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Scott Bonvissuto is the founder and CEO of Console Vault, a company that specializes in providing high-quality, secure storage solutions for vehicles. With over 20 years of experience in the industry, he has learned some valuable lessons on how to run a successful business.
Scott started Console Vault in response to a rash of smash-and-grab vehicle thefts. Bonvissuto wanted to help create peace of mind and a solution for people to feel confident about leaving their personal items in their cars.
Pay attention to your customers
Console Vault started off as a garage operation with one product offering for the Hummer H2.. While he knew that this was the right good move to make, he also knew that without customers, the business wouldn’t grow. “Console Vault only started to grow once we became more customer-focused in our decision-making around product offerings and pricing,” Scott says. “Exceptional customer service is a key component of building a successful business.”
After listening to their customers’ needs, Scott and his team implemented several tools to improve their customers’ experience with Console Vault. These included a lifetime warranty on their product, free shipping in the contiguous US, and an exceptional customer service team. They also made sure their products were easy and quick to install and documented requests from customers to expand their product line to additional vehicles.
“From this, we noticed a significant increase not just in sales, but overall customer satisfaction,” Scott recounts. “Our customers were asking for these products and services and we complied. It wasn’t a difficult decision to make.”
As Scott tells us, owning a successful business isn’t about the product — it’s about the customer. “Once every entrepreneur understands that, their business will soar,” he adds.
Pay attention to your people
Without the right people, a business cannot effectively serve its customers. This is why Scott has established an open-door policy at Console Vault. He believes in encouraging communication between departments and executive management, which helps all the teams perform optimally, maintain high morale, and address any individual issues or challenges that employees may encounter, both professionally and personally.
Scott attributes his company’s success to the people that work at Console Vault. “Without everyone at Console Vault, we wouldn’t have the success that we’ve had since 2002.”
Pay attention to your numbers
Developing key performance indicators (KPIs) for your particular business can help you make real-time decisions about your business processes and resource allocation to maximize customer service and profitability. Historically speaking, businesses would focus solely on profit and loss reports, but this metric is too vague to judge the performance of an entire business and doesn’t take into consideration the nuances of all the company’s departments.
For example, it’s important to develop KPIs for the marketing department, customer service, sales, and others. Having each department create clear KPIs will provide the company with a holistic view of performance and the diverse departments in the organization. “Establishing KPIs for each department helps gain insight into how each team is contributing to the overall business objectives,” Scott says.
As the saying goes, “hindsight is 20/20” and Scott says he feels lucky at Console Vault “to have the loyal customers and steadfast employees that we do.” All in all, it’s not about one’s product or reason for starting a business, it’s about the customers, so remember to pay attention and think about who you’re serving.
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Photo provided by the author.