Real World Retail

WORDS BY ROSA SOPHIA

As it celebrates its 40th year in business, Big Daddy’s Stereo innovates and expands into new categories, remaining flexible and fresh in a continually evolving market.

As teenagers, Robbie and Rusty Owens were already passionate about car audio. “Our father gave us a hard time for spending all our money and time on audio systems, but we loved it,” said Robbie Owens, who owns Big Daddy’s Stereo with his brother. “In 2002 when my father [Rodney Owens] retired, he invested in our business.”

The shop has been a presence in Longview, Texas for 40 years, and the Owens brothers are the third owners. “My brother and I had a business before this one,” Robbie Owens noted. “We were competitors of Big Daddy’s. We heard they wanted to get out of it, so we bought the business. We kept the name because it had been in Longview for so long.”

For the big anniversary this year, the shop will be holding a different category sale each month. “One month might be marine, another ATV—all items related to this will be on sale,” he said. “We are in the middle of designing a 40-year badge logo.”

The focus of Big Daddy’s Stereo, according to Owens, is to connect people to the latest technology and provide a fun experience while sharing the team’s love and knowledge of 12-volt with clients. Big Daddy’s Stereo has also been the recipient of the Local Business Review’s “Best in Car Audio and Home Theater” award for the last four years in a row.

Cell Phone Boosters Expand Customer Base and Bring Added Revenue

The shop has expanded into commercial and residential audio and video, and it’s continuing to grow its home theater side as well as home automation.

“This helped us expand into other regions in Longview. Our 12-volt is still our main category,” Owens said. “We’re slowly growing our home and commercial line. There are lakes all around us, so we do a lot of marine business in the spring and summer.”

The shop also has ATV and motorcycle audio clients. “About five years ago, we used to go to all the ATV events around us.”

The shop stopped going when oil prices dropped, Owens said. “Most of our clientele for the powersports category are in the oil and gas industry. The price decrease resulted in mass layoffs in that industry.” To remain relevant, the team responded to this and refocused their efforts in other areas.

The shop now installs cell phone boosters in remote areas. “We’re getting ready to do a cell phone booster for a manufacturing plant,” he said. “People also want cell phone boosters for their vehicles. Our oil and gas customers want them in their cars, and need them for their locations out in the middle of nowhere in Texas.” When the shop installs home theater equipment, Owens added, they also check cell phone service. “There are a lot of rural areas that don’t have good cell service, so it’s something we pitch to our customers,” Owens said. “We advertise it. From all that, it’s kind of blown up. For

Clients are able to look through the glass bay door that separates the showroom from the work area.

Salespeople and installers are paid hourly and rewarded with bonuses when revenue goals are met. Pictured here is technician Ruben Chico, who has been with the company for 17 years.

the oil and gas guys who travel, their office location might be in east Texas, but their work location is closer to the border with spotty service. They have fleet vehicles for their employees who drive back and forth. When they buy new trucks, they need accessories, tool boxes, steps and window tinting.”

These companies often operate out of large steel buildings, he added. “As soon as you step inside, the service is gone. It’s probably about five percent of our business, but it’s something we’re definitely marketing and trying to grow.”

Larger Bays Allow for Expansion and Some In-House Manufacturing

The marine category is the shop’s biggest seasonal attraction. Four years ago, Big Daddy’s Stereo opened its current location.

“In our previous building, we couldn’t pull a boat into our shop that had a tower on it because our bays weren’t tall enough. We worked out in the sun. In the summer in Texas, it’s 100 degrees outside,” Owens said.

This led to a big push to get the new place built, he added. “Our shop now has four bay doors that are drive-through, so we can pull a boat in. We work on RVs, motor homes and boats, so a customer can pull in and pull right out. The first day we were open, we had four boats in our bay.”

When they take a first look at a client’s car, salespeople will also see if the client needs anything else, such as window tinting. Here, Clay Bardshaw works with a customer

The design of the building also allows clients to see into the bays from the store. “Between our showroom to our bays, we have a bay door that’s all glass. We want people to sit here and watch what we’re doing and say, ‘Wow, they’re taking good care of my car.’”

Included in the plans for the coming year is an expansion into manufacturing. “The plan is to add a CNC machine to be able to take some of the custom work we’re doing and increase efficiency,” Owens explained. “We want to expand some of our custom work into online sales—custom enclosures that people can order from us, and we can build and ship. We’ll have templated designs for pillars and boxes, different custom pieces. People will be able to place an order on our website. It’ll be part of our main business.”

Increasing Positive Store Culture by Serving the Community

Due to fast growth of the company over the last few years, Owens said he began to consider different ways of keeping the team together. “At one point, it hit me how much time I spend with these guys and how much they do for us,” he explained. “They’ve been with us a lot of years, so I was trying to think of what I could do. I thought it was important to get involved in our community and give back.”

Owens saw community service as a good way to refocus the culture of the business in a positive direction. “Any time they want to do local charity work, we pay for that,” he said. “We pay for one day per quarter for them to do that.”

