March 13, 2025 • 31 mins
Meet Chris and Cheryl Henningson the owners and founders of Gator Garage a local, family owned garage door company that takes great pride in a job well done. Gator Garage not only specializes in residential garage doors and repairs but also commercial garage door repair and products.
Here's the story of their company, what inspired the company and also how they came up with the name "gator."
Chris also explains his marketing tactics and tells where the company is going in the future.
You will never look at a garage door the same way after listening to the podcast.
Here's the story of their company, what inspired the company and also how they came up with the name "gator."
Chris also explains his marketing tactics and tells where the company is going in the future.
You will never look at a garage door the same way after listening to the podcast.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Bob Picking. Welcome to CEOs that you should Know,
and today we're visiting with Chris and Cheryl Henningson, owner
founder of Gator Garage Doors. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Thank you, Bob, thank you for having us.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Yeah. Now, now when I think of Gator Garage Doors,
I'm thinking of something strong, tough, just like an alligator.
Is that how you got the name?
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Actually, it's interesting that you ask, because that's not really
how we got there.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Well, that's why I'm asking, Telly.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yeah, No, we my wife's family member. We were.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
We were We were just sitting around the house one
day with her brother in law, who is also a
marketing professional, and we're trying to come up with trying
to think of names, and it just rolled off his tongue,
and we liked the literation, the Gator garage. We also
liked the fact that you could say it in just
one word.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
The other idea was that we didn't have very many
competitors that used mascots in their brand and mascot branding
can be very powerful and effective in certain markets, especially
where you don't have very many competitors that also use
mascots in their branding. So sort of a multi pronged approach,
but that's how we came to the name.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
It's very easy to remember, and of course you have
it splashed on the service trucks that you have throughout
the area. I don't know if a lot of people
know this, but you guys are locally based. This isn't
a franchise. This is your company and your base. What
at of Round Rock and Fluggerville area.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Yeah, we have two locations currently, one in Austin just
outside of Center Ranch and then one and the main
facility with the warehouse where all the techs come each
day to restock, is located in right off the thirty
five in Round Run.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
And you guys service the entire Austin area, right, Yeah, we.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Service quite a big When we took on radio, we
knew we were going to have to expand the service areas.
So that's what we've done and we continue to. We
go as far as San Marcos up to Temple, from
Marble Falls over.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
To Taylor, not only residential but commercial as well.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Correct do commercial?
Speaker 3 (02:00):
And where's a big emphasis on commercial in this in
twenty twenty five?
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Why is there so much more of an emphsis on
commercial than residential.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
There's an emphasis on both, but.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
A lot of commercial isn't that different from residential in
the way in the mechanics of the doors and such,
and so we have the talent and we have the equipment,
so why not.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
How big is your workforce right now?
Speaker 3 (02:23):
I think it's twenty three of us. We just hired
three new apprentices and we're looking for more office staff
as we speak.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
So the company is growing.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
How long has the company been in business?
Speaker 2 (02:36):
June will be ten years.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Wow. Well, I congratulations on your upcoming anniversary.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Yeah, well, thank you.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Why would a homeowner choose Gator Garage as opposed to
somebody else?
Speaker 3 (02:47):
I think there's to me, there's lots of reasons, but
at the end of the day, I think it comes
down to the people and being honest. Because we are
somewhat smaller company, I have a say in almost everybody.
My wife and I, Cheryl, have a say in almost
anyone we hire, and we're always looking for I always
(03:09):
I have a saying. I say that you hire for
the person first, and you train them in the ways
you need things done. I can find lots of people
who can install garage door openers and install doors.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
But it's hard.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
You can't really train people to be good humans. So
that's the approach we take.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
That's pretty good philosophy right there. Yeah, how did you
start the company? Why did you decide to go into
garage doors?
Speaker 3 (03:33):
So we actually have an ad out. Our first radio
ad was on this very topic, and what happened was,
over the years, like lots of people do, I've reinvented
myself in a different different situations. So prior to becoming
a garage door company owner, I was in the oil
and gas industry for about five years and we did
(03:55):
a control systems analysis on drill ships. Back in the day,
there was lots of drill ships and built overseas in
different shipyards, and we would go over and we would
watch the software and control systems being implemented and kind
of oversee that process. And then then once the price
of a barrel got below where they wanted it to be,
which is somewhere around the sub forty dollars a barrel mark,
(04:18):
they decided they didn't we weren't needed any longer. So
so then came back home and tried to figure out
what we were going to do next, and we were
no strangers to being self employed because we had owned
autopart stores in the past. So we were driving one day,
just like the ad says, and I don't know why,
but my wife thought about garage doors.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Okay, I'm going to bring you to the microphone right now. Okay, Cheryl, Hi,
Bob Hi. So you had an idea about garage doors?
What inspired you? Just looking dot it? Wait there, Well
everyone's got a garage door, right.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
You know. It's funny because when we were driving, we
were actually in Cedar Park driving because that's where we
lived at the time, and I was just looking around,
remembering somebody I went to.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
High school with that her dad did garage doors. Huh.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
And it's something you don't think about. You just drive by,
you see everybody's garage doors. You never think, oh, yeah,
they need to be fixed. And I was just we
were just driving by and I was like, Chris, what
about garage doors? And he was like, hmm, yeah, that's
a good idea.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
You know, I've heard that radio ed. I never realized
that that was really a true story, that it really happened. Okay,
So with the company's been around for ten years, when
did you come up with the idea for garage doors.
How long did it take you to get serious about it?
Speaker 3 (05:34):
I think the idea literally, I don't think it took
too long from idea to fruition. I think probably less
than probably less than six months. You know, from the
time we started a time that we thought about it
to the time we probably got things started. And we
started like a lot of small businesses do we were
I think at the time when oh no, we were
(05:56):
still in Cedar Park when I started, so literally, I
had a service truck with a wrap and a ladder rack,
and garage door is probably sitting on top of that
ladder rack. I probably upset a few of my closest neighbors.
I'm guessing they probably weren't really happy to see that truck.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
That's why you're out of a neighborhood.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Yes, that's probably why we no longer live there. No,
but but that's how we started. And I ran it
that way for probably three or four years until and
at that point I had probably we had a few employees,
a few extra technicians that had come on board, and
then after probably around the four year mark, we were
finally able to move into our first commercial facility.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
What was the biggest obstacle though, that you had to
overcome to get that growth.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
You know, I would say removing myself from a service vehicle.
