don’t carry in their own inventory. Who, then, is a better one stop source?
Most OEM parts suppliers staff their toll free customer service lines with technically skilled personnel. Customers don’t have to order by an aftermarket part number. They simply order directly out of the OEM owner’s manual or from microfiche by the OEM part number. Or the customer simply supplies the OEM model number, and the parts will be looked up, availability given and shipment made usually the very same day. These same personnel can advise about warranty and technical problems and solution; discuss service bulletins and tips; and advise consumers where OEM service dealers are located. They also have additional knowledge about the parts lines they carry and the manufacturers’ current policies and warranties. These technicians are backed by OEM service departments and OEM parts emergency order systems.
Many major OEM parts suppliers maintain in-house educational directors, hold technical service schools and sponsor dealer management seminars. They employ customer service personnel to assist with manufacturer and consumer relations, obsolescence programs and special sales and profit-enhancing programs. They provide customers with parts purchase histories and inventory analysis to help determine what parts customers really should stock and what parts they should consider returning under OEM parts suppliers’ obsolescence programs. Many OEM parts suppliers communicate with customers via computer and use bar code technology in their customer relationships. They do this to improve a customer’s profitability, improve customer service levels and for profitable inventory control at all distribution levels. Soon, OEM parts supplier customers will be able to file warranty claims, receive technical bulletins, manuals and catalogs and order parts through personal computers linked directly to their OEM parts supplier.
In Briggs & Stratton’s excellent article on the use of quality genuine parts, they stated that using OEM parts is “genuinely better for your business.” I would suggest that it’s not only better, but it’s also a much better value. In today’s marketplace, the purchaser of any item has learned to look beyond price and try to recognize a much better value. Quite simply, this means then you purchase a part from an OEM parts supplier, you get a whole lot more than a quality parts from a major manufacturer’s parts supplier. Today’s smart customer recognizes that and place great importance and value on it.
June 1993 Power Equipment Trade Magazine by Jim Starmer, President of Dixie Sales Co., Greensboro, NC
FEBRUARY 1994 POWER EQUIPMENT TRADE MAGAZINE (PET) ARTICLE ON DIXIE SALES COMPANY
In the February 1994 issue of Power Equipment Trade magazine was an article by Kathy Porter about Dixie Sales Company titled Problem Solvers.
Parts distributor Dixie Sales attributes its rapid growth to dealer education and superior customer service.
Greensboro, NC – Although Dixie Sales’ coverage area is limited to nine states, it has a nationwide reputation for top-notch service. Dixie has achieved almost a cult following among power equipment retailers for backing up this claim: “No parts distributor in America serves its customer better than Dixie Sales Co.”
During its busiest season, usually April through September, Dixie Sales’ 19 inside customer service reps field more than 2,500 calls daily. This is also when its warehouse kicks into high gear, shipping over 1,500 packages in a day.
While most calls are from outdoor power equipment retailers placing routine parts orders, quite a few come from dealers searching for hard-to-find components and from consumers seeking service. “We don’t just sell parts,” says Dixie President Jim Starmer. “ We solve problems.”
Starmer says his company prefers to be known as a “quality service provider” because that more accurately reflects the way it does business. This philosophy is reflected in the company culture.
“There’s an ongoing joke around here that if someone asks one of the company’s employees what we do and he or she answers, ‘We distribute parts for various OEM lawn and garden manufacturers,’ that person is fired,” he says. “That’s not the business we’re in. We’re in the customer service business. As long as we remember that, we’ll be successful.”
The privately owned company is the largest parts distributor for American Yard Products, MTD, NOMA, Ryobi, General Power and Southland in the U.S. It also carries myriad other lines, most geared to mass merchant brands and engines. Its most recent addition is the Generac generator line.
The company has grown at 20-30% annually for the past several years, according to Starmer.
Dixie conducts both two-step and three-step distribution. On some lines it’s a central distributor, while on others it’s a service distributor. On some brands its coverage area is six counties; on others it extends to nine states (George, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Delaware).
