“We deliver, that’s why we’ve been successful,” says Jerry Limper, co-owner with Christopher Trecker of Superior Seal Coating, Exton, PA. “If there’s a project that we say is going to get done, it’s going to get done the way we say it’s going to get done and it’s going to get done according to the specs. I can honestly say that since we opened our doors we’ve never had a project that we haven’t delivered on.”
That approach is something Limper and Trecker learned from the sealcoating contractor they worked for – because he didn’t follow it. “Our former employer said yes to everyone, even when he knew we weren’t going to be able to do whatever it was he had agreed to,” Limper says. “By saying yes all the time he created unrealistic expectations and that made it difficult to deliver what he’d promised.
“We’re very pragmatic people and if we say it’s going to happen it will,” Limper says. “We want to make sure that what we tell our customers is possible. That way we know we can deliver.”
Gaining More Control
Limper and Trecker started Superior Seal Coating in 2005 and that first year generated $60,000 in sales working out of the trunks of their personal vehicles. They added paving and pavement repair in 2016, the same year they brought their striping business in-house, and hired an in-house mechanic.
“One of the best decisions we ever made was hiring an in-house mechanic,” Limper says. “Now whenever there’s a breakdown or other equipment problems we don’t have to wait for someone to fix it; we have someone already there.
In 2018 the 12-person company passed the $1 million mark in sales. Sealcoating accounts for 70% of their revenue (split 55% residential and 45% commercial), paving and repair (including some concrete) accounts for 20%, and the remaining 10% is from striping.
Limper says that because the company is now so diversified they have considered changing the company name – but they won’t.
“It really helped us when we started because a lot of people thought we were much bigger than we were so it really helped us grow. But we do so much more than sealcoating that the name doesn’t really reflect our company anymore,” he says. “We’re going to keep the name, though, because we have great name recognition and a great reputation.”
Educating Employees
And that reputation rests in part on Superior Seal Coating’s well-trained – and cross-trained – employees. Training starts with a manual that covers the importance of sealcoating and the systems and processes Superior Seal Coating expects its crews to follow in the field.
“For example, part of our step-by-step process on driveways is weed-whacking the grass at the edges,” Limper says. “We had some guys saying the lawn was just mowed so they didn’t have to trim the grass back. No, that’s not how we do it. We edge every driveway we sealcoat and that’s in the manual.”
Limper himself spends two hours talking through the manual with each new hire. Then he leaves them to study it and follows up with a brief quiz. If they pass the quiz they have the job.
Next Limper introduces each new hire to the tools they’ll be using, explaining what each tool is used for and letting them handle them. Employees practice backing up a trailer and practice sealcoating using dyed water on a mock-up of a driveway in the warehouse.
“We spend a full day on training. It’s the first impression they get of the company and we think it makes them feel important that we’re taking the time to train them and not just throwing them out there on a job. Quality is job one and we want to make sure they start doing quality work as soon as they’re on a job,” Limper says.
“Putting the training and the proper processes right there in front of them in writing makes it clearer and easier for everyone to learn and follow our procedures. Now our guys know why they were doing what they were doing and can answer just about any question a customer might ask. We have a more educated employee. ”
Critical Morning Meetings
Superior Seal Coating employs two foremen: a shop steward and an administrator/estimator. Among other duties the estimator develops work orders and job specs, prints them out each day and places them in a binder. The binder also contains the step-by-step sealcoating process, mix design charts for different applications, the training manual and information about sealcoating. The shop steward gives each crew member their updated binder each morning at a 15-minute meeting to talk about that day’s work.
“That morning meeting is one of the most critical things we installed,” Limper says. “It takes a little time and costs a little extra money but when they leave the shop they are ready to go with everything they’ll need that day – from knowledge of the jobs to making sure everything they need is on the trucks. Before it was always ‘we have to get out of the yard and get to the job.’ Now it’s much more orderly and everyone leaves with a plan.”
