We are pleased to be featured in this month’s issue of The Wholesaler by PHCPPros! Learn how Corken Steel Products takes customer service and experience to the next level.
The Answer Is Yes. Now What is the Question?
HVAC distributor Corken Steel Products takes customer service and experience to the next level.
March 1, 2022 Ruth Mitchell
In 1955, four brothers and a buddy set out on their own and formed a wholesale distribution company focused on metal roofing and building products. They built the business with a simple mission: to provide customers with better service than they would find anywhere, any time.
What those five men found along the journey was a winning strategy, coupled with the roll-up-your-sleeves service style set the company apart — and fueled expansion. Guided growth led the company to expand with three divisions: heating and air conditioning, roofing, and sheet metal fabrication. Today, The Corken Steel Products Company, headquartered in Florence, Ky., has 15 locations with 18 branches (including fabrication facilities), covering a 100-mile radius that includes Cincinnati and Dayton in Ohio and Louisville and Lexington in Kentucky.
The firm recently transformed itself with an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), and the 300-plus employee-owners keep the mission at the forefront of all they do. It’s clear their drive is set on customer service; after all, the distributor’s tagline is, “The answer is yes. Now what is the question?”
Customers First
The company’s customers span both the residential and commercial side. For residential, its customers include family-owned heating and air conditioning companies. Territory managers for Corken Steel Products reach out to customers on a regular basis, keeping in contact to maintain the high level of service built into the company culture.
The company’s commercial side is the fastest-growing segment, requiring the creation of a new division — Corken Applied Products, where sales engineers call directly on engineering firms with the goal of getting products specified at the engineering level.
“Once the projects are released for construction, a full inside support team manages the quotation and follow-up on each project,” says Jeff Corken, president of Corken Steel. “Once we have been awarded a job, we assign a dedicated project manager to handle the assignment from start to finish. These types of purchases will typically flow through our mechanical contractor base. The same territory managers who call on our residential accounts are also responsible for maintaining relationships with our mechanical contractors. We make an effort to develop a strong relationship with every mechanical contractor in all our markets.”
Partnerships continue, as the company also serves the multifamily construction market, which requires it to establish and maintain relationships with owners and property management companies.
Continue reading at:
https://www.phcppros.com/articles/15065-the-answer-is-yes-now-what-is-the-question