Engine lines (for which it is a service distributor) are Briggs & Stratton, Tecumseh and Kohler. The company is also a Murray service distributor and a central distributor for Kawasaki.
Dixie’s keys to providing such a wide range of service are its in-depth parts inventory, which stands at 65,000 part numbers and growing; a technically skilled, customer-oriented workforce; and a substantial capital investment in computers, telephones and a state–of-the-art warehousing and distribution system.
Starmer states 99% of the company’s orders are shipped the same day they’re received, and its order fill rate (by line and item) averages 93%. “We don’t promise anyone same-day shipping, but that’s one of our goals,” he notes. “To paraphrase Vice Lombardi, we believe if you strive for perfection, you’ll reach excellence.”
Simply having the right parts on hand is one of the things that sets the successful parts distributor apart from the mediocre one, he continues. Stocking the fast-moving part numbers - the 20% that are needed 80% of the time – is easy, he says. “But it’s the ones you sell five a year of that are the key.”
SERVICE
Forming the core of Dixie’s operations are its 19 inside and eight outside customer service representatives. Although they accept parts orders, Starmer stresses this isn’t their primary function. “These are technically competent people who are there to please customers, no matter what it takes,” he declares.
During the busy season the customer service department answers phones Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. EST, and Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST. While the 2,500+ calls per day place a lot of pressure on the inside reps, the company doesn’t set time limits on calls or require reps to complete a minimum number of daily calls. Starmer says customers sometimes complain they had trouble reaching a representative, but he says the company prefers to sacrifice quantity of calls for quality.
He also notes representatives are empowered to take care of customers on the spot. “This means they don’t have to go through 14 layers of bureaucracy to get any answer.”
Unlike some distributors, Dixie doesn’t charge customers for parts lookup. “Several (distributors) either won’t look up parts for dealers or they charge them for the service,” Starmer says. “That level of mediocrity is the kind of thing that makes our job simple; we just wait for the phone to ring.”
The reps field many calls from consumers looking for parts and service for their equipment. By entering a callers zip code, a rep can direct the customer to the nearest servicing dealer.
The company’s outside reps are also problem solvers, he says. Their main function is communication with customers, informing them of new programs and products.
In addition, Dixie provides dealers with purchase histories to help pinpoint best (and worst) selling items. It also does annual clean-ups, taking back obsolete parts from dealers who place an offsetting order.
While Starmer says the company welcomes inquiries from dealers, it doesn’t like to do business with those who buy primarily on price. “We want the dealer who’s interested in value – who are going to make a fair profit, but who want more than just parts from his parts distributor,” he declares.
One major service the company provides for dealers is training. Curt Harshey, Director of Education and Technical Services, holds over 40 technical service schools a year for customers in seven states. Sessions focus on solving the most common technical problems dealers encountered during the past year. They also cover general service issues and safety.
“Our dealers are evolving away from being simply parts changers,” notes Harshey. “They have to have diagnostic skills, and that calls for much more in-depth training.”
Educating dealers also provides tangible benefits. Harshey says the company and the manufacturers it represents receive fewer phone calls on service problems in the areas where it hold regional service schools. Dixie also holds dealer seminars with the North American Equipment Dealers Assn. that zero in on the importance of smart business management. Harshey believes this investment will pay off by ensuring more retailers will stay in business longer.
Harshey is also in charge of employee technical training at Dixie. All new hires begin work in the warehouse where they receive a thorough grounding in how the company operates.
A few years ago the company began systematically improving its internal training. “This enabled us to increase productivity as much as we did when we installed our sophisticated conveyor system,” Harshey says. “ We were able to cut our temporary employees by half and eliminate our night shift, yet we shipped 33% more packages.”
From Starmer’s point of view, this was but a small part of the company’s ongoing improvement efforts. He says his company’s mission isn’t to be the biggest in the industry. “We want to be different from the other parts distributors. And the only way to be different is to be better.”
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