"Our goal," says Tom Eosso, vice president of New Jersey's Eosso Brothers Paving, "is to give our customers a great experience."
And one of the things the contractor does is try to make life easier for the residents it's working among is rely on a "Courtesy Cart" to transport residents to and from their homes.
A basic golf cart trimmed in Eosso Brothers' colors and logos, the Courtesy Cart was the result of a 2007 brainstorming session about a job in a retirement community.
"We were discussing how we would set up the project and we realized the people who lived there would have to walk real far due to how long the roads are," Eosso says.
And he came up with the idea to purchase a golf cart to drive residents to and from their homes.
"I told them I would dedicate one person to drive the people back and forth," Tom says. "I told them I would need to charge a little more for adding another laborer each day and they said they would pay for the service."
Monday Morning Meetings
But there's more to the contractor's approach than just the cart. Starting last spring, for example, Eosso Brothers Paving began holding a meeting every Monday morning to discuss the previous week's projects and to give everyone a clear idea on what lay ahead.
"These meetings have helped our business by keeping everyone on the same page," Eosso says.
In addition to outlining jobs and logistics, the meetings cover customer service. "We discuss having our crews smile and say hello to all unit owners, and we remind our crews to be thankful to them," he says. "Given the economy we have experienced in 2008 and 2009 we are fortunate to be busy in such a trying time."
For more on "The Eosso Brothers' Experience" keep an eye out for the January 2010 issue of Pavement Maintenance & Reconstruction. And to learn more from Tom Eosso himself make sure to attend National Pavement Expo, Jan. 20-23 in Nashville where Tom is the presenting "Improving Your Infrared Pavement Repair Operation" on Wednesday, Jan. 20.
