Building strong relationships through effective communication is at the core of Paradise Asphalt Maintenance’s business strategy since inception. In 2008, Paradise only offered two services, sealcoating and crack sealing. The Kansas City metro area company, which employs 30 staff at the height of the season, has diversified into a one stop shop for customer demand, offering patching, paving, milling, crack sealing, sealcoating and concrete.
“We provide a whole team approach dedicated to their project to ensure success from start to finish,” said Matt Slawson, CEO and owner of Paradise Asphalt Maintenance. “We provide services to maintain their parking lots and maximize their investments all while listening to the customers’ needs and their budget."
In 2016, the company saw further growth when the company began focusing on controlling expenses, profit margins and implementing job costing.
“A big challenge in 2016 was shifting how we estimated and how we could move to a system that allowed us to job cost more proficiently,” said Slawson. “When you do something a certain way long enough, it can be hard to change and adapt.”
However, Slawson was able to change the mindset for employees and customers with the power of communication.
“I think through consistent communication and starting to highlight the benefits, not just for the customers, but for our team. Everybody bought in and we overcame that challenge.”
Digital Momentum
Utilizing targeted emails, SEO or Google Reviews is a thing of the present as many younger customers go to the internet to do research. Slawson has seen this firsthand, the shift to younger generations taking over or getting hired on to fill vacancies of tenured property managers and owners.
“Our customer base is so varied, we could be serving a young apartment manager, that's maybe in their early 20s. Then meet with a member of a board at a church or an HOA that are well into their 70s or 80s and everything in between,” said Slawson. “We have to be able to use multiple channels of communication and marketing in an effective way to reach our wide scope of customers.”
The digital momentum only intensified with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. Businesses were changing the way they operated and quickly began transitioning to virtual meetings, which Paradise got creative in their communication strategy.
“We implemented video proposals this last year to not allow the pandemic to hinder that communication,” said Slawson. “We were able to walk a customer through our sitemap, our ratings on the repairs, the photos, among other things. I think it went a long way as we were able to reach our customers while keeping everyone safe.”
Evolving Customer Education
Slawson and his team has really focused on customer education, and he sees it as a welcome challenge to grow.
“We want to help property managers understand the long-term piece of pavement maintenance, and really maximizing their investments. Like we did with the video proposals, we can bring technology in and show samples and get creative on illustrating that.”
“I think as long as we stay in tune to what our customer needs are and focus on how to better serve them, the growth is pretty organic.”
