A jovial atmosphere was found throughout the 2024 Karmak Conference & Expo last week in St. Louis.
With more than 500 attendees on hand, including over 350 customer representatives nearly four dozen vendor partners, this year’s event was an exciting mix of high-level speakers, essential product training, networking opportunities and familial fellowship.
For the company’s executive team, it was also an affirmation.
It’s been a period of challenges, of facing adversity head on, and carefully assembling a business plan, leadership team and workforce of more than 260 employee owners capable of providing the best technology solution available in the marketplace.
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In chatting with Trucks, Parts, Service last Wednesday, Karmak President and CEO Jim Allen and other members of the company’s leadership team believe that while Karmak’s journey toward unparalleled customer excellence remains ongoing, its relationships with customers and vendor partners have never been stronger.
This week’s event might have been billed as a user conference, but to Allen, it felt like so much more.
“I commented on stage [Tuesday], it has really felt like a family reunion,” he says. “It’s been pretty awesome. Everyone is excited to be here and talking about the product and what we’re doing together.”
Karmak President and CEO Jim Allen speaks during the company's 2024 Conference & Expo last week in St. Louis.Karmak
And Karmak has done a lot to revolutionize its operation in recent years.
Allen says Karmak has always listened to customers and expanded its software from their input, but the company has never been as attentive or nimbly able to act on its learnings as it is today.
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Internal buy-in has a lot to do with that. In restructuring its leadership team and becoming an ESOP, Allen says Karmak removed any barriers limiting the company’s ability to execute on its customer-centric strategy. Today Karmak’s workforce is an experienced, diverse talent pool working as a single unit. All resources are allocated toward creating the best possible experience for customers, Allen says, because it is through customer success that Karmak truly succeeds.
“I think our mentality has changed,” adds John Cowan, vice president of Business Solutions. “We want to be a successful company and drive revenue, of course, but we know to drive revenue we have to help our customers drive revenue. We win when they win. We are very invested in their success because that’s going to be our success.”
Expectedly, many of the company’s biggest recent initiatives have been focused on customer outreach. Allen mentions reinvigorated advisory panels and customer polling to help determine where to prioritize development resources as two newer initiatives paying big dividends, as well as improved cooperation with OEMs to develop and deploy technologies designated as essential for future dealer business success.
And that’s just been the start. All customer-facing employees also are spending more time than ever simply talking with customers about their businesses and their lives. Allen says the greater relationships Karmak can build with its customers, the more honest they will be about their needs and the more trust they will have in Karmak’s ability to support them.
“When you have a good friend who has a problem with the thing that you’re selling them, that’s a different kind of intimate discussion,” Allen says. “The personal relationships that we have [with customers], they far surpass a business relationship in so many cases. They are really like family.”
Vice President of Operations Kim Stoops agrees, noting the familial vibe Allen mentioned during the conference wasn’t just an observation.
Stoops says seven Karmak users volunteered to lead sessions during the conference and share their expertise with the software with industry colleagues. Another, Mike Sorensen of Coast Counties Truck & Equipment Co. (above), provided the keynote address at Wednesday’s opening general session.
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Stoops says it’s been like that all year. Customers are not just using Karmak’s Fusion business system, they are stepping out in the industry and vouching for it and supporting it.
“Whenever customers are willing to put their face out there associated with the conference, that’s pretty significant validation,” she says.
Experiencing his first user conference this month after joining Karmak this summer, CFO Chad Stoerp says the mood around the event has been outstanding. He can’t imagine how it was ever any other way.
“The [customers] I’ve met have really loved the camaraderie and the partnership with Karmak,” he says. “They each keep saying. ‘Karmak is listening.’ When there is an issue, they don’t feel like we’re dodging it. They say we are there with them and want to figure it out.”
Allen believes that mentality is why Karmak’s retention rate exceeds 99%, despite a no contract customer policy.
“One of the things I’m most proud about for Karmak is integrity first,” he says. “People want to do business with people they like. You hear that. But people also want to do business with people they trust. And you can’t get that back, if you lose it. And I think we have that trust now.”
