Flaherty's Flooring America: Best Practices

By Jessica Chevalier

In this competitive post-recession market, it often takes some creative thinking for a retailer to set themselves apart from the pack. Though standard advertising is an important part of every dealer’s marketing program, it often takes more than just advertising to win the loyal customers. Flaherty’s Flooring America, based in the Houston, Texas area, spends a hefty portion of its advertising capital on two unique strategies as a means of building goodwill with potential and existing customers. 

Many public school programs have suffered cuts, or indeed been chopped, in the fallout of the country’s economic downturn. In Flaherty’s district, elementary field trips were eliminated due to budget cuts. That problem may not seem to be within the jurisdiction of a flooring retailer, but Patrick Flaherty, founder and owner of Flaherty’s Flooring America, saw a way to both help local kids and get his name into the hands—literally—of some of his target customers: moms. 

Four years ago, Flaherty’s began sponsoring a museum day for the third graders of six local elementary schools. Each February, Flaherty’s buses around 600 kids to the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences, pays for a day’s admission for each, and provides them with a Flaherty’s t-shirt to wear for the event, color-coded by school to help keep the kids organized. The endeavor costs Flaherty’s $10,000, but the positive association that it establishes in the community is worth the expenditure. What’s more, the t-shirt acts as an enduring reminder of Flaherty’s generosity for years, and siblings, to come. Says Flaherty, “We get some business out of it, but that’s not why we do it.” 

While that may be true, there is really no better way to establish a good impression with mothers than by positively impacting their kids. That’s why local businesses paint their ads on the walls of little league fields and offer free kid’s meals on Sundays. Flaherty’s is simply doing it better, reinforcing their brand with every load of laundry.

But Flaherty hasn’t forgotten the old saying about a bird in hand. He knows that keeping an existing customer happy is, perhaps, even more valuable than getting his name out to new ones, and so to each customer who spends over $1,000, Flaherty sends a special thank-you, a large can of cookies. He doesn’t send the cookies immediately after the sale. Instead, he waits until two or three weeks after the flooring has been installed and the account settled. He waits until the customer is thinking that the transaction between themselves and the business is over, then he hits them with this token of gratitude. Oftentimes, customers are so pleased with the gift that they call their Flaherty’s salesperson to thank them. The cookies arrive with an enclosed survey card, and a whopping 90% of these surveys are returned. 

As with the museum day, this promotion doesn’t come cheap. Last year, Flaherty’s spent over $30,000 on cookies, but it fully supports his goal of putting the customer first and wowing them with service. “The customer is our number one priority, before the ownership, the employees, the installers. Our number one goal is to please the customer. It’s an impossible task, but it has to be our goal.”

THE ROOTS OF FLAHERTY’S
“In the ’80s when the oil business went to heck, there weren’t many jobs in Houston, so I went out and bought a portable cleaning machine and started cleaning carpet,” says Flaherty. Over the course of the next decade, Flaherty built his cleaning business into a success venture with multiple trucks running simultaneously. However, he says, “I got tired of people stealing from me and dealing with a business that was 100% service.” 

Around that time, as a result of his interactions with flooring retailers in the area, he noticed an opportunity for a flooring retail store in northwest Houston, and in 1992 he opened Carpet Masters of Texas, a 2,500 square foot showroom that offered carpet, hardwood, ceramic tile and vinyl. 

His early marketing targeted the clients that he had established in his cleaning business. “It was an easy transition,” he says. He continued operating one cleaning truck for about ten years, and then got out of the cleaning business entirely. 

Today, Flaherty’s has two stores. The main location in Cypress, Texas is about a mile from the original Carpet Masters’ location. The freestanding building has a 12,000 square foot showroom that serves an upscale clientele. The Woodlands store, a 45-minute drive away, caters to an even higher end clientele with brands like Fabrica and Masland. The Woodlands store is located in an area of substantial growth. Currently, Exxon Mobil is building a new facility in the area that will create 14,000 jobs, most of which will be white collar. In addition, the area is home to many wealthy expatriate Mexicans, who have fled Mexico due to the country’s high level of violence. 

Both Flaherty’s stores carry hardwood, carpet, laminate and ceramic tile. As is expected in Texas, hardwood and hardwood-look products account for over half of Flaherty’s sales. Flaherty’s warehouse is located between the two retail stores. 

TARGETING TODAY’S CONSUMER
When it comes to traditional advertising, Flaherty expresses a frustration that many of today’s retailers feel. “This is a tough conversation,” he says. “If I knew what advertising worked, I’d put 100% of my money there, but it’s a shot in the dark. We try to track customers to find out how they heard about us. Many say drive-by or referral. At the end of the day, we’re happy if the door is swinging.” 

The cost of television advertising in a market as large as Houston is prohibitive, so Flaherty quit using that medium several years ago. However, he pays a radio broadcaster, well known local conservative Michael Berry, to read ads for him during his radio show. Berry has what Flaherty describes as a cult following, and Flaherty is hoping to capitalize on some of that loyalty. In addition, Flaherty’s buys banner ads online and participates in pay-per-click advertising. “I’m 51. I hate that stuff, but as a business owner, I have to embrace it,” he says.

Part of Flaherty’s frustration with advertising stems from his frustration with today’s consumer, which he believes is fundamentally changed, for the worst, post-recession. “To get business is almost like doing four rounds with Mike Tyson. The customers today are tough. They expect everything for free. When other retailers are willing to work for nothing, it brings the credibility of the flooring commodity down. You don’t have to work for free.” 

Like other retailers, Flaherty is also rethinking his marketing strategy to better reach the new generation of consumers: millennials. “They are getting married and starting to have kids. They have their fingertips on their phones, and we have to be in front of them,” Flaherty says. “We get some second-generation work, which helps, because we provided flooring for their parents, but to get the first-time millennial customer is a challenge.” 

Social media plays an important role in reaching millennials. Flaherty’s participates in Facebook, Twitter, Pintererst, Houzz and Yelp. To populate these sites, Flaherty’s uses social media content provided by Flooring America, and he employs a marketing agency to tweak this content to better reach the local customer. 

In addition, Flaherty has turned to his kids for advice in reaching the millennial consumer. His son, Patrick Flaherty, Jr., recently graduated from college and decided to enter the family business. Part of his role is staying on top of this challenge. “What works today, won’t tomorrow,” says Flaherty of reaching millennials. 

The strongest online tool for Flaherty’s has been, without question, Angie’s List. “We get quite a few solid, tangible leads from Angie’s List. It’s a really good site for a company like us that puts so much emphasis on customer service to build a good A+ status. Those people [users of Angie’s List] are loyal, but you have to keep your nose clean.” Social media allows customers to, in essence, air a business’ dirty laundry in public, so retailers have to be extra careful in handling problems, disputes and unhappy clients—even if the problem doesn’t rest with the retailer. 

Flaherty offers advice on dealing with these online challenges, “You don’t comment on negative reviews. A customer can blast you, and there is nothing you can do about it. You’re almost held hostage by today’s consumer. You can’t defend yourself.” However, he points out that even challenges can prove useful if they are handled correctly, “It’s not all bad if everyone online isn’t singing your praises. Today’s customers aren’t naive. They’re skeptical if all you have is praise. It’s good to have reviews that say, ‘We had a problem; they corrected it; and we’re happy.’”

Related Topics:The Dixie Group, Masland Carpets & Rugs