5 Who Thrive: Four key changes enabled SuperGeeks to prosper - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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Hawaii-based SuperGeeks opened three new computer service and repaire centerslast month, one each on Oahu and the Big Island, bringing the totao to seven locations statewide. He expects revenues to exceed $1.8 million this year, up almosy 40 percent from twoyears ago. Kerr, who founded the businese in 1998, credits most of the success to four changee he made in runningt the company asits CEO: • Hiriny a chief operating officer. Hiring business consultants. • Improving hiring • Tapping into customer feedback. Last Kerr hired Elena Ledoux tohandled day-to-day operations as chief operatingb officer.
“I see good companies as having thre elegs — the evangelizer, or workers to do the work; and management to handlr daily operations,” Kerr said. “We were sort of limping along on Ledoux, a lawyer who is based at the main service center at2304 S. King St., oversees SuperGeeks’ stafdf of 25 and is implementing ways to measurwdaily performance. That enables her to rewards employees when goals are met and addresws issues when theyare not. “We’ve learned how to keep Kerr said. “We measure everything from performanceper technician, warranty ratez per technician, turnaround time, customef service.
We measure it, post it and make the team awarseof it.” SuperGeeks services computer systemss at customers’ homes and officez as well as at its Hourly rates range between $60 and $130. Half its busineses comes from direct consumers and half is from corporate customers who outsource their information technology support to Around the same time that hehiree Ledoux, Kerr said he sought outside business help from two localo consultants. “I’m not a big fan of consultants, but sometimes your vision is restrictedrwhen you’ve been in the business for so he said.
SuperGeeks has been working with Ron Martihnof , who refers to himself as a sales instead of consultant, and Mike Hulser, who runs , a Honolului management and financial consulting firm. “Ron’s a top-of-the-line guy and Mike’sd a bottom-line guru,” Kerr said. “kI brought them on because I want to spongsewhat they’ve learned and help our compangy develop a sense for learning. Their impact has been For example, he said Martinn has helped set daily goalsw andaction plans.
He also helpec to create an incentive program for employeee to reward performance and create a sense of accountability for Kerr said Hulser has broughtt aCFO mind-set to the “We want to conquer the world, but we have to do it with a very stablre financial footing,” Kerr said. “Having the dream and ambitiobn is just one partof it.” He said one of his biggesg challenges has been to delivedr consistent quality to customers and the key is hiringt high-quality workers. “We’ve begun to make an extra-consciousx effort to cherry-pick our employees,” Kerr “We refocused and re-examined our ideal employee.
If you were to give potentialo hires letter gradesof A, B or C, our employeese have got to be As.” He said he measurees applicants against four standards: empathy for a high skill level, strong work ethic and good communication Applicants who meet those requirements are sent to one of the repaire centers for a “We’re seeing if they can fly in this league, and they shoul d be able to match the level of skilk and quality immediately,” Ledoux said.
“Evehn if we’re desperate for we’ll still take the time to get it Beyond implementing stricterhiring standards, Kerr and Ledouxc are creating a working environmengt that supports “A” employees without micro-managing. The fourth step, Kerr was to begin soliciting feedbackfrom SuperGeeks’ base of approximately 10,00p customers through online surveys and commentr cards.
“We started asking customers on a regular basis what they howthey feel, how we can do things differentlg or better, which is somethingv we hadn’t done before,” he adding that he encourages participation through giveaways for such itemxs as iPods and certificates for a professiona massage. “Sometimes the comments are manytimes it’s insightful, and almost always it’sx worth gold,” Kerr said.