Customers who walk into Long Island Truck Parts’ facilities don’t leave emptyhanded. In fact, doing so is nearly impossible.
With more than 350,000 SKUs and 375 vendors, Long Island Truck Parts’ commitment to customized service is second to none. And in a market as dense as Long Island, N.Y., it has to be.
“We sell such a vast amount of products that it’s actually mind boggling,” says Bobby Naples, president. “But we do that for our customers. Our inventory is dictated by their needs. We never say no. It doesn’t matter what the request is; we’re going to go above and beyond for our customers.”
That can be found not only in the company’s warehouses, but also in its approach at the counter and in the field.
Naples says ‘customized service’ isn’t just a tagline in the company’s name, it’s also a fundamental building block of the business.
“[Customized service] is part of our culture and it’s something we instill from the top down,” he says. “Everybody here knows that’s what we do, and that’s how we serve our customers.”
The company’s commitment to its customers also can be seen in the strategic positioning of its facilities. With locations in Medford, Riverhead, New Babylon and New Hyde Park (the latter of which opened in 2014), Long Island Truck Parts covers the entirety of Long Island. The New Hyde Park store—located just one mile from the Cross-Island Parkway, one of the most accessible thoroughfares in the area—also has allowed the business entrance into the New York City market, and Naples says his next goal is a fifth store within city limits to give the company coverage of the entire metro area.
“My dad was always ‘location, location, location,’” says Naples, referring to his father Anthony, who founded Long Island Truck Parts in 1972 and led the business until retiring in 2000. “It took us two or three years to find the right spot for that store but we’re really pleased with where we are now.”
He says the facility’s weekend hours have already started turning heads in the area.
“Nobody in that area is open on Saturdays. When we first opened we didn’t really do any business on Saturdays but we stuck with it,” Naples says. “I think a lot of the customers up there were so used to not being able to get parts on Saturdays that once they learned we were open they started coming. A couple weeks ago we had lines out the door most of the day.”
Naples says he loves days like that. And not just because of the obvious business benefits.
“The bottom line is I’m a counter guy when it really comes down to it,” he says. “That’s when I’m in my element. I’m doing other things most of the time but I love to look at the camera and see the store is busy so I can run down there” and assist at the counter.
“Nothing makes me happier than being able to work with the customers and solve their problems.”