It's one of those things when I think I would
I would guess that any home service company owner can
probably pinpoint, if not the day, pretty close to the
day he was actually able to really consider himself one
hundred percent out of a service vehicle. It's not easy
(06:58):
because first of all, that we requires delegation.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Right, you got to trust your employees.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Trusting your employees to be able to do the same
level of work or even close to the same level
of work is it's you and hopefully hopefully care even
just you know, seventy to eighty percent as much as
you do about taking care of that customer.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Yeah, what is your management style when it comes to
your own employees?
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Shoot from the hip, you know, Like it's funny because
home service company is so different on so many levels
compared to running an autoparts store. But at the same time,
I think it just comes down to the way you
treat people, you know, not micromanaging them, but giving them
(07:42):
enough guidance and you know, hopefully at this point, I
mean I've made some mistakes along the way. There wasn't
effective management in the beginning. I can assure you of that.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Well, that's gonna be another question I want to ask you,
So go ahead.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Yeah, yeah, but I've made plenty of plenty of mistakes
along the way, as some probably ex employees have pointed out.
But to be honest with you, it's it's really just
be supportive, but direct, make sure that they have make
sure they have guidelines to follow. And I'm not just
(08:15):
I'm not just verbally asking them to do things that
they know exactly what they're supposed to do day in
and day out, and we just give them the tools
to get it done.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
And I'm not going to ask you about the past mistakes,
but I want to know what is the best advice
that you have gotten? And the other part of the question,
what is the best advice that you can give to
somebody who wants to start their own company and not
start another garage door company, but start their own company,
maybe another service type company.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Boy, you know, there's spent so many lessons learned along
the way.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
If I guess lesson, then do you have a comes
to mind?
Speaker 3 (08:50):
If there's just a single lesson trying to be proactive
and not reactive and so. And also I would say
be patient, be patient with people. I like things done
a certain way. And I am you know that.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Cheryl's grinning right now and shaking her head yes when
you say that.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Yeah, yeah, So I just have I mean, like any
business owner that takes pride in their business, they want
to they want to they want things to be done
a certain way. They want the customer to have a
certain experience when they deal with us. Right, there's and
so if anything, it's it's being patient with people and
understanding that that nobody's going to care about our business
(09:38):
as much as we do.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Right, and the reputation also, anything that you'd like to
add to that, Cheryl, biggest lesson that you've learned, I mean,
you're the one who came up with the idea for
the name and everything.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
One of the one of the lessons I have learned
that an owner of any business needs to take in
is where you have to know when to draw the
line between working and family. Chris works twenty four to
seven and our employees know it. But one of the
(10:12):
other things that we have done with our service company
is we treat our employees like family, where we would
want our bosses to treat us because they're the ones
that do the day to day basis on we run
the business. We're there, we're hands on, we're there all
the time. But we want our employees to know that
(10:35):
we appreciate everything that they do. They come to us
when they have questions, We find them the answers, We
give them the answers. They know what we expect. Because
our customers are very important to us the community. So
in order for us to have a great culture, and
(10:56):
I think one of the reasons we have so many
by star reviews is because we do hire for our family.
If that makes any sense, makes.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
It makes perfect sense because it's a family based business
and you're growing the family and you're growing the business.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Yes, I'll just add one thing real quick, Bob, because
we're you know, as we're discussing these things. One of
uh and this probably stems from Chryl's days of teaching,
but she loves to do crafts. So throughout the year
we'll have games and things like that and they get
(11:35):
quite creative, like the last game we had where they
put something in tissue boxes and wrap them around their
waists and they had to shake whatever it was inside
the tissue boxes out onto the floor, and you know,
it sounds corny and and to get into and to
get grown men to participate in some of these things
is quite funny. But what you find is that those
(11:58):
are the types of things that really help to build
culture and really helped to kind of bring us together,
because at the end of the day, it's a job,
right and it's work, but we try to do with
the help of Cheryl and some of the other typically
female members of the office staff, we tend to try
to make it fun too at the same time, So.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Sounds like a great bonding experience. Yeah, give it all
in the family, Bob.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
It was the Christmas one where you put the tissue
box on and you have to shake it to where
all of the bows come out, and it was hysterical.
Even the guys were into it.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Sounds like that could be a Christmas tradition at my
house too. We're visiting with Chris and Cheryl Henningson, owner
founder of Gator Garage. Gator Garage, which we talked about
the mascot perfect and I'm not sure who designed the
logo for you, but that is excellent art.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Yeah, so funny story. So it took a while, Like
we used a specific company, really well known in the
in the in the branding circles, company called kick Charge
and which is owned by Dan Antonelli. And in the
home service world, he's a big deal. Not the most
(13:13):
inexpensive company out there. But typically when you want a
high level when you have high level expectations, those types
of companies are not typically going to be your cheapest.
And so it took a while to make the decision
to move forward. But when I did, I knew it
was the right decision.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Any other names come to mind before you branded it
with his Gator garage, So think about using your your
own name, for instance.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
And you know it's funny because over the years now
you see that a lot of other home service companies
are popping up and they're using I guess you could
call it kind of like cartoonish characters on a side,
or they'll use like a caricature of themselves on the
side of the vehicle and call it whatever, right, something catchy. Typically,
(14:00):
maybe some companies may want to use what they do,
like plumbing repair or h rac repair in the name
of the company, because that can help with certain certain
areas when it comes to digital marketing, but there wasn't
really too many other options when we kind of when
we when we started thinking about now, I will tell
you it did take a few months of thinking about it,
just because we kind of broached the subject with a
(14:23):
few of our technicians and they thought.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
It was silly and silly and not serious enough for
the kind of company they would want to work for.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
And you know what, at the end of the day,
that's exactly why I moved forward with it, because I
thought about it. I said, I'm not getting any younger.
I'm fifty two, and who doesn't like a smiling alligator
holding a garage door spring in his hand while smiling and.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
You pull up to a group.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
I mean, it's the most fun thing to watch is
one of our vehicles pulling up to like a bus
stop full of kids, and the kids just all point
and laugh and just have a good time.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
And I thought, that's what I want. I want to
have fun.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
You know, at the end of the day, it was
still a lot of work to be done, and yes,
it's a business, but if we can just add a
touch of fun, and to be honest with you, a
lot of the final version of what was produced was
based on Cheryl. I had nothing to do with it
at all.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Zero. Is it back because your educational background being a teacher, Cheryl?
