13 minute read
Real World Retail
The New Horizon
After switching its main focus from dealership to retail about two years ago, DES of Wilmington, Inc. continues to expand its service offerings and skillsets to ensure longevity.
WORDS BY ROSA SOPHIA
Altering business strategy and focus sparked fast-paced growth, leading to added team members and a larger building with more space to work.
FAST FACTS
Main Location: Wilmington, North Carolina
Number of Locations: ONE
Square Footage: 6,000
Type: Traditional Retail
Number of Employees: NINE
MAIN FOCUS
60% Car Audio 30% UPHOLSTERY 10% ACCESSORIES KEY STAFF
Owner: BRANDEN SHULER
STORE MANAGER: Justice McFall
ADMINISTRATIVE: Christine Shuler and Kristin Bouldin
LEAD TECHNICIAN: Joshua Thaxton
TECHNICIANS: Jose Resendiz, Marcus Darden, Kevin Moffitt, Dave Agatone
Altering business strategy and focus sparked fast-paced growth, leading to added team members and a larger building with more space to work.
When Branden Shuler first entered the industry, much of his focus was on dealership work. Shuler partnered with DES of Wilmington, Inc.—then Dealer Electronic Services—in Wilmington, NC in 2004, primarily serving local dealerships. In 2012, he bought the company, and in 2018 rebranded it as Driving Enhanced Solutions to focus on the retail market.
Attending classes at KnowledgeFest opened his mind to retail possibilities, and Shuler credits much of his progress to learning from industry leaders. After he met the former owner of Certified Autosound, Chris Cope, at KnowledgeFest, Shuler hired Cope as a consultant. Ever since implementing his recommendations, Shuler said DES has changed drastically.
Together, they took a closer look at every aspect of the business, resulting in changes in billing management, invoicing, receiving, the install bay and more.
“Ever since then, profit margins have been higher. We’ve generated a lot more business from social media. The past two years, we’ve been firm on retail. We still do some dealership work,” Shuler said, adding that about 30 percent of the business’s revenue comes from dealerships, while about 70 percent is retail. The switch in focus has led to fast growth. While most of the shop’s projects involve car audio, upholstery is also one of its specialties. Shuler said the team even reupholstered two private planes for a client.
A lot of recent business has been centered around head units, speakers and amps, focused more on the car rather than the marine sector. Eventually, DES hopes to expand into a second location. The business currently has seven installation bays and an in-progress woodshop, as well as a bay for boats and larger vehicles.
“We’ve gone from two employees in a 500-square-foot building to nine employees—and multiple drivers—in a 6,000-square-foot building,” he said. “Our sales have continued to increase year over year.”
Building Trust Through Education
Focusing on retail led to expanding to carry multiple brands, and now DES is pursuing MESA membership, according to Shuler. The showroom currently offers a display with numerous radios, speakers and amplifiers.
When it came to taking on more retail,
When the business chose to focus on retail, the biggest adjustment involved understanding that customers wanted a variety of productchoices. DES conducted market research and talked with potential clientsto learn more, so they could provide the best possible experience.
When the business chose to focus on retail, the biggest adjustment involved understanding that customers wanted a variety of productchoices. DES conducted market research and talked with potential clientsto learn more, so they could provide the best possible experience.
When the business chose to focus on retail, the biggest adjustment involved understanding that customers wanted a variety of productchoices. DES conducted market research and talked with potential clientsto learn more, so they could provide the best possible experience.
When the business chose to focus on retail, the biggest adjustment involved understanding that customers wanted a variety of productchoices. DES conducted market research and talked with potential clientsto learn more, so they could provide the best possible experience.
DES of Wilmington Goes the Distance
To help raise brand awareness, and to retrieve cars, DES has five vehicles. Shuler said the drivers are typically retirees who are sub-contracted.
The drivers come in, pick up a vehicle and an invoice with a pickup location, and they go out, get the vehicle and return with it. They continuously shuffle vehicles back and forth, he added.
“About 15 to 20 percent of our business comes from out of town. We have three main drivers who work almost full-time for us,” Shuler said, noting that some vehicles have come from as far as four or five hours away.
Generally, jobs from out of town come from dealerships. Sometimes a manager who has relocated to another area will continue trying to use DES.
DES will also pick up vehicles for clients who are getting larger custom systems, he said, adding, “We have a family who regularly has vehicles done through us—big Focal systems—and we will pick up their vehicles almost every time from an hour and a half away.”
Shuler said the biggest adjustment involved getting accustomed to the kinds of products customers wanted. Dealerships, he explained, were looking for the most affordable products so they could meet client demands quickly and easily. Because DES never dealt with the end-user, refocusing on retail meant doing market research and finding out what the shop’s core demographic wanted.
