For businesses of all sizes, expanding into service-based revenue streams can unlock new income, deepen customer loyalty and even spark spinoff companies.
Added services for a shade business can include offering awning cleaning, maintenance and storage. For a supplier, having cutting services passes savings (both in time and labor) to customers while requiring little overhead. One company has even turned customer questions into a formal training and education business all its own.
Maintenance, storage and repair
Proactive maintenance strategies such as routinely checking on a previously installed awning’s age and condition, followed by offering cleaning and repair options (in-house or referral), are low-cost, replicable practices that even small to medium-sized shade businesses can implement.
Advanced Textiles Association (ATA) member Al’s Awning Shop Inc. in Erie, Pa., is a family-run awning business that sells exterior coverings for patios and decks as well as industrial sewing services. Offerings include installation, maintenance, takedown, seasonal storage, and repair of custom-made outdoor curtains and awnings. Professional takedown service helps extend the life of the awning, while winter curtain installation for homeowners or businesses lets customers enjoy patios and decks just a little bit longer.
“Mother Nature is not our friend here,” says Michele Quadri Butterfield, owner of Al’s. “Every customer wants to extend summer. So we are conscious of what the customer wants versus the reality of the weather.”…