Speaker 4 (15:21):
Maybe probably because I'm yeah, probably because I'm silly and
I'm crafty.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
They wanted to do a yellow a yellow van, and
I was just not going to do a yellow van.
I don't like the color yellow. So I was like, no,
we're going to do these colors, and they came up
with it.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
The yellow stems from the idea of being disruptive, right,
putting a brand out there that's disruptive that other companies
aren't using. And so I got the approach. But I
feel like where we landed was still disruptive, but really
eye catching at the end of the day.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
So you can see it going down the road, which
is important to catch your Sure, it's all about building
the brand. How do you keep the brand alive? Though?
Are you going to expand the brand anymore? Expand beyond
garage doors?
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Actually, yeah, that's so.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Twenty twenty five is going to be the year of
massive growth for AH.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Now We're getting someplace massive growth out.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Yeah, all throughout Texas As a matter of fact, not
just Austin. So we probably at some point you'll see,
I don't know exactly when, but we're going to start
obviously here first with some additional locations, and then we'll
open it up to possibly going into other other cities
(16:39):
as well.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
That's great news. Yeah, that shows the brand is working.
It's paid off for you. Thank goodness. You were driving
down the road and your garage door suddenly came to mind.
He said, Wait a minute, this isn't amazing to me.
It's amazing how these ideas start and how they just
take off. They Germany and just take off and become
Now have you read any business related books that have
(17:02):
inspired you?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Yeah? So funny thing.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
It took me a long time to realize that as
a person, if I wanted to really grow and learn,
I needed to really read a lot more books and
just and just listen to a lot more podcasts. To
be honest with you, so I try to make I
made a point in my life at one point years
ago where I told myself I should get a podcast
(17:28):
or an audiobook loaded up. Anytime I'm going to take
a trip that's more than fifteen or twenty minutes. I
should have an audiobook or a podcast dialed up to
listen to, whether that's driving into work or going over
to going to a customer's house or something like that.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
So some of the books that probably.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Were the most inspirational were things like a book written
by an author called Marcus Sheridan, they called They Ask
You Answer the typical the E Myth. Of course, I
think anybody that owns a business at this point should
probably read the E Myth. And another one that I've
recently been I've read a few of his books is
(18:04):
an author named Chris Voss, and he used to be
an FBI negotiator.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Interesting, what podcast would you recommend to listen to?
Speaker 3 (18:15):
One in this shout out to Brian Burton, but a company.
It's a podcast called wastenow Day. Phenomenal podcast. But there's
been there's been multiple podcasts, there's not just been one.
So I'll flip around between between multiple podcasts. Some of
them are operated by people who own service companies.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Others are.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
That I listened to on a routine basis are owned
by marketing companies. So just just depends on what mood
I'm in that day and where I feel like I
need some additional.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Help, you know, with your success, as anybody ever approached
you and try to buy the company from you.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
Yes, actually, over the last two or three years, there's
been we were pretty much every month I'd get two
or three and it amazes me. I don't know how
the heck they find out who I am and get
my email and sometimes even my phone number. But someone
at the someone at the office is supposed to be
giving somebody something, so but at the very least they
(19:18):
end up getting my email and I usually I'll get
two or three emails from from people from usually private
equity companies that want to want to purchase.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
But that's going to make you feel good because whatever
you're doing is working and they can see the growth
and the potential that you guys have with a company.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Yeah, when when you know, I mean, I know, at
this point, I'm sure a lot of people have realized
that during COVID, you know, that first first few months,
everybody was just sort of paralyzed. But then when people
realized I guess that the we'd continue on, life was
going to continue on, they started investing in their homes,
they had they weren't going to go on vacations and
(19:57):
they were probably put off maybe some some things that
they had put off, like maybe renovating their garage or
maybe what you saw a lot of too is because
I think during that time, people realized that they were
going to be allowed to work from home for the
foreseeable future. So what they started doing is converting their
garages into gyms and.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Or office spaces. So with the with.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
The gym renovations, we would oftentimes take their garage door tracks,
the horizontal tracks and move them as close to the
ceiling as possible so that they could fit their machines
in there and things like that. So during COVID we
grew like crazy.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
See that's what I'm talking about, the different ideas. So
it's just not a standard garage door. Yeah, there's so
much more to the company than that that you put in.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
Yeah, and yeah, I mean, like any kind of renovation,
so many different garage door options. Like a lot of
people tend to kind of compare us to the HVAC
industry in terms of like the way the businesses operated,
and there are certainly some similarities there, but uh, pretty
quickly you realize that that when comparing garage door options
(21:07):
to HVAC options are the AC unit, there's there's that's
when the similar similarity stop. There's probably one hundred thousand
garage door options compared to maybe what when you're if
if you were to buy an HVAC unit or an
AC unit, you might have a handful of options.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
So yeah, well and then how do you then how
do you prepare for the future, what new ideas to
go up to be you know, first in the block
so to speak.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
I don't know, Just look for just just look for trends.
Like in Austin. Austin's always been a very sort of
they in Austin we like our we like for example,
we like our full views are all glass doors or
you know, sort of more modern look with the flush
panel doors, with the with the windows down the side.
(21:51):
Really makes how Really it's interesting because I keep it
seems like every year you see a new stat for
the return on investment when it comes to garage doors,
and it's saying they're now saying it's something like one
hundred and ninety three percent.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Wow is the return on investment?
Speaker 3 (22:05):
All I can say is this, if there isn't much
you can do to a home, especially when the front
of that home a garage door. Typical two car garage
door takes up sixteen feet of that home. There isn't
much you can do for that price point to improve
the curb appeal of a home than replace your garage door.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Is it seasonal though?
Speaker 3 (22:24):
There's some definitely some seasonality to our industry.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
And I'm not just talking about hell season because Hell season.
I'm sure you guys get a lot of calls.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
We do.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Yep, No, we certainly do. You see typical slowdowns during
the holidays. Certainly December into January is a slow time anytime,
you know, you know, back to school tends to slow
down a little bit. Back to school and as the
kids are getting out of school too, because people are
thinking more about taking their first fake family vacations and
(22:53):
such and saving for those things in garage doors are
typically the last thing on their minds.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
So and maybe preparing for.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
The the little ones to be home for the next
two and a half months or whatever that looks like.
