Lots of companies preach “making customers for life” – very few come close – SEK now has an army of one!
“As an owner of a successful design/build landscape firm located south of Boston for the past 20 years, I have been anecdotally researching the cleaning & sealing industry for the past 3 years. After recognizing a glaring need in our residential & commercial markets, as well as an eye opening opportunity, I began to formulate a 5 year business plan in 2016, and thus ‘Hardscape Rehab’ was born.
After selecting a digital marketing firm to assist with website development and social media platforms, as well as an equipment company to construct a 16′ enclosed trailer pressure washing unit, the only piece missing was our products supplier.
Alliance Gator was a strong contender after my initial interview with them. They surely had a strong presence in our area, and I was accustomed to purchasing their joint sand products. They were able to supply me with sample products to test (along with hats, shirts etc) and spent one-on-one time with me reviewing the product line. After a few follow up attempts to contact them for further training I did not receive a response.
Next up was Techniseal. Crickets….
I began to seek out an applicator certification class (if there was such a thing) and stumbled on to a company offering one in North Carolina, SEK-Surebond. After calling the corporate office to find out if there was an area rep I was given the email address for Darrin Brockelbank. About 2 hours after emailing him, I received a call in my office. I explained to Darrin that I launching a stand-alone cleaning & sealing business but, I had never cleaned or sealed a hardscape surface in my 20 years of installing them – he was more than amused!
We met at my office a few days later and I shared some of my business plan with him. He immediately wanted to assist me and suggested I meet with himself and Jay Krech during the Northeast Hardscape show in Providence the following week.
Today, Darrin and Jay both left Boston after spending most of the week with me training on demo sites of past install clients of mine.
Your company may not be the biggest or have a flashy marketing department (a little end user swag might be nice!) BUT, if Darrin and Jay are the type of employees that SEK is comprised of, then I would surmise you’re simply the best.
In all my years of purchasing products and dealing with reps and vendors, I have never experienced the level of professionalism, knowledge and candor that I did this past week. The fact that a company would allow access for 2 of their employees to travel and spend time teaching and training a start-up company is pretty remarkable! You guys get it!!
Lots of companies preach “making customers for life” – very few come close – SEK now has an army of one!”