A few weeks ago, we touched on the topic of service and how Regency's values improve and drive our service. One of Regency's RISE values that doesn’t get as much time in the limelight is expertise. It may seem self-serving to talk about expertise, but it directly impacts our customers and it's an important piece of our culture.
We believe in investing in our people, technology, and training to create experts who are capable of meeting and exceeding your expectations.
All feather-fluffing aside, isn't that what we all want?
Here at Regency, it's encouraging to see people grow in their roles and gain expertise along the way. We are committed to growing together, so when you watch a coworker gain expertise and confidence in their role, it lights a fire inside of you to grow similarly in your area. We know we’ll never arrive in the pursuit of perfection, but we’ve set our expectations high.
The bottom line is that our customers rely on us to be the experts that help make lighting decisions easier and deliver products on-time and on-budget.
Expertise in action: Making lighting easier for our customers
The most obvious application of expertise at Regency is in understanding the full complexity of lighting so that we can make it easier and make the right recommendations for our customers. Nothing beats an actual example of this, though. The following is an example of an exchange between one of our visual production designers and a customer. (Please note, we have removed customer names, manufacturer names, and product names.)
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Dear customer,
Attached is your as-is [original manufacturer] quote, photometric study, presentation, and the parking garage fixture that I'm recommending instead of [the original product].
A few thoughts:
- I recommend that you consider the [recommended parking fixture] instead of the [original product]. The recommended product utilizes [indirect lighting technology] that results in less glare. We sell the highest lumen package fixture for [less money] than the [original product]. See attached for the spec sheet. We could send a sample fixture for a mock up if you are interested.
- I’m also concerned about the [original product options] that are being specified for this site. The [original product] does not perform optimally on 40’ poles. Regency will switch to using the [recommended fixture] for mounting heights at 35-50’ so we can get into the higher lumen output ranges. This is necessary in order to achieve IES recommended light levels for parking lot safety. For the parking decks and lower mounting height areas, the [original product] is perfectly suitable; however, I would be very concerned the light levels would not meet your light level standards if the [original product] is used everywhere.
- The pole diameter and fixture configuration would need to be specified in order to quote tenon brackets. In many areas with just one or back-to-back configurations, direct mount installations could be utilized to avoid an additional cost of mounting hardware tenons.
- It’s concerning that certain parts of their parking lot don’t have poles – they are marked by the red circles in the attached documentation. Light levels are extremely low in these areas due to no lights being rendered in the calculations. This needs to be verified before we would move forward.
- An audit also needs to be completed due to construction that has occurred post [date].
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In this example, our design team was able to find more cost-effective solutions and make recommendations to ensure that the new lighting would meet safety standards. Talk about a win-win.
Expertise in action: Building a strong culture
Another way that expertise plays out is in creating a company culture that delivers delightful service for our customers and celebrates our employees as they accomplish that goal. Wanting to address this need, our Director of Procurement, Brad Newbold, demonstrated expertise by initiating an internal RISE Recognition program to celebrate wins and reinforce a positive culture. Brad adapted a concept he had learned at a previous company and applied it to Regency so we could bring these RISE values to life.
See some RISE in Action highlights here.
Expertise is taking what you've learned and applying it to our customers’ unique situations in a clear and effective way. It’s striving to stay on the cutting edge of technology so that our customers get the best results. It’s building a company and a culture that will last and be here to serve our customers for years to come.
Expertise really is at the core of our RISE values because without it, you couldn't have excellent service, high integrity, and quality relationships.