So but no, yeah, there's certainly some seasonality to it.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Chris. Also, I mean, I listen, if you like me,
you'll go over to your neighbor's house and you'll get
an idea you'll see the garage. Do you ever get
the phone call saying, Hey, my neighbor's got this certain
type of garage, do you guys carry this or can
you do this for me?
Speaker 2 (23:19):
All the time? All the time.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
In fact, that's why we're making a big push on
we've introduced a a I think we're one of only
only a handful of companies that actually have a maintenance
plan that you can purchase that take to serve your home,
I mean your door and your opener. And then part
of that plan.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Is the ability to gift.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Gift your neighbor or someone you know, a fend or
relative right right, It's part of the.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Home maintenance plan.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
So so yeah, there's some cool things with this new
maintenance plan that we're doing, and referrals are a big
part of it.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
So now that is pretty cool. Yeah, how do you guys?
Go ahead? Cheril.
Speaker 4 (24:01):
So one of the things that were he was just
talking about the gifting is where they have the membership
and they let's say they had their tune up last
year and their garage door is running smoothly, but they
know somebody that they need a little bit of help
with their garage door. What they can do is they
can tune up, or they can give that to a
(24:24):
person they know and we will come to their house
and do a tune up.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Kind of a nice way of saying, my neighbor's waken
me up when he gets at home at night. Was
gaging what you're saying, but it's being phrased in a
nice way. When it comes to social media, what social
media said to you guys on we don't do.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
We do a little bit of social media right now.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
In fact, it's funny, we just produced our first I
would call it really truly professional video here. Uh just
literally before I came in here to record this today,
I got it in our email. So we'll start with
one of those videos and we do an occasional post
on social media. What do we find though, at the
end of the day, is people really resonate with pictures
(25:07):
and like videos and just just that are more about
the company and like more about the employees and the
fun events that we do around the office and things
like that.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
They care a little less about.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Just seeing garage stores posted every day on the site,
you know, I mean, I think you can see a
lot of that anywhere. So we try to make when
we do a post, which is probably maybe once a
month or so. We try to make it fun and engaging,
and we kind of we try to highlight the some
of the employees in the office staff when we do
a post.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
So we do Facebook, Instagram, and we're on LinkedIn, but
we also like to do things with the community that
we're getting more involved in. For example, we did a
Facebook one with one of our favorite restaurants and around
rock that we like to go to lunch and they,
(25:58):
you know, one day it was National Popcorn Day, right,
and so they did a video where my daughter actually
was inside of a blow up gator and they went
to a cinemak and got popcorn and put that on Facebook.
So we're trying to do some fun stuff.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Now that does sound like but do you guys have
a mascot in uniform.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
It's not a mascot, it's just.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
A blow up.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
But that's a start.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
It's a start. We're getting ready to do. We are
in the neck. Before the end of the year, we
will have before the end of the year, we.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Will certainly have a custom designed Gator Gator outfit or
uniform or costume.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
I can't wait to say that. Yeah, let's talk about
your website. Beautifully designed a website, tell us a story,
your mission statement, and again it shows people what they
can get with your company.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
So like again, like a lot of just companies in general,
but especially home service companies. We've been through a myriad
of you know, companies that help us with marketing online.
The latest one, Rival Digital, that helped build our site
to where it's at today, is still currently working on it.
(27:11):
But yeah, I do love I love the current. We
didn't when we rebranded three years ago to Gator. We
didn't write, out of the box, do the new website,
and I sort of regret it, but it worked.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
The current the website.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
We did update it to the new name and so
on and so forth, and we did add a few
of the colors. But this latest version, which was just
done in January or just recently, is really truly mimics
our brand, right, the brand's colors kind of like the
it really I think it really speaks to the customers.
(27:47):
Just clean, clean and easy to navigate, which is you want,
Which is what you want for the person looking to
try to schedule an appointment, we have the customers have
the ability to schedule their own appointments through the website.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
So and again, Chris, what is website where they can
find you?
Speaker 2 (28:01):
So it's it's Gator Garagedoorrepair dot com.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Gator Garage Door Repair dot com. That's it, you know, Chris,
I know that you that you're Austin based and the
name of the company is Gator Garage Doors. But why
didn't you call it maybe something more local like Austin
Garage or round Rock Garage or Fluger Garage. Why did
you choose the name Gator instead of making it local
(28:27):
branded since you're a local company.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
So we changed the Gator Garage Doors because we wanted
to set ourselves apart from all the other garage door
companies because before Gator Garage Doors, we were known as
Austin Garage Door Mechanics. And as you know, when you're
looking on the web and you're doesn't always give you
the full name. And so we would have customers calling
(28:51):
us throughout Austin asking us why we didn't show up
to our appointments and they weren't exactly on our schedule,
and so we kind of felt like we weren't doing
our community justice because we thought we were actually screwing
up so we wanted to change so that way our
(29:11):
customers actually knew who we were, and that when they
were looking for us instead of Austin Garage Door Mechanics,
they would know that Austin Garage Dor Mechanics is actually
Gator Garage Doors, and they knew that we still owned it,
and they knew that our values were still the same,
and that way they could find us a lot easier.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
I agree with it. I think that's great advice to
somebody else if you're starting a company, you want to
brand it was something else instead of calling it Austin something. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
So the other part of that, too is that I
wanted to be recognized by It became apparent that it
would be valuable to be known, to be called like
to people, for people to recognize us by like just
one word in Gaior and so like by putting Gator
at the beginning of the name, when you searched for us,
you knew who we were. In fact, when we walk
(29:59):
into like when we go to pick up garage doors,
on the wraps for the doors, they'll just have the
word Gator.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
That's it, right, It's everywhere.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Now.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
You can't get away from it, no matter how hard
you dry and so the other idea too, though, is
that I always looked, I always knew that I was
going to want to expand outside of the local area.
And through reading lots of books on marketing and branding,
you learn there's certain things to stay away from, like
using your own name and your brand is not necessarily
(30:28):
a good thing. It can work for some, but if
you were to ask a branding expert if they thought
that was a good idea, they would typically steer you
away from that, just like using like one of the
local city names as well, because it kind of makes
it appear that maybe you only service that area, where
in reality you service we service a much larger area.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
And again it flows together perfect Gator Garage Doors. Yeah,
it all comes together.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
That was the idea.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
And Chris one more time, how can people get in
touch with you? Do you have a phone number?