“Dealerships usually wanted a Pioneer CD player, one double-DIN unit and cheap speakers,” Shuler said.
DES began by asking current customers about preferences, conducting research and attending KnowledgeFest to learn more. Shuler said he has learned a lot in the past two years. “We’re becoming well-known in town as the place to go, even within a couple of hours’ distance, so we’ve had a lot to learn,” he explained, adding, “We even dove into the Sprinter van category, catering to people who are trying to live off-grid.”
The team is “extremely thorough” on every sale. “We start from the top,” he said. “Most customers always want the best, so we begin there and adjust the quote depending on individual requests.”
When integration with a factory radio is required, this is explained to the customer prior to installation. If the build is more in-depth—such as a custom system, leather interior or Sprinter build—Shuler said a team member will go over the vehicle with the client and explain where each piece will be installed.
“If there are specific placement details regarding what the customer wants, we can note that for the installer. We try to be as specific as possible to avoid any issues that might occur” so the customer receives exactly what they are looking for, he added.
Although the business did have a demo vehicle, Shuler said he sold it and that it was almost never utilized. DES clients usually go with whatever he or the store manager, Justice McFall, recommend. “They trust us,” he said. “We also have really nice displays and a cool demo board. Some people want a demonstration, which is always fun. But for the most part, people just trust us and give us a deposit.”
After any install, Shuler said a team member will go over everything with the client to ensure they understand how to use the product. “We will set up Bluetooth, help them program stations, go over how the unit works, and if it’s a full system, we let them crank it up and make sure they like how it’s tuned. If they want an adjustment, we will do that,” he explained. “If we’ve installed seat heaters, or anything else like that, we will go over how things function and where the switches are located so we know they are comfortable with everything before they leave.”
To increase productivity and efficiency, DES created project bundles in QuickBooks. If a client wants blind spot sensors installed, for example,the salesperson can offer the full cost at the click of a button.Visual aids and clear explanations are also included in emailed quotes.
To increase productivity and efficiency, DES created project bundles in QuickBooks. If a client wants blind spot sensors installed, for example,the salesperson can offer the full cost at the click of a button.Visual aids and clear explanations are also included in emailed quotes.
Audiovox Simplifies Product Returns
DES has been selling Audiovox products for over twenty years. Most recently, Smart TV entertainment systems have been popular with parents who want to stream Netflix and Disney+ in their vehicles for their children, while maintaining smartphone control through VOXX Link. Shuler said the most positive aspect of working with Audiovox is that the company makes returns very easy.
“Audiovox is the only brand we deal with in 12-volt that doesn’t question us on any return at all,” he explained. “We typically have what we’re installing on our shelves. We’ll install one that doesn’t work, and we’ll send it back and get a credit. Some vendors want pictures, examples, and they want to talk to the tech. This adds time to the return.”
On the other hand, he said, Audiovox makes it simple. “We had an issue recently with the seat-back system where the paint was chipping. They could have said no to the return, but they still took it back and replaced it.”
To increase productivity and efficiency, DES created project bundles in QuickBooks. If a client wants blind spot sensors installed, for example,the salesperson can offer the full cost at the click of a button.Visual aids and clear explanations are also included in emailed quotes.
If the project was mainly focused on upholstery, a team member will still go out to the vehicle with them to make sure they’re happy. “We enjoy seeing their reaction,” he said.
Bundling Products in QuickBooks Simplifies Sales Process
Because so many clients come to DES looking for big builds, Shuler responded by creating “bundles” in QuickBooks. He added that the shop is currently seeking a new software to replace QuickBooks, but has yet to find the most ideal program.
“We can click ‘blind spot sensors’ and it will prefill the part numbers, labor hours and everything about the job, so when someone comes in we can click on it and have the price ready for them,” Shuler explained.
Additionally, the business offers quotes over the phone, but endeavors to weed out potential clients who aren’t a good fit. “We get hundreds of calls a day. There’s almost always someone in the showroom waiting to speak with a salesperson, so we try to make the process more efficient. The faster we can offer a quote, the quicker we can move forward.”
Quotes are also emailed to customers, and the team utilizes a place in QuickBooks where photos, visual aids and links can be added. “Whether it’s an accessory or a roof rack, or links to a Kenwood page—whatever the case may be, we include it,” Shuler said, adding, “Sometimes if things seem too expensive, we’ll include a link to another site to show we aren’t pricing too high.”
The business has had to remedy some bad habits, he admitted, such as failing to store customer phone numbers in QuickBooks. “We used to only have paper copies. Well, if you want to do mass emails, you can’t because you have no directory of customers.” Once the team began focusing primarily on retail, he said, “We sat down with someone who explained how important that is, and now we’re building a directory.”