On the same note, Owens added, “We have a local women’s shelter here, and once a month we go out and buy lunch for the women and serve them.” The shop also takes part in donation drives for the women’s shelter. “Every time we go out there, we bring stuff, and then we do donation drives where customers will bring in blankets and pillows.”

Some of the staff members also go on mission trips through churches or other organizations, and Owens supports this, too. “A couple of my employees who go on mission trips came to me and asked whether that would be included as far as the paid day goes. And I said, yes, absolutely.”

The staff gets along well and the charity work, Owens said, “makes you feel good. Whether my employees stay with me or not, I thought maybe it would catch on. Maybe they would keep doing charity work even if they left the business, and on their own time.”

Big Daddy’s Stereo also offers health insurance for its employees, as well as vacation time and sick days. “Some of our more tenured employees have three weeks of paid vacation,” Owens added.

Special Trips and Staff Days Boost Morale Outside Work Hours

Another new development, Owens said, are staff days. “We have two staff days a year where we close down the store during the week, typically on a Monday, and we take the staff somewhere for the day.” The staff will enjoy mini golf

Television screens at each service station display specials and work done by Big Daddy’s Stereo. Josh Mandreger tends to a customer by phone, with a screen visible behind him.

together, or billiards or bowling. “At five, 10- or 15-year anniversaries, we’ll do something special. We did a fishing trip for one of the guys. We’re trying to figure out what to do on our next staff trip. We might go to a zip line place nearby.”

Owens plans to rewrite the procedural handbook soon, adding that it’s outdated. “We have a staff code, and it’s something we take seriously.”

The shop also has a clear procedure when it comes to duties and responsibilities, Owens said, adding that he has to be particular about it, especially because of the current size and structure of the business. “When people used to come into our store [when we were smaller] we were working on their car behind the front counter,” Owens said. “The doorbell rang, someone walked in and you lifted your

Private Holiday Sale Proves Unsuccessful

“We hosted a private afterhours sale for existing customers. If you were an existing customer, we emailed you to let you know about the sale and we shared it on social media. We had a Santa Claus that came in [for the kids]. We thought it was going to be a good turnout because of the email marketing campaign response and the open rate. It was about a tenth of what we expected. We did multiple thousands of dollars in sales, but it wasn’t as big as I thought it would be. “We gave away a flatscreen TV, a 55-inch. We gave away a remote start. We hit multiple categories on the giveaways. We encouraged people to bring their kids to get pictures with Santa. We had food and beverages. “If I keep doing them, it could grow and be better, but it just flopped. I think it’s just one of those things that you have to keep doing [to be successful]. We continue to increase our contacts and add more emails. By the time next year rolls around, and if we do something then, we’ll have more contacts and more social media followers.”

head up from under the dash and went to go talk to them.” Everyone has their own roles now. The average staff tenure at Big Daddy’s Stereo is eight years. In the past two years, the company added four new positions.

New hires are given a 30- to 60-day probation period, depending on the position. “I want them to feel comfortable. If this is too much for you after 30 days, if you come to me and say this isn’t what you thought it would be, then there’re no hard feelings,” Owens explained. “A lot of people don’t realize how difficult even a sales position is in 12-volt. They don’t understand how deep and thorough it is.”

The staff often goes through online vendor trainings and hands-on training. “One of our technicians has been to Mobile Solutions. That’s been really great for us, and we’ll send others as well. We also attend SEMA, KnowledgeFest, and we’re a MESA dealer, so we go to the MESA Summit every year.”

Dedicated Outside Salesperson Handles All Dealership Work

An outside salesperson helps balance dealership work, according to Owens, who added he and his brother now take more time to work on the business instead of in it.

While a salesperson prepares an estimate for a potential client, the customer can peruse the store and see if there’s anything else they’re interested in. Rather than list line by line charges, the shop offers an overall project fee with warranties included.

With a dedicated outside salesperson, the shop has seen an increase in dealership sales. “We do window tint, cruise control, mobile video and we still do a lot of backup camera integration for dealerships,” Owens said. “We have a hidden part of our website that you have to have a direct link to get to.

It has all our dealer pricings on it, and it’s set up like an online store. Any time new products come out, or we’re running any specials for dealerships, we change that on the website and email them to let them know. That’s new for us and it’s been going really well.”

The shop goes out to visit boat dealers, ATV dealers, tractor dealers and car dealerships. Instead of calling the store, the outside salesperson is able to deal with it, Owens said, making things much easier.

Following Up on Past Proposals Leads to More Revenue and Cash Bonuses

Instead of selling an entire system using an estimate method, with line by line charges, Big Daddy’s now puts together packages for clients. The package includes everything they will need, as well as labor, warranties and taxes.

“We were able to get a lot more sales that way.” Owens also pointed out that customers are quick to reject warranties if it’s added to the end of a conversation and not included in the entire package. Creating a package makes it feel more affordable and attractive to customers. “It’s made a huge difference in our bottom line, and we have been doing this about five years now.”

