Today we’d like to introduce you to Dan Moreno.
Dan, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I was brought up in this business. My father was an appliance tech, and I attended Robert Morgan, a vo-tech school in Miami, during high school. I figured I had a guaranteed job in my Dad’s company when I graduated – after all, I had successfully completed a course at a respected trade school, and I’d been changing compressors with him since i was twelve. He refused to hire me until I had, “learned on somebody else’s dime.” He was right!
After working for Frigidaire and GE for a couple of years as a factory service tech in Atlanta, I was finally deemed worthy, and hired on with my Dad. In 1988, we moved back to Miami and I joined Whirlpool Factory Service as a tech. I took a job as International Service Manager in ’92, and had the opportunity to travel the Whirlpool world, seeing firsthand how service was run in markets like Brazil, Chile and Argentina, and places as far away as Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore and India. It was an experience that serves me to this day in my current job, and during which I met many people from whom I learned about this industry, and about business in general. Among them was my best friend, and now business partner, Antonio Cassio Dos Santos, while he was on an expat assignment from Brazil.
Cassio returned to Brazil, and I went on to assignments in Whirlpool’s domestic field management and product sales organizations. Seeing an impending downturn in sales and noticing significant gaps in the service support that appliance manufacturers were getting from their existing service partners, I thought there might be a business opportunity. My wife, Joana and I, had four kids, ranging in ages from 1 to 18. I was my family’s sole income-earner, and I was making a comfortable living, nearing my 20-year anniversary with a Fortune 500 company. As you might imagine, it took some urging to strike out on my own. But the encouragement came from the right people: Joana and Cassio, my soon-to-be business partner. Drawing inspiration from their confidence – and, perhaps, in a moment of temporary insanity – I submitted my letter resignation to Whirlpool in 2007.
Flamingo Appliance ran its first service call in November of 2007. We were a small company – one tech and one Customer service rep. From that very first call, our focus has been on providing a seamless solution for appliance manufacturers’ after-sale support promise, and providing an outstanding service experience to our mutual Customers. Delivering on that objective has helped us grow to one of the largest independent appliance service companies in the United States. We are now THE largest Whirlpool Factory Certified Care Company (WFCC) in the country, with nearly 100 technicians and 160 employees. We service the tri-county area, and have branch offices in Cape Coral, FL and Atlanta, GA. We have recently opened – in partnership with Dan Marc Appliance, another large WFCC company based in New Jersey – operations in Las Vegas and Los Angeles under the Paradise Appliance Service brand.
Has it been a smooth road?
For the most part, the last ten years have been a smooth ride. We faced the financial strains of any rapidly-expanding, new business, but were able to manage through that with minimal debt. Our first remote expansion, to Florida’s west coast, put a strain on our people resources. Ironically, it was those struggles, in part, that helped us develop the in-house expertise for our subsequent expansions into Georgia, Nevada and California. Our ability to deploy quickly into new markets has become one of our hallmarks.
Bringing in management talent that aligns with our philosophy has been difficult. This industry is dominated by 50-plus-year-old men, most of whom are former technicians, and who have experienced, at least, a modest measure of success. Falling into that group, myself, I recognize that we are not, by nature, the most forward-thinking and open-minded of folks. To change this industry, we cannot just, “do better,” the same things that have been done for the last hundred years. It has been hard to find experienced managers that will buy in to a different way of viewing – and doing – things. Most of our current managers – a diverse group – have developed from within. Many are in their first management role. A few are working at the only real job they’ve ever had.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Flamingo Appliance Service story. Tell us more about the business.
Our concept of, “family,” in several respects, makes us different.
We are a family-owned and managed company. Ana, my daughter, started with Flamingo as a claims processor while still in high school. She earned her bachelor’s degree from FIU while working hand-in-hand with me to build this business, and is currently our Director of Operations. Ana is now in the process relocating to Los Angeles, where she will take on the additional role of General Manager of Paradise Appliance, while she works toward her MBA at UCLA. Joana’s contribution has come in many ways. During the early days, she would bring the kids by after school to do their homework, so I would have a chance to spend at least a few hours with them. And she brought food… home-cooked meals without which I would have gone hungry. Then she worked for years for the company, without pay, and doing whatever needed doing. Today, she is Flamingo’s goodwill ambassador and company psychologist. Cassio, as much a brother as a friend, has continuously provided indispensable business guidance and unwavering support.
Some companies frown on family members working together. Not here. We have many other sets of family members: spouses, siblings, cousins, quite a few father/son and mother/daughter teams. While it does present some unique challenges, I am honored that our team members think highly enough of Flamingo to want their own clan to join them here.
But our idea of family extends further. We also think of ourselves as a Work Family rather than just co-workers. As in any family, there are disagreements… sometimes passionate. There is creative tension, and we are, as a group, a pretty competitive bunch. But we also share genuine love and concern for each other. We celebrate and mourn together, and have had many occasions to do both in recent years. On a personal level, this makes it enjoyable to come to work. Most days. On a business level, it makes for dedication, commitment and performance on a level beyond simple teamwork.
Finally, we respect and encourage each of our team members’ dedication to their own families, first, by affording them flexibility in their work schedules and allowing them the time they need to handle family responsibilities. We also offer one of the more liberal Paid Time Off policies in the industry, promoting a healthy work-life balance and are currently working on a Paternal Leave policy which we expect to roll out next year.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
The pace of industry changes are likely to accelerate over the next ten years.
Changes other industries have driven Customers’ expectations. Online purchases can be delivered within a day, car dealerships put espresso machines and sparkling water in their service departments, and apps can tell you, to the minute, when the tuna poke you ordered for lunch will be at your front door. This compels us to make the appliance service experience, an innately inconvenient one, as simple and painless to our Customers as possible.
Technology is affecting this industry. New products offer innovative features, and more of them, Connected appliances are becoming commonplace. While do-it-yourself videos abound on YouTube, these more sophisticated appliances are harder to diagnose, access and repair.
As a consequence, the profile of today’s tech has changed. They still need to know how to read wiring diagrams and schematics, but they must also be proficient at reading diagnostic flowcharts. Given higher Customer expectations for service delivery, techs today must focus as much on their soft skills as on their technical knowledge.
Appliance service technicians are rare. According to US Labor Department data, their ratio is approximately 9,200-1 of the general population. (Physicians are less than 400-1, and attorneys about 245-1.)
Finding skilled technicians, capable of passing criminal background, drug and driver screenings, has been a challenge in the industry for years. Add to these minimum requirements, a desire by service company owners and managers for someone with people skills, a strong work ethic, dependable, honest and committed to serving Customers, and you can see why. Fortunately, technology has provided methods and media for training techs faster than ever possible before. This enables us to recruit and select from a broader group of potential applicants, screening for those rare, innate qualities – and a simple, technical aptitude – and train our own technicians. This is the strategy Flamingo is employing for our future techs.
Contact Info:
- Address: 12008 SW 132ND CT
Miami FL 33186 - Website: flamingoappliance.com
- Phone: (305) 378-1495
- Email: [email protected]
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/FlamingoApplianceService
- Other: http://www.bbb.org/south-east-florida/business-reviews/appliances-major-parts-and-supplies/flamingo-appliance-service-in-miami-fl-92007757
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