Art
I respectfully disagree with you. Atlanta is 7 million people. Their are quiet a few residents that have never heard of ProCarpet I am sure. Greg also has not been marketing through the sources that high end work comes from so many of those people will not even be aware he exists.
You also forget about the role of word of mouth referral's and social media. When his team goes in and does a great job that will be the new benchmark for that customer and the people they can refer to.
Referrals and social media will be the driving force for the change and as online reviews change the older stuff that is less flattering will not be looked at as strongly. We live in a world of what have you done for me lately. I have often reviewed services, hotels, product and they have 2-3 years of great reviews but if the last 3 months is crappy and am going to keep on walking.
9-12 months and Greg will have a new image and company online it is that simple if managed correctly.
I do agree with you the porty hard upsell is a poor image if you want to serve high end clientele. Greg has already stated that he has purchased trucks and will require sub contractors to have a better level of equipment or they will not be used.
I do not use sub contractor not because I do not believe in it but because I am afraid I do not have the skills and experience to make it work. Lots of very successful companies use sub contractors to deliver services. Several of the chip companies, bread companies, coffee companies, delivery companies, USPS all use guys who own their own trucks and drive a route daily. I don't hear anyone complaining about those services. If you have good training and systems it seems to work just fine.
We need to think outside of the box in this industry the best delivery method of our services is not a man, a fan, and a van.
If that where true we would still have the single proprietor hardware, sports, fabric, bakery, barber in every small town.
In large metropolitan areas the economies of scale play a major factor on who can compete and win in a market place.
Greg has funding for advertising and capacity for service. What we are talking here is moving off of one super highway and onto another. Greg will drive the bus just fine on the new road he has chosen.
The other large companies who are in that segment will soon have a serious competitor to contend with.
Just my opinion
Not that anyone wants to hear my thoughts, but here goes. After 20 years as a low price, hard upselling, porty out of the trunk of the car subcontractor using company, the public perception of Procarpet is set in stone in it's market. It will take millions of dollars in advertising and high priced spin doctors just to begin to change it, not to mention the actual implementing of a complete change in company culture and practices. I personally think it will be a disaster. But I hope I'm wrong and I wish Greg the very best of luck.
