Manufacturing
A sunny outlook
How to keep customers happy in times of rapid growth
By Abby Cymerman
Smart Business Columbus | August 2008
Page 1 of 2
Michael Rosati
Founder, president and CEO, Rosati Windows
Michael Rosati knows
windows inside and
out, but he knows his customers even better.
When he founded The
Rosati Window Co. LLC in
2000, he pledged to treat his
customers the way he wants
to be treated.
“You go into an appliance
store, and they jump all over
you,” says the founder, president
and CEO of Rosati Windows,
which posted 2007 revenue of
$18 million. “That’s not what
consumers want to hear today.
They’re intelligent, decision-making adults, and if they
want to buy something, they’re
going to buy it. That’s one of
the main things that I changed
in marketing our business.”
Smart Business spoke
with Rosati about how he
and his 167 employees create
successful customer relationships.
Q. How do you grow a
successful company?
You have to have a firm commitment for customer satisfaction. In most companies, no
matter what they’re selling, the
salesman makes the sale,
takes your money, and you
never see him again.
Three years ago, we started a
quality assurance. After the
windows are installed, we
send a trained professional to
do a walk-through with the
customer and make sure
everything’s the way the customer wants it. If there’s something that’s an issue, we can
usually fix it on the spot.
The quality assurance program has been very successful
for us. It’s another way to tell
our customers that we care about them and that we want
them to be happy.
We couldn’t afford it at first
— it’s an expensive program
— but it was already in my
business plan, and I knew it
was going to happen sooner or
later. The department doesn’t
earn a profit; it’s all expense to
make sure that my customers
are taken care of. It’s part of
our cost of doing business,
and it has created instant trust
and instant credibility.
Q. How does rapid growth
affect that credibility?
A lot of companies panic
when they start getting a lot
of orders because they’re
getting busy. They shut
down their marketing
and advertising, and
that’s a huge mistake.
Then, all of a sudden,
the customers forget
who they are.
Once the machine is
going, you don’t want to
stop it because it might
not start back up again
when you’ve caught up
with your orders.