Salespeople are paid by the hour and there is a bonus structure. The website gets a lot of traffic, and email marketing and social media draw in a lot of people, according to Owens. But follow-up phone calls have been an important part of reaching out to clientele. It began with the home theater side, and Owens also instituted it with mobile electronics. Some proposals for the home side, he added, had neither been accepted nor rejected. “My managers would follow up. We got quite a few jobs that way.”

Billboards Help Increase Reach and Revenue

“We just got through with a 12-month billboard advertising campaign. We put up 12 billboards the first month—a massive attack. We had people call. One person called and said, ‘Just in case you wondered if your billboards work, they do, and that’s how I found you.’ “We didn’t just do [a billboard that said] Big Daddy’s. We had two up at a time, and we would rotate them every month. Depending on the seasons, we would advertise [different categories]. One whole billboard was just a guy on a motorcycle. It had our logo and said ‘motorcycle audio.’ “Then we would do a boat, window tint and remote start. That’s all it would say, and have a cool picture of a car or a boat. We pushed our home theater and window tint, too. “I’m hoping there was a minimum sales increase of about 40 to 50,000 dollars in a year. Our largest sales revenue was in 2018. It was the best year we’ve ever had. I think the billboards helped make that happen.”

Vendor Support Helped Bring High-End Car Audio to Longview

“We have been a Focal dealer since before we bought Big Daddy’s—over 15 years. In Longview, we didn’t have what you’d consider a high-end car audio product that was being sold at that time. People were having to drive two hours away if they wanted something like that. We were able to bring that into this market and make people aware of it. “The other two would be Kenwood eXcelon and JL Audio. We’ve got a great relationship with our sales reps. Even though we’re out in the middle of nowhere, we have constant contact on a weekly basis. They come visit us once a month and I know that’s not super uncommon, but it used to be for us, because we’re not in a major market. Those vendors are part of the MESA buying group as well, so that’s helped us out even further. “Kenwood CarPlay units and Android Auto have been our top sellers recently. JL Audio’s micro-loaded enclosures and amplified loaded enclosures have been big sellers, too. I’m also excited about some of the new Utopias from Focal. “Our manufacturers support us with trainings. If we have specials, they’re great about helping us with terms—extending terms and term discounts. When we have promotions, they are willing to offer free goods to help us with giveaways and discounts on demo products for our boards.”

Owens turned this into an incentive for the sales team. “I printed out a list of estimates from the previous month and was able to categorize them by salesperson. I handed them over and said, ‘Whoever has the most sales off these estimates in the next 30 days, I’ll give them 100 dollars cash.’”

Going the Extra Mile to Keep Clients Coming Back

Some employees who’d worked in other shops weren’t accustomed to the level of care Big Daddy’s Stereo expects, Owens added. “If it’s something really simple, we don’t charge,” he said. “Maybe a wire came lose somewhere. I’ll do it out in the parking lot. They’re willing to pay, and I say, ‘Don’t worry about it.’ I tell them to leave me a nice review on Google. To me, I can’t put a price tag on that five minutes because that customer wasn’t able to get service somewhere else, and we were able to help them out.”

They will probably come back from that point on, Owens said. “The money it would have cost me in marketing to get someone to come in, they’re already there and we’ll take care of them.”

When a customer comes in, the salesperson shakes their hand and introduces themselves. “We look over their car and listen to the customer,” Owens said. “A customer comes in because they have a problem, whether it’s that their windows aren’t tinted, or their stereo sounds terrible. We listen to what the problem is and we find the best solution for them.”

While assessing the situation, they also look for other issues. “We compliment the car. We find something we like about it. We check to see if the windows are tinted. If they have a radar detector, does it need to be hard-wired because it’s sitting on the dash and plugged into the cigarette lighter? Things like that.”

How Times Have Changed: 40 Years of Big Daddy’s Stereo

As part of their 40-year anniversary celebration, Owens said the shop will be posting photos of installs from the 1980s. Jimmie Weisinger, a technician who recently celebrated 32 years with the shop, brought in some old build photos. “We’re going to start posting ‘How Times Have Changed’ posts on social media,” Owens said. “We’ll encourage people who follow us to post any photos of jobs we’ve done in the past.”

They’re also planning a cruise night for warmer weather. “We want to implement a Cars and Coffee event as well,” Owens said. “Any time we do something like that, we try to turn it into a donation drive for the women’s shelter.”

As the store expanded, Owens faced difficulties when it came to adjusting to an increased number of employees. In the old store, he said, his office was behind the front counter. “Somehow, I could listen to everything that was being said, and I was like a mom who could hear what was going on with the kids. I felt like I had that control. Now, not all of my employees are at the store. They’re outside.”

When the shop attracted a negative review, Owens refocused on taking care of the shop’s reputation. “That’s been a challenge.” He takes time to respond to these reviews, adding, “It’s hard to know what to say.”

In the future, the focus is simply to continue to grow the 12-volt category. “We want to be seen as experts,” Owens said. “I want to make sure we’re always learning.”