“Our company culture is kind of a cult,” says Brett Ruiz, owner of Medina Exteriors.
“People from the outside don’t really understand it.” He believes his employees are what sets his company’s customer service apart from others. “They’re dedicated, they’re customer-first. They function as a team. They see what needs to get done and finish it.”
Ruiz says that if he meets someone he thinks will be a good fit for the company, he will find a spot for that person on the staff. He also makes sure that his employees are well-trained. The company has an in-house training program that keeps employees up-to-date on proper craft and safety techniques, such as how to properly use ear protection.
Ruiz has had the training program for three years and revamped it several months ago to better fit the company’s needs. Employees move through a tiered program; each tier has modules that employees need to learn and then test out of before advancing. Modules include specific skills, such as hanging a cabinet, which employees need to perform on the job a certain number of times before they can pass.
He adds that it’s easier to teach someone a trade than it is to train them to fit the company culture. In the past, “we got someone who had enough skill or had a skill we needed but didn’t fit the company culture,” Ruiz says.
“We keep everything consistent so we have the same customer service and satisfaction, from when clients first call to when sales guys sell [the job], to when it passes through the field, and then through the post-client interaction.”