Speaker 3 (31:00):
Yeah, we have a phone number. You can you can
reach us at You can reach us at five one
two three zero nine zero eight nine nine. Oh that's
five one two three zero nine zero eight nine nine.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Gator Garage Doors. I get at CEOs that you should
know and it is Chris and Cheryl hitningson owner, founder
of Gator Garage Doors. Gator Garage Doors, look them up,
call him Gater Garage Doors,
I'm Bob Picking. Welcome to CEOs that you should Know,
and today we're visiting with Chris and Cheryl Henningson, owner
founder of Gator Garage Doors. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Thank you, Bob, thank you for having us.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Yeah. Now, now when I think of Gator Garage Doors,
I'm thinking of something strong, tough, just like an alligator.
Is that how you got the name?
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Actually, it's interesting that you ask, because that's not really
how we got there.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Well, that's why I'm asking, Telly.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yeah, No, we my wife's family member. We were.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
We were We were just sitting around the house one
day with her brother in law, who is also a
marketing professional, and we're trying to come up with trying
to think of names, and it just rolled off his tongue,
and we liked the literation, the Gator garage. We also
liked the fact that you could say it in just
one word.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
The other idea was that we didn't have very many
competitors that used mascots in their brand and mascot branding
can be very powerful and effective in certain markets, especially
where you don't have very many competitors that also use
mascots in their branding. So sort of a multi pronged approach,
but that's how we came to the name.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
It's very easy to remember, and of course you have
it splashed on the service trucks that you have throughout
the area. I don't know if a lot of people
know this, but you guys are locally based. This isn't
a franchise. This is your company and your base. What
at of Round Rock and Fluggerville area.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Yeah, we have two locations currently, one in Austin just
outside of Center Ranch and then one and the main
facility with the warehouse where all the techs come each
day to restock, is located in right off the thirty
five in Round Run.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
And you guys service the entire Austin area, right, Yeah, we.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Service quite a big When we took on radio, we
knew we were going to have to expand the service areas.
So that's what we've done and we continue to. We
go as far as San Marcos up to Temple, from
Marble Falls over.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
To Taylor, not only residential but commercial as well.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Correct do commercial?
Speaker 3 (02:00):
And where's a big emphasis on commercial in this in
twenty twenty five?
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Why is there so much more of an emphsis on
commercial than residential.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
There's an emphasis on both, but.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
A lot of commercial isn't that different from residential in
the way in the mechanics of the doors and such,
and so we have the talent and we have the equipment,
so why not.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
How big is your workforce right now?
Speaker 3 (02:23):
I think it's twenty three of us. We just hired
three new apprentices and we're looking for more office staff
as we speak.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
So the company is growing.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
How long has the company been in business?
Speaker 2 (02:36):
June will be ten years.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Wow. Well, I congratulations on your upcoming anniversary.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Yeah, well, thank you.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Why would a homeowner choose Gator Garage as opposed to
somebody else?
Speaker 3 (02:47):
I think there's to me, there's lots of reasons, but
at the end of the day, I think it comes
down to the people and being honest. Because we are
somewhat smaller company, I have a say in almost everybody.
My wife and I, Cheryl, have a say in almost
anyone we hire, and we're always looking for I always
(03:09):
I have a saying. I say that you hire for
the person first, and you train them in the ways
you need things done. I can find lots of people
who can install garage door openers and install doors.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
But it's hard.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
You can't really train people to be good humans. So
that's the approach we take.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
That's pretty good philosophy right there. Yeah, how did you
start the company? Why did you decide to go into
garage doors?
Speaker 3 (03:33):
So we actually have an ad out. Our first radio
ad was on this very topic, and what happened was,
over the years, like lots of people do, I've reinvented
myself in a different different situations. So prior to becoming
a garage door company owner, I was in the oil
and gas industry for about five years and we did
(03:55):
a control systems analysis on drill ships. Back in the day,
there was lots of drill ships and built overseas in
different shipyards, and we would go over and we would
watch the software and control systems being implemented and kind
of oversee that process. And then then once the price
of a barrel got below where they wanted it to be,
which is somewhere around the sub forty dollars a barrel mark,
(04:18):
they decided they didn't we weren't needed any longer. So
so then came back home and tried to figure out
what we were going to do next, and we were
no strangers to being self employed because we had owned
autopart stores in the past. So we were driving one day,
just like the ad says, and I don't know why,
but my wife thought about garage doors.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Okay, I'm going to bring you to the microphone right now. Okay, Cheryl, Hi,
Bob Hi. So you had an idea about garage doors?
What inspired you? Just looking dot it? Wait there, Well
everyone's got a garage door, right.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
You know. It's funny because when we were driving, we
were actually in Cedar Park driving because that's where we
lived at the time, and I was just looking around,
remembering somebody I went to.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
High school with that her dad did garage doors. Huh.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
And it's something you don't think about. You just drive by,
you see everybody's garage doors. You never think, oh, yeah,
they need to be fixed. And I was just we
were just driving by and I was like, Chris, what
about garage doors? And he was like, hmm, yeah, that's
a good idea.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
You know, I've heard that radio ed. I never realized
that that was really a true story, that it really happened. Okay,
So with the company's been around for ten years, when
did you come up with the idea for garage doors.
How long did it take you to get serious about it?
Speaker 3 (05:34):
I think the idea literally, I don't think it took
too long from idea to fruition. I think probably less
than probably less than six months. You know, from the
time we started a time that we thought about it
to the time we probably got things started. And we
started like a lot of small businesses do we were
I think at the time when oh no, we were
(05:56):
still in Cedar Park when I started, so literally, I
had a service truck with a wrap and a ladder rack,
and garage door is probably sitting on top of that
ladder rack. I probably upset a few of my closest neighbors.
I'm guessing they probably weren't really happy to see that truck.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
That's why you're out of a neighborhood.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Yes, that's probably why we no longer live there. No,
but but that's how we started. And I ran it
that way for probably three or four years until and
at that point I had probably we had a few employees,
a few extra technicians that had come on board, and
then after probably around the four year mark, we were
finally able to move into our first commercial facility.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
What was the biggest obstacle though, that you had to
overcome to get that growth.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
You know, I would say removing myself from a service vehicle.
It's one of those things when I think I would
I would guess that any home service company owner can
probably pinpoint, if not the day, pretty close to the
day he was actually able to really consider himself one
hundred percent out of a service vehicle. It's not easy
(06:58):
because first of all, that we requires delegation.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Right, you got to trust your employees.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Trusting your employees to be able to do the same
level of work or even close to the same level
of work is it's you and hopefully hopefully care even
just you know, seventy to eighty percent as much as
you do about taking care of that customer.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Yeah, what is your management style when it comes to
your own employees?
