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ARLINGTON - Shelley Seale has been able to do something many
small-business owners find daunting: She has used the Internet not only to
expand her business, but to enhance customer service.
"The Internet may be the biggest change in our
company," says Seale, owner of Relocation Property Services in Arlington.
"Being able to communicate all around the country and having access to
information and tools on a global basis, that's what enabled us to go
nationwide."
Ten years ago, when Seale and then-partner Joy Herring decided
to tackle the world of real estate, the Internet wasn't part of their business
plan.
But they did see a niche they thought was underserved: With
more companies transferring employees across the country, those workers needed
more than a new home: They needed personal guidance.
Even though the real estate company she had been associated
with handled corporate relocations, Seale says it wasn't able to provide a broad
range of services.
"They [clients] would ask questions like ... 'I've got a
13-year-old cat that we're not going to bring in the car because we're driving.
How do I get my cat here?' " she says. "It's stuff that was really
outside the scope because [the agency] was still focused on real estate."
So Seale and Herring decided to create a company that would
not only locate houses, but also provide information and assistance for every
aspect of the relocation: What are the schools like? Is there mass transit? What
about an overview of the neighborhoods available? Is a temporary residence
available?
Seale chuckles as she recalls her brazen approach to such
corporate clients as Blockbuster Video, American Airlines, State Farm Insurance
and Farmers Insurance.
"We didn't know we shouldn't be able to work with big
companies," she says. "I think if we had been a little intimidated by
that, maybe it wouldn't ever have happened. I can be somewhat aggressive, just
to the extent that I thought, 'Why not? Why shouldn't we get their business?' It
didn't occur to us that there was any reason why they shouldn't use us."
That approach appears to have paid off.
"We started with our own personal start-up funds, and
it's been fairly profitable since almost the beginning," she says, noting
that RPS grew 40 percent a year between 1997 and 1999 and remains debt-free.
In the beginning, Seale says, whenever a client asked for
school and neighborhood information, the process of accessing the company's
databases, printing out reports and mailing the data consumed two to three days.
Today, clients can access the information within minutes, thanks to the
company's Web site.
Before going on the Web in 1997, RPS dealt with destination
services only. Now, it offers such things as area demographics, cost-of-living
information, crime statistics and school reports on cities throughout the United
States.
"The Internet has allowed us to provide relocation
services to and from all cities," Seale says. "It's all
technology-driven - between e-mail, telephone and Internet. That's pretty much
how we communicate with our clients.
"If they were moving from Seattle to Denver, for example,
they could punch in their cities and ZIP codes and compare them side by side.
The Internet allowed us to provide access to that information and tools to
anyone, no matter where they were moving to."
One of the clients who found RPS on the Internet is American
Eagle Outfitters of New York. Molly Gamble, human resources supervisor for the
retailer, says she was doing research for an employee who was preparing to move
from California to New York.
"We usually set [employees] up for one month in a hotel,
which is very expensive," Gamble says.
She says RPS was able to locate temporary housing for the
employee expeditiously.
"The best thing about it is that I was able to speak with
Shelley herself," Gamble says. "The feedback was great. Within a day
or two, I was able to find something for our new hire. She was very
customer-sensitive. I was very impressed with the turnaround time."
Seale says her secret to competing with larger companies comes
down to staying small and offering personal attention.
"When you're talking about an employee who has a kid who
is almost a black belt in karate - almost there - and they're moving somewhere
else, you better believe that finding a good karate school that's quality and
can get them where they need to be when they're almost there is important,"
she says.
"If you don't give really personal attention to each
transferee and their special needs, those kinds of things are going to get lost
by the wayside."
Lori-Elmore Moon is an Arlington free-lance writer.
PHOTO(S): Ronald Martinez |
