Published February 2003

Investment in people
pays off for Tiz’s

Snohomish County Business Journal/ KIMBERLY HILDEN “Our customers can buy a door anywhere, but they choose to buy it from us,” said Greg Tisdel (right), president of Tiz’s Door Sales of Everett. He and Sales and Marketing Manager George Lindgren (left) attribute that loyalty to the company’s customer-service efforts.

By Kimberly Hilden
SCBJ Assistant Editor

Taking care of people has been a trademark of Tiz’s Door Sales Inc. since 1966.

That’s when Don “Tiz” Tisdel started the company using $1,500 and space in his garage, said Greg Tisdel, who began working with his father while still a boy and saw firsthand how customers’ needs were placed above the bottom line.

“It was kind of the Nordstrom approach,” he said, referring to that company’s storied dedication to customer service. “Dad copied it and didn’t even know it.”

As president of the Everett-based company that manufactures pre-hung doors, millwork, stair systems and door hardware, Greg Tisdel continues to run Tiz’s with a strong customer-service approach.

For example, while the economy was cooking during the late ’90s into 2000, Tiz’s took the opportunity to invest in its customers instead of focusing on quick, easy sales by starting an “Extraordinary Customer Service” plan.

The initiative called for staff members to ask customers, including residential, remodeling and commercial contractors, about their wants and needs — and what the company could do to better meet them.

Customers responded, saying they wanted shorter lead times, faster delivery of miscellaneous orders, faster response from the sales department on bid pricing and order status, and a quick resolution to any problems that arose in the sales process, Tisdel said.

Tiz’s responded, cutting lead times for full-house packages, delivering miscellaneous orders the same or next day and processing back orders immediately as materials come into the plant. The company also established a 24-hour rule whereby customers contacting the company receive a response within one business day.

“We used the good economy to focus on the customer and find out what we needed to do to keep their business,” said George Lindgren, Tiz’s sales and marketing manager. “We might have sacrificed some quick profits, but the long-term investment in their needs is really paying off now in tougher economic times.”

As proof, Tiz’s finished 2002 with profits up 3 percent over 2001. That may not seem like much, Tisdel said, but when the next closest competitor is down by 10 percent, and some in the industry are down by as much as 30 percent, that 3 percent is a definite advantage.

The company also increased its staff by 20 percent last year, and now employs 54 people in the company’s manufacturing and sales facility in Everett as well as sales offices and warehouses in Orting, Silverdale, Oak Harbor and Wenatchee.

Just as the “Tiz way” of doing business has led to customer satisfaction and increased sales, putting people first has led to greater employee morale, said Lindgren, who has been with the company since 1989.

When company officials decided to revamp Tiz’s manufacturing processes for greater efficiency last year, they went straight to the employees on the front line, from those working on the shop floor and production to those in sales, for input.

“By doing that, you’re empowering employees,” Lindgren said. “Now everyone has a vested interest in the company’s success. It goes a long way toward creating the product — if you’re happy going to work, you’re going to do a much better job.”

With Tiz’s more efficient production line and sales showing early promise in January, Lindgren said he expects a double-digit increase in profit and gross sales in 2003.

But not at the expense of customers, Tisdel is quick to add.

“Our number-one goal is to continue taking care of and satisfying customers’ needs. If we have to take away from the double-digit (profit) to do it, we’ll do that,” he said.

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