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Shoot from the hip, you know, Like it's funny because
home service company is so different on so many levels
compared to running an autoparts store. But at the same time,
I think it just comes down to the way you
treat people, you know, not micromanaging them, but giving them
(07:42):
enough guidance and you know, hopefully at this point, I
mean I've made some mistakes along the way. There wasn't
effective management in the beginning. I can assure you of that.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Well, that's gonna be another question I want to ask you,
So go ahead.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Yeah, yeah, but I've made plenty of plenty of mistakes
along the way, as some probably ex employees have pointed out.
But to be honest with you, it's it's really just
be supportive, but direct, make sure that they have make
sure they have guidelines to follow. And I'm not just
(08:15):
I'm not just verbally asking them to do things that
they know exactly what they're supposed to do day in
and day out, and we just give them the tools
to get it done.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
And I'm not going to ask you about the past mistakes,
but I want to know what is the best advice
that you have gotten? And the other part of the question,
what is the best advice that you can give to
somebody who wants to start their own company and not
start another garage door company, but start their own company,
maybe another service type company.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Boy, you know, there's spent so many lessons learned along
the way.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
If I guess lesson, then do you have a comes
to mind?
Speaker 3 (08:50):
If there's just a single lesson trying to be proactive
and not reactive and so. And also I would say
be patient, be patient with people. I like things done
a certain way. And I am you know that.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Cheryl's grinning right now and shaking her head yes when
you say that.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Yeah, yeah, So I just have I mean, like any
business owner that takes pride in their business, they want
to they want to they want things to be done
a certain way. They want the customer to have a
certain experience when they deal with us. Right, there's and
so if anything, it's it's being patient with people and
understanding that that nobody's going to care about our business
(09:38):
as much as we do.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Right, and the reputation also, anything that you'd like to
add to that, Cheryl, biggest lesson that you've learned, I mean,
you're the one who came up with the idea for
the name and everything.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
One of the one of the lessons I have learned
that an owner of any business needs to take in
is where you have to know when to draw the
line between working and family. Chris works twenty four to
seven and our employees know it. But one of the
(10:12):
other things that we have done with our service company
is we treat our employees like family, where we would
want our bosses to treat us because they're the ones
that do the day to day basis on we run
the business. We're there, we're hands on, we're there all
the time. But we want our employees to know that
(10:35):
we appreciate everything that they do. They come to us
when they have questions, We find them the answers, We
give them the answers. They know what we expect. Because
our customers are very important to us the community. So
in order for us to have a great culture, and
(10:56):
I think one of the reasons we have so many
by star reviews is because we do hire for our family.
If that makes any sense, makes.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
It makes perfect sense because it's a family based business
and you're growing the family and you're growing the business.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Yes, I'll just add one thing real quick, Bob, because
we're you know, as we're discussing these things. One of
uh and this probably stems from Chryl's days of teaching,
but she loves to do crafts. So throughout the year
we'll have games and things like that and they get
(11:35):
quite creative, like the last game we had where they
put something in tissue boxes and wrap them around their
waists and they had to shake whatever it was inside
the tissue boxes out onto the floor, and you know,
it sounds corny and and to get into and to
get grown men to participate in some of these things
is quite funny. But what you find is that those
(11:58):
are the types of things that really help to build
culture and really helped to kind of bring us together,
because at the end of the day, it's a job,
right and it's work, but we try to do with
the help of Cheryl and some of the other typically
female members of the office staff, we tend to try
to make it fun too at the same time, So.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Sounds like a great bonding experience. Yeah, give it all
in the family, Bob.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
It was the Christmas one where you put the tissue
box on and you have to shake it to where
all of the bows come out, and it was hysterical.
Even the guys were into it.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Sounds like that could be a Christmas tradition at my
house too. We're visiting with Chris and Cheryl Henningson, owner
founder of Gator Garage. Gator Garage, which we talked about
the mascot perfect and I'm not sure who designed the
logo for you, but that is excellent art.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Yeah, so funny story. So it took a while, Like
we used a specific company, really well known in the
in the in the branding circles, company called kick Charge
and which is owned by Dan Antonelli. And in the
home service world, he's a big deal. Not the most
(13:13):
inexpensive company out there. But typically when you want a
high level when you have high level expectations, those types
of companies are not typically going to be your cheapest.
And so it took a while to make the decision
to move forward. But when I did, I knew it
was the right decision.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Any other names come to mind before you branded it
with his Gator garage, So think about using your your
own name, for instance.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
And you know it's funny because over the years now
you see that a lot of other home service companies
are popping up and they're using I guess you could
call it kind of like cartoonish characters on a side,
or they'll use like a caricature of themselves on the
side of the vehicle and call it whatever, right, something catchy. Typically,
(14:00):
maybe some companies may want to use what they do,
like plumbing repair or h rac repair in the name
of the company, because that can help with certain certain
areas when it comes to digital marketing, but there wasn't
really too many other options when we kind of when
we when we started thinking about now, I will tell
you it did take a few months of thinking about it,
just because we kind of broached the subject with a
(14:23):
few of our technicians and they thought.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
It was silly and silly and not serious enough for
the kind of company they would want to work for.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
And you know what, at the end of the day,
that's exactly why I moved forward with it, because I
thought about it. I said, I'm not getting any younger.
I'm fifty two, and who doesn't like a smiling alligator
holding a garage door spring in his hand while smiling and.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
You pull up to a group.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
I mean, it's the most fun thing to watch is
one of our vehicles pulling up to like a bus
stop full of kids, and the kids just all point
and laugh and just have a good time.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
And I thought, that's what I want. I want to
have fun.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
You know, at the end of the day, it was
still a lot of work to be done, and yes,
it's a business, but if we can just add a
touch of fun, and to be honest with you, a
lot of the final version of what was produced was
based on Cheryl. I had nothing to do with it
at all.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Zero. Is it back because your educational background being a teacher, Cheryl?
Speaker 4 (15:21):
Maybe probably because I'm yeah, probably because I'm silly and
I'm crafty.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
They wanted to do a yellow a yellow van, and
I was just not going to do a yellow van.
