Industrial Market: A Diverse, Uniform-Friendly Landscape

ACDelco

In todays competitive market, finding a way to distinguish your business from the shop down the street is essential. But getting customers is only half the battle. Making a good first impression is the key to ensuring a return visit thats where the ACDelco uniform program comes in. ACDelco uniforms are an excellent way for Total Service Support (TSS) accounts to convey cleanliness, professionalism, competence and the high quality of their products and services to consumers. First impressions mean everything, says Terry Wisner, ACDelco TSS manager. Our TSS accounts are concerned about their image, and these uniforms are a simple, cost-effective way for them to help define their business and create an image unique for their company.

ACDelco worked with the TSS Advisory Council and Dedicated Distribution Group (DDG) Customer Development Subcommittee to develop a more comfortable branded shirt featuring an improved ACDelco watermark and stronger stitching packaged in the organizations red and blue colors.

A recently introduced leasing option gives the uniform program greater flexibility as well. The uniforms, which include the new shirts as well as gray pants, are available for lease through Cintas Corporation.

A companys brand is one of its greatest assets, says Troy Pfeffer, Cintas national marketing manager. Many shops spend thousands of dollars each year developing new business strategies and implementing programs to enhance their image, yet many forget one of the easiest ways to promote their brand directly, face-to-face with their customers uniforms.

What your employees wear during those important first moments with a customer can form their opinion of the entire experience, Wisner says. Certainly price and quality are driving forces, but it is clear that uniforms can give you the edge in getting and keeping business.

Pitney Bowes

Getting and keeping business was the driving force behind Pitney Bowes recent decision to adopt a quasi-uniform program for its 1,800 service professionals within its Global Mainstream Solutions business. Since last fall, service representatives have been dressed to sell. They began wearing button-down blue shirts emblazoned with the company logo to promote the Pitney Bowes brand, similar to what UPS and FedEx employees have been doing for years. As one of the largest direct service organizations in the country, Pitney Bowes interacts with more than 7,500 customers every day.

There is a tremendous opportunity to grow our business by taking greater advantage of our service employees superior engineering, software and systems integration skills, notes Mark Davis, vice president of customer service.

The new look gives us higher visibility with the customers we touch everyday. It also helps develop the necessary customer dialogue to uncover new opportunities for Pitney Bowes to provide solutions that help customers better manage their mail and documents.

The $4.6 billion company is the worlds leading provider of integrated mail and document management systems, services and solutions. The new look is proving very popular with employees and customers alike, says Alix Rizzolo, vice president, integrated solutions. One district director told me that for his salespeople, the Sea of Blue has turned into a sea of green.

Landscape Services Inc.

Lawn care is an economic force and environmental hero. A newly-released survey conducted by Harris Interactive reports that more than 24.7 million U.S. households spent $28.9 billion on professional landscape, lawn care and tree care services in 2002.

This represents an increase of nearly one million in the number of households using these services and a $3 billion rise in spending over the previous year. Those figures are expected to continue to grow, especially in light of the fact that many Americans are spending more and more time at home and investing in their homes, says Gary Clayton, executive vice president of the Professional Lawn Care Association of America.

That also makes landscaping an excellent market for industrial uniforms. Landscape Services Inc., a regional firm that does design to installation across Alabama , has a loyal residential and commercial base and prides itself on providing professional, high-quality landscaping services to its customers.

We deal with large commercial properties and well-to-do residential clients who can be quite discriminating, notes the companys horticulturist, Dave Bradford. We listen to the customer and design around what the customer wants, not what we think they need.

Landscape Services uniform program is one way the company meets its customers needs. Both proper identification and uniforms are mandated at all commercial properties and are expected from wealthy residential clients. Uniforms denote an image of competence, says Bradford .

The uniform is basic but suitable to the job requirements. Employees are provided with either a 100% cotton polo or pocketed t-shirt with company logo, khaki 65%/35% poly/cotton washable trousers and shorts, and caps in a variety of styles to reflect the tastes of workers. A Tri-Mountain jacket is also issued for those cold, if infrequent, Alabama days.

Most of the time, as you know, the South is notoriously hot, so the customer prefers the use of cotton in as many garments as possible, notes At Work Uniforms Chuck Campbell.

The landscaping industry as a whole offers great growth potential to uniform suppliers. You have a good mixture of customer sizes to work with, from independents with one location to regional firms to national companies, says Campbell . All are trying to project a more professional image with well-fitting, comfortable clothing for their employees, and that means more than just t-shirts these days. Now more than ever, a uniform program is vital to a companys success.