When a customer calls in, the staff member answering the phone finds out what they’re looking for, gets their name, number, email address and vehicle information, and begins the quote. “Either myself or Justice complete it,” Shuler said, adding that he’d like to set up more consistent email follow-ups with previous customers. Right now, the shop is too busy to tackle the task. At the time of this writing, DES was booked out for over a month and working through a stack of 30 in-process quotes.
Thriving by Diversifying Offerings, Learning New Skillsets
The growth of the company trickles down to the employees, according to Shuler, who feels that by expanding into new fields, skills and categories, DES will always be able to ensure positive growth and forward movement.
Soon, lead technician Josh Thaxton will be taking on more of a leadership role in the install bay. “He’ll still be installing, but much of his job will focus on assisting the team and training installers to use proper methods,” Shuler said.
More Strategy Required for Future Car and Boat Shows
In the past, car shows have not been an effective marketing tool for DES, but Shuler admitted it may have been the wrong type of car show. “We did a classic car show, and we don’t really service that demographic,” he explained, adding, “We get almost no calls from most standard marketing campaigns.”
The business had planned to participate in a large boat show this past October, but it was canceled due to COVID19. “If we did a boating exhibit, we would go all-in. Right now, it’s a toss-up between marine brands. But if we went in with Wet Sounds, for example, we would use their displays, have a booth and customize it with swag. We did have all this set up for the boat show,” he said, adding, “We plan on doing it in the future.”
The decision was made because Shuler’s help is often enlisted in the back, but if he’s with a customer, the installer may have to wait about 20 minutes for him.
“Having Josh in place to handle this should speed up productivity,” he added. “That’s our biggest problem right now— trying to make sure everyone is staying productive.”
If there are any issues with staff members, Shuler will meet with them one-on-one, adding that he may consider having more formalized team meetings in the future. “We all communicate. If anyone has an issue, they come to me and I handle it.”
Throughout the day, he said he frequents the install bay to see how things are going. “I used to be an installer, so I will tell one of our technicians to start over if something doesn’t look right. It happens. If there’s a problem, I’ll work with that technician until the problem is gone.”
Dealerships have slowed down in the local area, he said, which he feels is a good indicator of the current status of the economy. To keep DES on track, he’s willing to take on any job and learn how to do it from start to finish. “If an economic decline does happen, we have a lot to target outside of car audio and upholstery.”
Recently, the shop has been installing emergency flashers for the city and state, as well as tracking systems for fleets. “Each van build we do is different, too,” he said, “with hardwood floors and luxury seating. We’re trying to become diverse so we can offer many options to our customers.”
Local police and fire departments often inquire about the business’s services, trying to get them to work on their emergency vehicles, according to Shuler. “There isn’t much money in it, but it’s a good fallback if you’re slow,” he added. “We have connections because of working with utility companies in the city and the state, but right now, we don’t need to rely on it.”
For businesses that are interested in getting involved in this type of work, Shuler recommended first reaching out to utility companies. That’s where DES began in 2008 during the recession. “We got into emergency lighting. The key is finding the right vendor to teach you, which is what we did,” he explained. “Now, we’re doing this with the city, the state and other companies, but I’m not trying to push the envelope. We’re very busy.”
Shuler stressed it’s a fine line: “You don’t want to be too busy. That’s as bad as being not busy enough because you don’t want to over-promise and under-deliver— or else you’ll lose customers.”
Content Marketing Builds Brand Recognition
About 80 percent of the business’s clientele were drawn in due to word-of-mouth. However, within the past year, Shuler said, “We’ve really begun to put the time in with social media, Google and the website. The return has been very rewarding.”
Most recently, a client brought in a Sprinter van for a full remodel in three phases. “The owner saw one of our videos,” he said, adding that the first phase of the build will bring in about $4,000.
To help fine-tune social media strategy, Modern Media Geeks handles the business’s Facebook page. The biggest issue for Shuler, he said, was in relinquishing control because he wanted “a perfect picture, a perfect tagline and perfect hashtags,” adding, “I wanted to be able to like the post myself.”
Shuler maintains the Instagram page on his own and stated that ever since the business started producing videos, they receive a lot of feedback. He also enlisted the help of a videographer. “Our videos are posted on Instagram. We aren’t getting anything from YouTube yet,” he said, noting that he spent $70 to hire someone to create a professional animated logo for the beginning of each video.
Videos generally get hundreds of views, and some have gone viral. “Any time I post on Instagram, I also cross-post it on Facebook,” Shuler said, adding, “I get a lot of feedback from people—texts and phone calls.”