I don't like the color yellow. So I was like, no,
we're going to do these colors, and they came up
with it.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
The yellow stems from the idea of being disruptive, right,
putting a brand out there that's disruptive that other companies
aren't using. And so I got the approach. But I
feel like where we landed was still disruptive, but really
eye catching at the end of the day.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
So you can see it going down the road, which
is important to catch your Sure, it's all about building
the brand. How do you keep the brand alive? Though?
Are you going to expand the brand anymore? Expand beyond
garage doors?
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Actually, yeah, that's so.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Twenty twenty five is going to be the year of
massive growth for AH.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Now We're getting someplace massive growth out.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Yeah, all throughout Texas As a matter of fact, not
just Austin. So we probably at some point you'll see,
I don't know exactly when, but we're going to start
obviously here first with some additional locations, and then we'll
open it up to possibly going into other other cities
(16:39):
as well.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
That's great news. Yeah, that shows the brand is working.
It's paid off for you. Thank goodness. You were driving
down the road and your garage door suddenly came to mind.
He said, Wait a minute, this isn't amazing to me.
It's amazing how these ideas start and how they just
take off. They Germany and just take off and become
Now have you read any business related books that have
(17:02):
inspired you?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Yeah? So funny thing.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
It took me a long time to realize that as
a person, if I wanted to really grow and learn,
I needed to really read a lot more books and
just and just listen to a lot more podcasts. To
be honest with you, so I try to make I
made a point in my life at one point years
ago where I told myself I should get a podcast
(17:28):
or an audiobook loaded up. Anytime I'm going to take
a trip that's more than fifteen or twenty minutes. I
should have an audiobook or a podcast dialed up to
listen to, whether that's driving into work or going over
to going to a customer's house or something like that.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
So some of the books that probably.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Were the most inspirational were things like a book written
by an author called Marcus Sheridan, they called They Ask
You Answer the typical the E Myth. Of course, I
think anybody that owns a business at this point should
probably read the E Myth. And another one that I've
recently been I've read a few of his books is
(18:04):
an author named Chris Voss, and he used to be
an FBI negotiator.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Interesting, what podcast would you recommend to listen to?
Speaker 3 (18:15):
One in this shout out to Brian Burton, but a company.
It's a podcast called wastenow Day. Phenomenal podcast. But there's
been there's been multiple podcasts, there's not just been one.
So I'll flip around between between multiple podcasts. Some of
them are operated by people who own service companies.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Others are.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
That I listened to on a routine basis are owned
by marketing companies. So just just depends on what mood
I'm in that day and where I feel like I
need some additional.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Help, you know, with your success, as anybody ever approached
you and try to buy the company from you.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
Yes, actually, over the last two or three years, there's
been we were pretty much every month I'd get two
or three and it amazes me. I don't know how
the heck they find out who I am and get
my email and sometimes even my phone number. But someone
at the someone at the office is supposed to be
giving somebody something, so but at the very least they
(19:18):
end up getting my email and I usually I'll get
two or three emails from from people from usually private
equity companies that want to want to purchase.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
But that's going to make you feel good because whatever
you're doing is working and they can see the growth
and the potential that you guys have with a company.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Yeah, when when you know, I mean, I know, at
this point, I'm sure a lot of people have realized
that during COVID, you know, that first first few months,
everybody was just sort of paralyzed. But then when people
realized I guess that the we'd continue on, life was
going to continue on, they started investing in their homes,
they had they weren't going to go on vacations and
(19:57):
they were probably put off maybe some some things that
they had put off, like maybe renovating their garage or
maybe what you saw a lot of too is because
I think during that time, people realized that they were
going to be allowed to work from home for the
foreseeable future. So what they started doing is converting their
garages into gyms and.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Or office spaces. So with the with.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
The gym renovations, we would oftentimes take their garage door tracks,
the horizontal tracks and move them as close to the
ceiling as possible so that they could fit their machines
in there and things like that. So during COVID we
grew like crazy.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
See that's what I'm talking about, the different ideas. So
it's just not a standard garage door. Yeah, there's so
much more to the company than that that you put in.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
Yeah, and yeah, I mean, like any kind of renovation,
so many different garage door options. Like a lot of
people tend to kind of compare us to the HVAC
industry in terms of like the way the businesses operated,
and there are certainly some similarities there, but uh, pretty
quickly you realize that that when comparing garage door options
(21:07):
to HVAC options are the AC unit, there's there's that's
when the similar similarity stop. There's probably one hundred thousand
garage door options compared to maybe what when you're if
if you were to buy an HVAC unit or an
AC unit, you might have a handful of options.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
So yeah, well and then how do you then how
do you prepare for the future, what new ideas to
go up to be you know, first in the block
so to speak.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
I don't know, Just look for just just look for trends.
Like in Austin. Austin's always been a very sort of
they in Austin we like our we like for example,
we like our full views are all glass doors or
you know, sort of more modern look with the flush
panel doors, with the with the windows down the side.
(21:51):
Really makes how Really it's interesting because I keep it
seems like every year you see a new stat for
the return on investment when it comes to garage doors,
and it's saying they're now saying it's something like one
hundred and ninety three percent.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Wow is the return on investment?
Speaker 3 (22:05):
All I can say is this, if there isn't much
you can do to a home, especially when the front
of that home a garage door. Typical two car garage
door takes up sixteen feet of that home. There isn't
much you can do for that price point to improve
the curb appeal of a home than replace your garage door.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Is it seasonal though?
Speaker 3 (22:24):
There's some definitely some seasonality to our industry.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
And I'm not just talking about hell season because Hell season.
I'm sure you guys get a lot of calls.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
We do.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Yep, No, we certainly do. You see typical slowdowns during
the holidays. Certainly December into January is a slow time anytime,
you know, you know, back to school tends to slow
down a little bit. Back to school and as the
kids are getting out of school too, because people are
thinking more about taking their first fake family vacations and
(22:53):
such and saving for those things in garage doors are
typically the last thing on their minds.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
So and maybe preparing for.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
The the little ones to be home for the next
two and a half months or whatever that looks like.
So but no, yeah, there's certainly some seasonality to it.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Chris. Also, I mean, I listen, if you like me,
you'll go over to your neighbor's house and you'll get
an idea you'll see the garage. Do you ever get
the phone call saying, Hey, my neighbor's got this certain
type of garage, do you guys carry this or can
you do this for me?
