The drive to constantly improve often leads to growth at Trailer Equipment.
A desire to better serve customers parts and service needs motivated the company to recently build a new headquarters. A similar desire to enhance customer loyalty and reliance on Trailer Equipment’s expertise created (and is now expanding) its mobile service operation.
And this year, as trailer sales industry-wide have scuffled, Vice President Mackenzie Wellman says a hunger to strengthen and deepen relationships with customers to best position the company for the future led it to invest in CRM platform.
By constantly looking to improve, innovate and expand, Wellman says Trailer Equipment stays ahead of the market and in line with its customers. It also has helped the company be named a finalist for the Trailblazer Award, powered by Successful Dealer, for the second consecutive year.
Wellman says Trailer Equipment is grateful for the continued recognition, which she believes validates the investments the company continues to make into its operation and workforce.
“Last year, we had made a lot of progress coming out of the pandemic,” she says. “To be recognized again — I was surprised. I’m very grateful. I think it shows people are noticing what we’re doing and our efforts are making an impression on them.”
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Making an impression on customers is the company’s goal, she adds.
“We have really been investing in our vision — to be our customers’ strategic partner for all their trailer needs.”
Trailer Equipment’s product offering makes that clear. The company now represents four trailer brands after adding XL Specialized this year, as well as Capacity trucks. The company has a large parts warehouse to support its shop and customer needs, two full service shops in Grand Rapids and Detroit, and a leasing business with more than four decades of experience serving the Michigan market.
Additionally, out on the road, Trailer Equipment has 15 mobile service trucks and growing. With AOR across the entire state, Wellman says Trailer Equipment has found mobile service to be a differentiator to serve customers away from its own service bays.
As such, she says Trailer Equipment is investing a lot of time and money to ensure mobile trucks and their technicians are prepared perfectly for the work.
“We have taken people out of our shops to put them into trucks, because it has to be the right person,” she says. “It is like being an independent business owner, representing us. We want to make sure we have the right people.”
A similar focus can be found across Trailer Equipment’s workforce practices. Wellman says every new hire to Trailer Equipment completes a DISC assessment, which enables both the associate and company to better understand their communication preferences.
Corporate management goes through similar leadership assessments, which Wellman says enables managers to understand how their leadership efforts are perceived by their employees. She says in both instances, the goal for Trailer Equipment is to remove barriers to communication and motivation so employees across the company can achieve their full potential.
“We want everyone to understand how they can communicate with each other,” she says.
Processes in the building are improving too.
Beyond the company’s aforementioned investment in a CRM, Trailer Equipment also is working to streamline standard repair times and add VMRS codes to shop documentation to aid customers. Wellman says the company is considering customer surveys as well. Trailer Equipment hasn’t done that before, but Wellman views it as the next step in its customer satisfaction journey.
The company maintains constant contact with customers. Beyond regular sales calls, Trailer Equipment’s leadership team intends to spend the final months of the year traveling to see all of their major customers to thank them for their business and talk about their operations.
For a business always looking to improve, face-to-face chats with customers are invaluable. “If we aren’t out there listening to our customers, we might not catch those notes,” Wellman says.
The conversations also will give Wellman the chance to gift customers with some of the company’s new honey — a fun byproduct of Trailer Equipment’s sustainability efforts at its headquarters (which also include a hiking trail and soon-to-be-installed solar panels).
“We have a forest area on the property and a staff member put bees out there,” she says. “We hope to do our first harvest of honey for customers this fall.”
And even if Trailer Equipment doesn’t add a honey division, Wellman says experience has already been valuable as an employee bonding experience. As has its participation in the Trailblazer program.
“It inspires us to continue down this path and journey we’re on,” she says. “We want to be known as a company committed to our customers.”
The Trailblazer Award was created last year recognize and honor North America’s trailer dealer community for their essential support of the transportation industry. The Trailblazer Award is graciously sponsored by Hendrickson and Procede Software. To learn more about the program, go the award page.
