Advanced Cabling Explains How Employee Happiness Leads to Success

Campuses are among your leading vertical markets. Can you tell me why educational institutions are so appealing and also any inherent challenges?

KENNEDY: We do so many different technologies in-house, whether it’s structured cabling, access control, security, intercom, mass notification, and we like working with those kinds of clients because all those systems play directly into their facilities.

As for challenges, sometimes those guys are handcuffed with the bid process and some incumbent vendors or legacy products they may want to change out but don’t have the funding.

We do a ton of work in K-12 and higher ed. It runs the gamut from fiber-optic cabling to fire alarm installs to cameras to access. It plays in beautifully with the things we do as a company being the things they need on a daily basis.

ROBERTS: The only thing I would add is the audio/video piece. Every classroom, whether it’s K-12 or higher ed, will have some level of audio/video system in it. That being a service we offer and a component to our business has really helped with those partnerships.

Whether that’s a football stadium or smartboards in K-12 classrooms, or auditoriums in the higher academic arena, that has played well for us.

Let’s move to healthcare, same questions.

ROBERTS: As with education, healthcare facilities have every technology we offer under one roof. So whether it’s structured cabling, we also do nurse call, we do intercom paging systems; they also have audio/ video systems, and, obviously, physical security systems.

We’re a Hugs dealer, so we do infant protection. We do fire alarm, which is regulated by the Joint Commission [JCAHO] in most cases. Because they have stringent policies and reporting they have to do, it’s helped us in that arena to continue to build on those partnerships.

Let’s talk customer service, customer care. Everyone says their service is what differentiates them. They take care of the customer. Everyone says that but in reality few consistently execute or maintain it. At Advanced Cabling, what are the checks and balances?

ROBERTS: Before you can have good customer care you have to take care of your people in-house. If you treat your people right and take care of them, then they’re happy to be here and will in turn take care of your clients.

I’m not going to say we have the best customer service representatives or best customer care people. I think we truly have the best people. A portion of that is the customer and client care.

We really tout and talk big about our culture. As part of that, it’s not only the fun environment we’ve created here but also allowing opportunities for people to grow professionally – having the best benefits package, not only in our industry but what we feel is the best across most industries.

I think it transcends not only customer care as we focus on making sure our people internally are happy.

KENNEDY: There are a couple of specific things we do that a lot of people think are odd but I love. My personal cell-phone number and email address is on our website.

I love to get calls from customers, good or bad. If I don’t know it’s broke, I can’t fix it. We have a pretty aggressive 24/7 on-call plan. If you call with any issue you’re going to get a
technician.

If that technician doesn’t call you back in 15 minutes, you’re going to get David. If David’s in the shower and doesn’t call you back in 15 minutes, it’s going to ring my phone. With one phone call or email you could get right to the top.

I preach and love that accountability. To David’s point, customer care is such an intangible that we try to turn it into a tangible. We offer our people $0 deductible healthcare and up to 6% dollar-for-dollar match on 401k, and really take care of those guys from a financial standpoint.

But we also take care of them by doing all kinds of fun events, whether it’s recycling our scrap wire and going on a float trip, or whether it’s a whole family picnic.

We do lots of different things every month to keep those guys engaged because we spend more time with them than with our families. We don’t get it right every time, but we try to err on the side of the employee. In the long run, that serves you well.

Do you ever have to walk away from business due to unrealistic customer demands or because they’re stuck on a certain product you don’t service?

ROBERTS: We focus on providing the client exactly what they need for the application they’re going to use it for, but if those needs or in some cases wants don’t align with either the manufacturers or technologies we align ourselves with, then absolutely we’ve walked away from opportunities.

A huge mistake people make is doing a job just to do a job, when maybe it’s not the right fit. We don’t employ any commissioned salespeople at all. In fact, we don’t have any commissioned employees at all.

The reason, even though it’s very different in our industry from most of our competitors, is because we don’t want our team selling something to a client or potential client just to try to make some money for themselves, and it not be exactly what they need.

Reputation is everything and you have to make sure it is impeccable. If you’re not comfortable or don’t have the skillset, or don’t represent the manufacturer, or don’t have the certifications needed to truly do a job the way it should be done, and give that client 100% complete satisfaction, then you’re not only doing the client a disservice but also yourself.

So as painful as it is, we have walked away from jobs.

If you’re not commissioning salespeople, how do you motivate them to take on new offerings into the marketplace?

ROBERTS: We have dedicated salespeople that focus on new installs, and then we have dedicated salespeople that focus on service, and then we have dedicated salespeople that focus on recurring revenue.

That might be different than some people do it, but they all have their own focus. They do have the opportunity to cross-sell and partner with each other.

We made the decision a long time ago that we were not going to have commissioned salespeople simply because we wanted our sales team to have a good working relationship with our operations team.

We didn’t want salespeople to sell something and then move on to the next sale just to grow their personal check. As for motivation, obviously we all recognize that sales is a lifestyle job, and people who sell want freedom and flexibility and that’s part of it.

It goes back to the culture. You pay people a fair salary for the job they’re doing and reward them, offer incentives and give them opportunities to be flexible with their time.

It seems simple, but treat them like grownups and the way they would want to be treated. Fostering that positive culture and allowing those people to grow keeps them motivated.

It’s also a challenge too when we spend a lot of time bidding jobs, putting jobs together, and working with engineers. We try to engage all those team members to help with that design process.

If you have a person who’s focused strictly on a commission structure, they’re not going to want to work on some of those things that are long lead cycles. We’ve just got it set up where it works differently. People love being here.

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