Speaker 2 (23:19):
All the time? All the time.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
In fact, that's why we're making a big push on
we've introduced a a I think we're one of only
only a handful of companies that actually have a maintenance
plan that you can purchase that take to serve your home,
I mean your door and your opener. And then part
of that plan.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Is the ability to gift.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Gift your neighbor or someone you know, a fend or
relative right right, It's part of the.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Home maintenance plan.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
So so yeah, there's some cool things with this new
maintenance plan that we're doing, and referrals are a big
part of it.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
So now that is pretty cool. Yeah, how do you guys?
Go ahead? Cheril.
Speaker 4 (24:01):
So one of the things that were he was just
talking about the gifting is where they have the membership
and they let's say they had their tune up last
year and their garage door is running smoothly, but they
know somebody that they need a little bit of help
with their garage door. What they can do is they
can tune up, or they can give that to a
(24:24):
person they know and we will come to their house
and do a tune up.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Kind of a nice way of saying, my neighbor's waken
me up when he gets at home at night. Was
gaging what you're saying, but it's being phrased in a
nice way. When it comes to social media, what social
media said to you guys on we don't do.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
We do a little bit of social media right now.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
In fact, it's funny, we just produced our first I
would call it really truly professional video here. Uh just
literally before I came in here to record this today,
I got it in our email. So we'll start with
one of those videos and we do an occasional post
on social media. What do we find though, at the
end of the day, is people really resonate with pictures
(25:07):
and like videos and just just that are more about
the company and like more about the employees and the
fun events that we do around the office and things
like that.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
They care a little less about.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Just seeing garage stores posted every day on the site,
you know, I mean, I think you can see a
lot of that anywhere. So we try to make when
we do a post, which is probably maybe once a
month or so. We try to make it fun and engaging,
and we kind of we try to highlight the some
of the employees in the office staff when we do
a post.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
So we do Facebook, Instagram, and we're on LinkedIn, but
we also like to do things with the community that
we're getting more involved in. For example, we did a
Facebook one with one of our favorite restaurants and around
rock that we like to go to lunch and they,
(25:58):
you know, one day it was National Popcorn Day, right,
and so they did a video where my daughter actually
was inside of a blow up gator and they went
to a cinemak and got popcorn and put that on Facebook.
So we're trying to do some fun stuff.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Now that does sound like but do you guys have
a mascot in uniform.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
It's not a mascot, it's just.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
A blow up.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
But that's a start.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
It's a start. We're getting ready to do. We are
in the neck. Before the end of the year, we
will have before the end of the year, we.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Will certainly have a custom designed Gator Gator outfit or
uniform or costume.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
I can't wait to say that. Yeah, let's talk about
your website. Beautifully designed a website, tell us a story,
your mission statement, and again it shows people what they
can get with your company.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
So like again, like a lot of just companies in general,
but especially home service companies. We've been through a myriad
of you know, companies that help us with marketing online.
The latest one, Rival Digital, that helped build our site
to where it's at today, is still currently working on it.
(27:11):
But yeah, I do love I love the current. We
didn't when we rebranded three years ago to Gator. We
didn't write, out of the box, do the new website,
and I sort of regret it, but it worked.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
The current the website.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
We did update it to the new name and so
on and so forth, and we did add a few
of the colors. But this latest version, which was just
done in January or just recently, is really truly mimics
our brand, right, the brand's colors kind of like the
it really I think it really speaks to the customers.
(27:47):
Just clean, clean and easy to navigate, which is you want,
Which is what you want for the person looking to
try to schedule an appointment, we have the customers have
the ability to schedule their own appointments through the website.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
So and again, Chris, what is website where they can
find you?
Speaker 2 (28:01):
So it's it's Gator Garagedoorrepair dot com.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Gator Garage Door Repair dot com. That's it, you know, Chris,
I know that you that you're Austin based and the
name of the company is Gator Garage Doors. But why
didn't you call it maybe something more local like Austin
Garage or round Rock Garage or Fluger Garage. Why did
you choose the name Gator instead of making it local
(28:27):
branded since you're a local company.
Speaker 4 (28:30):
So we changed the Gator Garage Doors because we wanted
to set ourselves apart from all the other garage door
companies because before Gator Garage Doors, we were known as
Austin Garage Door Mechanics. And as you know, when you're
looking on the web and you're doesn't always give you
the full name. And so we would have customers calling
(28:51):
us throughout Austin asking us why we didn't show up
to our appointments and they weren't exactly on our schedule,
and so we kind of felt like we weren't doing
our community justice because we thought we were actually screwing
up so we wanted to change so that way our
(29:11):
customers actually knew who we were, and that when they
were looking for us instead of Austin Garage Door Mechanics,
they would know that Austin Garage Dor Mechanics is actually
Gator Garage Doors, and they knew that we still owned it,
and they knew that our values were still the same,
and that way they could find us a lot easier.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
I agree with it. I think that's great advice to
somebody else if you're starting a company, you want to
brand it was something else instead of calling it Austin something. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
So the other part of that, too is that I
wanted to be recognized by It became apparent that it
would be valuable to be known, to be called like
to people, for people to recognize us by like just
one word in Gaior and so like by putting Gator
at the beginning of the name, when you searched for us,
you knew who we were. In fact, when we walk
(29:59):
into like when we go to pick up garage doors,
on the wraps for the doors, they'll just have the
word Gator.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
That's it, right, It's everywhere.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Now.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
You can't get away from it, no matter how hard
you dry and so the other idea too, though, is
that I always looked, I always knew that I was
going to want to expand outside of the local area.
And through reading lots of books on marketing and branding,
you learn there's certain things to stay away from, like
using your own name and your brand is not necessarily
(30:28):
a good thing. It can work for some, but if
you were to ask a branding expert if they thought
that was a good idea, they would typically steer you
away from that, just like using like one of the
local city names as well, because it kind of makes
it appear that maybe you only service that area, where
in reality you service we service a much larger area.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
And again it flows together perfect Gator Garage Doors. Yeah,
it all comes together.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
That was the idea.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
And Chris one more time, how can people get in
touch with you? Do you have a phone number?
Speaker 3 (31:00):
Yeah, we have a phone number. You can you can
reach us at You can reach us at five one
two three zero nine zero eight nine nine. Oh that's
five one two three zero nine zero eight nine nine.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Gator Garage Doors. I get at CEOs that you should
know and it is Chris and Cheryl hitningson owner, founder
of Gator Garage Doors. Gator Garage Doors, look them up,
call him Gater Garage Doors,
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