The Integrator's Voice
Australian firm harnesses power of referrals, repeat business
ELECTRONIC integrators rely not only on new customers to grow their
company, but also repeat and referral business. This applies to all
integrators -- big or small, domestic and international. Chris Mathers
and Associates Pty Ltd., located in Australia, understands the
importance of building brand awareness and a long-term commitment to
excellence. Mathers' finely tuned skills have repeatedly won him new
and existing clients in the duration of this company.
Q. How long have you been in business, and how did you first get started?
A. I have been in the consumer electronics business for 37
years. As a horticultural farmer with two farms, I lost everything
during a massive bushfire in the 60s and was forced to find an
alternative income. I found a job running a menswear store on
Queensland's Gold Coast, Australia. I've always loved music and my dad
had just purchased an open-reel tape recorder, which I fell in love
with. I convinced my roommate who operated a record store to stock
them. I'd go there in the evenings, and I sold my first one on the day
it arrived. As each re-order came in, I immediately sold it. That's how
my career of the last 37 years began.
Q. Did you first start in commercial or residential? Why and how did you expand into the other segment?
A. In the early 90s, I found myself doing both sales and
installation into mostly residential situations. In 1996, I went back
to college to study management for licensed contractors, where I
prepared a thesis based on an imaginary company that specialized in all
forms of custom electronics. I knew it wasn't worth the paper it was
printed on unless I put it into practice, and before I knew it, I had
started this new business.
Although I primarily had an audio background, mostly in the
residential market, my interest expanded into a broader range of
electronics. I reasoned that if I could pull audio cables, I could
easily learn to pull other types of wire. While doing this, I found
that many of my clients were businesspeople, and having satisfied their
residential needs, it was a natural progression to integrate their
businesses, as well.
Q. What are the main services and products your company offers?
A. On the residential side, our services include home
theater, multi-zone A/V, media rooms, security systems, access control,
surveillance, computers, data, telephone, RF networks, satellite
reception, lighting control and home automation. On the commercial
side, we integrate everything from boardrooms to ships.
The products we install include Speakercraft audio systems, Pioneer
plasma and home theater products, Samsung and NEC plasma and LCD
displays, Home Theatre Master remote controls, BTech brackets, Axiom
wall-mount keypads, Dynalite lighting and automation control, Kordz
interconnects and HDMI cables, Ness ELK security panels, Takex sensors
and many more to suit the project requirements.
Q. How do you generate repeat and referral business?
A. Our approach is to be educative, friendly and
professional. We take the time to learn enough about our clients so
that we understand who they are, what they need and what excites them.
Then we give them enough information so that they can make an informed
decision and feel good about it. We usually paint a good, better, best
picture and provide some basic cost guidelines.
By adopting this approach, I have found that my clients will upgrade
themselves through the years as they come back to undertake another
project. The things which were too fancy for them last time around are
on their must-have list for this new project. This is simply because we
take time to educate the client.
The other key to success that we employ is to know and love your
customers. Strangely, I am a firm believer that the customer isn't
always right, but you do have to find the right way of letting them
know that. They'll respect you all the more if you're honest with them
and yourself, and set your work ethics high.
Q. How do you market your company to new prospects?
A. Branding is very important to us. One unique approach I
have always implemented, which I find is not a normal business
practice, is to state my name clearly as Chris Mathers, not just Chris,
and to sign my name legibly as Chris Mathers.
There is another marketing approach that I use, which seems simple
enough, but is very effective. My company business cards uniquely list
the services that we offer on the back side. I hand them out at every
opportunity I can. I never leave home without an ample supply. Whenever
I talk to someone, I always assume the attitude that I'm going to make
a sale.
Q. What support do you get from your suppliers?
A. We love our suppliers and see them as partners. We try to
put ourselves into their shoes. For example, we know how challenging it
can be for them because they must forecast how many units we'll buy in
a specific amount of time. So to be a good partner, we regularly give
them honest feedback -- the good, bad and ugly.
This relationship, in turn, has provided us with the proper support
we need. We can count on them to provide us with up-to-date information
when we need it. We've built one-on-one rapport, so we know that we'll
get a callback right away.
Q. What challenges in your business do you face from competitors, and how to do you position yourself against them?
A. We face a significant number of competitors in specific
areas, but the worst for us is during Christmas, when projects we've
worked at all year are coming to a close. It coincides with holiday
sales by the major retailers, and it has the potential to cause some
grief over pricing of major components.
To counteract this, we remind our customers about the benefits we
offer them, from knowledge to long-term support and reliability. They
won't get this support from a discounter, which they agree.
Q. What in your business stands out from the rest?
A. Our motto is "We bring it all together," and we take pride
in doing that well. Our clients love us because they sense that we are
out to please them in every respect.
Our staff is very special to me, and I take the time to appreciate
their talents. We get along well as a team, usually five or six of us
in all. We share similar thoughts about the value of our clients, our
suppliers, our products and each other.
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Spotlight on: Chris Mathers
Company name: Chris Mathers and Associates Pty Ltd.
Headquarters:
799 Old Cleveland Rd., Carina, Brisbane, Queensland 4152 Australia
Telephone: +(617) 3843-0399
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This article originally appeared in the February 2007 issue of Security Products, in The Integrated Home section, pg. 56.