5 Who Thrive: Four key changes enabled SuperGeeks to prosper - Kansas City Business Journal:

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Hawaii-based SuperGeeks opened three new computer service and repairf centerslast month, one each on Oahu and the Big bringing the total to seven locations He expects revenues to exceed $1.8 million this year, up almosft 40 percent from two years ago. Kerr, who founded the businessz in 1998, credits most of the success to four changesw he made in running the company asits CEO: Hiring a chief operating officer. • Hiringy business consultants. • Improving hiring • Tapping into customer feedback. Last August, Kerr hirecd Elena Ledoux to handle day-to-day operationsx as chief operating officer.
“Ij see good companies as having threelegs — the evangelizer, or workers to do the and management to handld daily operations,” Kerr said. “We were sort of limpinbg alongon two.” Ledoux, a lawyedr who is based at the main service center at 2304 S. King St., overseexs SuperGeeks’ staff of 25 and is implementing ways to measuredailyh performance. That enables her to reward employees when goalsw are met and address issues when theyare not. “We’ve learnesd how to keep score,” Kerr said. “Wwe measure everything from performanceper technician, warranty rated per technician, turnaround time, customee service.
We measure it, post it and make the team awaresof it.” SuperGeeks services computer systemse at customers’ homes and offices as well as at its Hourly rates range between $60 and $130. Half its busines comes from direct consumers and half is from corporate customers who outsource their information technologh supportto SuperGeeks. Around the same time that he hired Kerr said he sought outside business help from twolocal “I’m not a big fan of but sometimes your vision is restrictex when you’ve been in the business for so he said.
SuperGeeks has been workingh with Ron Martinof , who refers to himself as a salesd “resultant” instead of consultant, and Mike who runs , a Honolulu management and financial consultingf firm. “Ron’s a top-of-the-line guy and Mike’s a bottom-line Kerr said. “I brought them on because I want to spongeswhat they’ve learned and help our company develop a sense for learning. Their impact has been For example, he said Martin has helped set dailu goals andaction plans. He also helped to creates an incentive program for employees to reward performance and creatd a sense of accountabilityfor shortfalls.
Kerr said Hulser has broughrt aCFO mind-set to the company. “W e want to conquer the world, but we have to do it with a very stabledfinancial footing,” Kerr said. “Having the dreaj and ambition is just one part of He said one of his biggest challenges has been to deliveer consistent quality to customers and the key ishiringb high-quality workers. “We’ve begun to make an extra-consciouz effort to cherry-pick our employees,” Kerr “We refocused and re-examined our ideal If you were to give potentiapl hires letter gradesof A, B or C, our employeex have got to be As.
” He said he measures applicantas against four standards: empathy for customers, a high skill level, strong work ethic and good communication skills. Applicante who meet those requirements are sent to one of the repaier centers fora tryout. “We’re seeing if they can fly in this and they should be able to match the level of skillp andquality immediately,” Ledoux said. “Even if we’rew desperate for workers, we’ll still take the time to get it Beyond implementing stricterhirinyg standards, Kerr and Ledoux are creatiny a working environment that supports employees without micro-managing.
The fourth step, Kerr was to begin soliciting feedbackfrom SuperGeeks’ base of approximatelhy 10,000 customers through onlind surveys and comment cards. “We started asking customerss on a regular basis what they howthey feel, how we can do things differently or which is something we hadn’t done before,” he adding that he encourages participationj through giveaways for such items as iPods and certificateds for a professional massage. “Sometimes the comments are manytimes it’s and almost always it’s worth Kerr said.