The name was a coin flip.
Both Keith Decker and his brother-in-law Jerry Thomas had experience as heavy-duty truck technicians, so in 1968 when they decided to start working for themselves, they moved forward as equals. That worked pretty well until they got to the company name.
“They flipped a coin to see who would be first. Jerry won so the company was named Jerry & Keith’s,” says Mark Decker, the second-generation CEO of the Bakersfield, Calif. aftermarket operation.
Now, 47 years removed from that fateful toss, Jerry and Keith have both retired from the business, but Mark Decker says their spirit remains a key fixture of the Jerry & Keith experience today.
When a customer comes to Jerry & Keith’s they are met with honesty, openness, kindness and professionalism, Decker says.
“For us it’s all about the experience and how [customers] are treated,” Decker says. “When customers leave here I want them to want to tell their friends about it.”
Decker says his family’s dedication during the company’s early years influences the way he runs the business today. His father and uncle worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week for years after the company first opened (and his mother Nadine later joined). The trio never turned down customers, picked up the phone any time someone would call, personally delivered parts and completed emergency service work to help get their customers back on the road.
When Decker joined the business as a teenager, he immediately jumped in with the same devotion.
Decades later he says that passion is still there. And while he isn’t delivering parts anymore, Decker says he’s constantly looking for ways to strengthen the business and better serve his customers.
One method he’s keyed in on is transparency. Decker says Jerry & Keith’s has encourages candidness and openness during internal and external discussions. He says his parts department actively updates customers on the state of their orders and his service department is instructed to do the same.
“I want our customers to be very informed about the status of their repair and allow them to make an educated decision on how they spend their money,” he says.
Jerry & Keith’s also has recently implemented company-wide performance metrics to better measure the functionality of the business. Decker says this allows his management team and employees to clearly track what they are doing well, and areas where they need to improve.
Decker says Jerry & Keith’s sparkling appearance is another asset to his operation, and that a clean facility offers customers reassurance that they are doing business with a responsible, reputable operation.
“I think keeping things neat and clean provides a great level of trust [for customers],” Decker says. “It offers a level of professionalism, almost an aura that you know what you’re doing and you take what you do seriously.”
Headquartered in Bakersfield, Calif., more information on Jerry & Keith’s can be found at www.jerryandkeiths.com.
