It's All About Fun

Ask virtually any executive in a technology-based company, and that person will tell you it's hard to get and keep good employees these days. With an economy that's in good shape and a low unemployment rate, the demand is high for technically minded employees. "It's not unheard of these days to see college graduates getting $5,000 to $10,000 signing bonuses," exclaims Joe Clouatre, president of systems integrator Atlantic Video Systems (AVS) (Billerica, MA). "My job as president is to go to work every day and make sure my employees want to be there and are taken care of. If I do that, they'll give more than 100% to their jobs in return. The goal is to have a fun business." The company integrates access control systems and closed circuit television systems (CCTV) for end users.

AVS employees were involved in 22 events during 1999 - everything from golf outings and Christmas parties to a shopping spree and dinner cruises. Each company division receives money when it reaches specific goals. The money goes into a kitty, and the department decides what to do with its earnings.

Clouatre is determined to make gifts and events personal. "At my previous job, I was rewarded for my hard work on a project by going sailing with my boss," he explains. "I hate sailing. That's not a reward. I want my employees to feel personally appreciated. If we don't know what sort of things they like to do, that's a real problem."

Clouatre is succeeding in his crusade for fun. In fact, he contends that his employees are so happy with their jobs that employee turnover at AVS is almost nonexistent. "We've had five employees leave in the past eight years I have been with the company," he boasts. "One employee went to work for one of our vendors. The second left and tried to come back within 30 days. The remaining employees left to start their own business."

Corporate culture at AVS is so relaxed that, on the day of our photo shoot for this story, an employee brought in his daughter to say hello and to play in Clouatre's office. "I love it when the kids stop by," he admits. "I always have a bunch of toys for them to play with and take home. My employees and their families know my office is a relaxing place. They can always come by to talk about what's on their minds - or even to get away from work for a while. I have no desk. There's just a small computer table in the corner of the room."

Giving Customers That Warm, Fuzzy Feeling
Clouatre's partner Tom Leonard founded AVS in 1980. The company focused on closed circuit television (CCTV) systems until it acquired an access control integrator in 1990. The company treats its customers so well, it has several former customers as employees. In fact, that's how Clouatre came on board.

"I worked at a Fortune 500 company as a security manager," he explains. "Tom made a cold call to me one day and said he could fix a problem I had - one that my current vendor couldn't solve. After about a month with no promising results, I said the heck with them and called Tom back. He fixed my problem in an hour. The other vendor couldn't find the root of the problem after months of work."

"Tom asked me to come work for him a few years later," Clouatre continues. "I came on as director of sales and marketing and became president about a year later. We made Don Gooding Jr. a partner a couple years ago. Tom enjoys the installation aspect more than the business aspect of the company. Don works in service management. It's a great scenario because we have a partner concentrating his efforts in every major discipline."

That tradition of quality service continues today at AVS. Clouatre believes this is the cornerstone of the business. "When a potential customer goes out for bids on a project, there should only be a 5% to 10% discrepancy between bids. If there's more or less than that, there's something wrong with the bid. Service is paramount. It's the number one reason customers select vendors."

To ensure continued customer satisfaction, Clouatre established a President's Advisory Council. The council is composed of nine key customers in a variety of vertical markets, and members stay on the council for a two-year term. "We had a two-day session on Cape Cod, MA last fall and sat through breakout meetings," Clouatre explains. "Some systems integrators would feel that getting their customers together to talk would turn into a complaint session. That's not the case. I invited a representative from each of our departments because I wanted my employees to hear advice straight from our customers. I stood in front of these customers and asked them to tell us how we could grow the company. And, by growing the company, we can continue developing our service to our customers and to our employees."

"Now I have customers providing hotlinks from their Web sites to ours," he continues. "Another customer is helping us with recruiting. We've made major advances based on the council's feedback. I have even shared the company's expansion plans with them to get feedback."

Clouatre isn't afraid to ask end users why his company didn't get a bid, either. "A general contractor accepted bids for one of our long-standing customers on a residential security system, and we lost the bid," he admits. "I called the company owner two months later to see how things were going, and he told me the installation was not good. He received no training and didn't even know where to start. We came in - free of charge - and took over the training. We also discovered that the system was missing major components. A year later, this residential security system is still not working because of problems with the original systems integrator. However, we won a recent bid with that customer because we showed him that we care as much for our past customers as we do about our existing customers. That's long-term commitment. Customers will often stumble and try other vendors, but we always want to be there for them."

Questions about this article? E-mail the author at NancyS@corrypub.com.