Best Practices: Hessler Floor Covering & Wayne Wiles Floor Coverings – Jan 2024
By Jessica Chevalier
Mark Wiles is the owner of two separate flooring brands in southwest Florida: Hessler Floor Covering, started by his maternal grandfather in 1951, and Wayne Wiles Floor Coverings, started by his father in 1985. Mark’s father, Wayne, worked for his father-in-law, Carl, for more than three decades before branching off to start his own enterprise. Mark purchased his father’s business in 2008 and his grandfather’s at the end of 2010. In Naples and Fort Myers, he runs the businesses under separate names within the same towns, capitalizing on the value of each of the long-standing brands.
CUSTOMER SERVICE STRATEGY
“We sell customer service and just happen to do it in the floorcovering industry,” says Mark. Indeed, for Hessler and Wayne Wiles, good service isn’t about grand gestures, but a thoughtful approach to each and every customer interaction and sale.
A human always answer the phone at the showrooms. “We want to talk to our customers and make sure we’ve done a good job,” says Mark.
In addition, for the customer’s convenience, showrooms are open every day of the week. Employees and installers always call before they arrive at a customer’s house. Each job is checked for quality post-installation by a field supervisor. They call each customer the day after an installation is complete to make sure they are happy. “We don’t take the customer for granted,” notes Mark. “We communicate with them, and, if they choose us, we want them to stay excited and tell some people.” When things go wrong-and they will, says Mark-the success is in how a challenge is managed to the customer’s satisfaction.
Mark runs his brands with two shared mission statements: “We will meet the needs and exceed the expectations of our customers” and “There is no job more important than the job we have already done or are working on.” Mark insists that his employees know these statements and operate with them in mind.
Mark determined to keep his two flooring brands separate because of the strength each has in the markets it serves.
In the cities in which both brands have stores, the showrooms are fewer than ten miles apart and target the same mid- to high-end consumer. Both brands are unaffiliated in terms of buying groups, though they are Mohawk ColorCenters, Shaw-aligned dealers and part of the Daltile Statement Dealer Program. They work out of the same warehouses and utilize the same installation teams.
Builder business accounts for 55% of the united operation’s total, with retail accounting for another 30%, and the 15% balance in commercial work.
GENERATIONAL GROWTH
Of his 100 employees, Mark has quite a few who are family: a son, a son-in-law, two brothers, two nephews and a niece. He has high hopes of passing the business along to his son and son-in-law when the times comes and, thereby, adding another ring to the family business tree.
“I’ve figured out that when my son is 50-he’s 23 now-my grandfather’s company will be 100,” says Mark.. “We will continue to keep it running in the family, focusing on our customers and our community.” Both Mark’s son and son-in-law are on the retail front lines at present, waiting on customers and working their way up the hierarchical ladder.
Mark extends the “family approach” to his team, his suppliers, his customers and his installers. “It’s all about relationships around here. I’ve been guilty of making emotional decisions sometimes,” he says with a laugh.
In total, Hessler and Wayne Wiles have 30 RSAs, all of whom are trained as designers. The largest Wayne Wiles location has eight RSAs, and the other locations have six. The brands share six service staff and ten field supervisors. All installers are subcontractors.
Because the unemployment rate in Mark’s area is low, he has had to raise the level of pay considerably since Covid. “We have a fairly rich benefits package,” he says.” Pay 100% of employee healthcare after 90 days and offer a couple weeks of paid vacation annually, as well as five personal days. We provide one or two lunches each month, hold Christmas parties, recognize employee birthdays and try to run the business like a family, as it has always been run. We hope our employees like coming to work. We have nice offices, which matters a lot to younger workers, with drinks and snacks.” Staff members are cross-trained in multiple departments utilizing a shadowing system.
As of late, Mark has worked hard to add younger employees to the team to gain insight on selling to the next generations.
Mark also strives to treat his installers well, some of whom are second-generation installing for Hessler and Wayne Wiles. The company offers installers supplies at cost, pays weekly and offers support if they run up against a challenge. He adds, “They are trained and know our business. I hate to lose anyone that cares.”
In late September 2022, Hurricane Ian clobbered Mark’s Wayne Wiles Fort Myers location. The showroom took on two feet of water, and, as a result, the building, a 25,000-square-foot facility with a 14,000 square foot showroom, had to be gutted. The business lost 100 palettes of flooring product, as well as every display, filing cabinet and piece of furniture.
At the time, the showroom was ten years old. Mark was not intending to remodel the space, but when the opportunity presented itself, he took advantage and brought in the “latest and greatest,” upgrading the lighting, flooring and wall paint, as well.
All told, Mark characterizes the storm as a “double-edged sword,” an event of loss that yielded opportunity.
PRODUCT STORY
Approximately, 50% of product sales for Hessler/Wayne Wiles are ceramics; this includes ceramic for wall tile, as well as backsplashes and pool decking.
LVT and laminate account for an estimated 20%; Mark notes that laminate took some share from LVT in 2023. Carpet and hardwood are both around 15%.
In addition, the company fabricates area rugs from broadloom-often from high-end broadloom such as Fabrica or Karastan. Mark reports that this is a useful service in his markets, where homes are often large, feature hard surface flooring and are in need of a large island of softness.
“There is only so much labor, so I prefer to sell nicer goods,” says Mark. “We do no multifamily work, and we aren’t catering to the first-time homebuyer either. It’s hard to run a business on a race to the bottom. Profit is not a dirty word.”
The Hessler and Wayne Wiles brands utilize a host of different advertising strategies to reach their desired customer. Both brands use TV commercials to reinforce their messaging, which for Hessler is “Family owned and operated since 1951” and for Wayne Wiles is “Service, selection and longevity.” While TV remains an important part of the company’s strategies, it runs fewer TV ads than it did five to ten years ago.
The company is spending more today with Internet strategy and its website. It partners with Broadlume and utilizes social media, as well, which, Mark reports, produces positive results. He notes that the suppliers with which his business has a strong relationship-including Daltile, Mohawk’s Karastan and Shaw-“are generous in helping with advertising.”
Due to southwest Florida’s demographics, Hessler and Wayne Wiles still utilize newspaper advertising and also place ads in local builder and design magazines. They also do a good deal of community support advertising, sponsoring local sports fields and the like.
In addition, three of the five showrooms have large LED signs out front.
As for competition, Mark says that his stores are surrounded. “We have a Floor and Décor on both sides,” he says. “There are a handful of people like us who have been in the business for a long time. If I am going to lose work, I hope it’s to like competitors and not to the Internet or the big boxes or Lumber Liquidators or Floor and Décor.”
Copyright 2024 Floor Focus
Related Topics:The Dixie Group, Mohawk Industries, Shaw Industries Group, Inc., Broadlume, Lumber Liquidators, Coverings, Daltile, Karastan