By: Martha Conway
Clark Equipment Rental and Sales of Canastota celebrates its 20th anniversary next year – an impressive milestone for any business today – and owner Adam Clark is planning for the next twenty. Clark’s origin story began in grade school; through his dedication to customer satisfaction and adapting to changing client needs, he’s built an impressive reputation.
“I’ve always been an entrepreneur,” Clark said. “Before I could drive, I was pushing a lawnmower around town; I mowed about 15 lawns.”
Clark said he just fell into the work, growing up in a construction family.
“My dad suggested I start an equipment rental business, and I thought he’d done a lot more than just casual thinking about it when suggesting I should start a business,” he said.
Expanding to meet demand
Clark said after taking a couple of years to learn how to manage the business, he wanted to capture revenue lost from not selling equipment.
“The first year, I was by myself,” he said. “I drove around in a pickup doing deliveries. I had a cell phone the office phone rolled over to and another to call customers. Toward the end of my second year in business, I hired my brother to do deliveries. I did sales, still driving around with the office line rolling over to me.”
Over the next couple of years, Clark hired Kyle Stevens and Mike Christian. Stevens has moved on, but Christian just celebrated his 10-year anniversary.
“I’m really proud he’s still with me,” he said. “He saw me go from the Quonset hut on Brighton Avenue to the building on State Fair Boulevard and now to Canastota.”
Clark started out working from a storage unit in Syracuse. From there, he moved to a one-acre property with a 3,600-square-foot warehouse. The next move increased the physical space to about six acres with a 7,000-square-foot building.
“I thought we’d never outgrow that place, but after three or four years, I realized we needed more space,” he said. “Now I have 20 acres and a 20,000-square-foot warehouse, and a year later, I’m like, ‘holy cow, we’re going to outgrow this place.’ I’m already thinking I need a bigger building.”
Clark Equipment started out with three skid-steers and three mini-excavators; over the years, he kept adding more equipment – bulldozers, rollers, and backhoes. Inventory typically runs between 600 and 700 pieces of equipment now and he employs 30 people. Clark said he’s started doing a lot of telehandlers and boom lifts in recent years.
“That’s a different customer than we were initially focused on,” he said. “I’ve got a bunch of excellent mechanics; they’re hard-working and loyal, and I take care of them the best I can. In addition to my mechanics, I’m blessed to have a strong sales and service department staff.”
Customer service is Job #1
The entire Clark Equipment team is laser-focused on customer service,
“When I first started, I was so small, I couldn’t help but get to know customers personally,” Clark said.
“I think when you’re that small, you respect and appreciate having people come to you, so you want to give them really good service,” said general manager Amelia Trenga. “That desire to provide excellent service has stuck with Adam and Clark Equipment, which allows us to maintain the small business feel, no matter the growth.”
Trenga said Clark Equipment looks for staff who have natural customer service abilities.
“You can teach someone the equipment, machines and processes, but you can’t teach empathy, understanding, flexibility and compassion,” Trenga said, explaining that as general manager with a great team, she is able to focus on customer experience and satisfaction.
“We’ve kept that personal touch,” Clark agreed.
Service writer Jodi Stone said Clark Equipment particularly prides itself on quick customer response, whether rental, sales or service.
“If you have a machine out on rent and it breaks down, we respond within 24 hours, if not the same day,” Stone said. “With the bigger companies, you could be waiting for four or five days. I think if you polled our customers, they would tell you everyone here is very nice – we don’t have any ‘Grumpy Georges.’ We listen and try to be super positive and helpful. We listen carefully then say, ‘Okay, let’s figure out how we can fix this.’”
She said because Clark deals in newer equipment and performs extensive pre-rental and pre-sales inspection checklists, job interruptions due to equipment problems are rare.
Max Ford, who heads up inside and out-of-state sales and rentals for Clark Equipment, confirmed the need for speed.
“Having a quick response time, answering the phone and being transparent is what customers want,” Ford said, adding that he works to make transactions as painless as possible for clientele. “This has been pivotal to building a new customer base and repeat customers; now I have a solid repeat customer base outside New York state.”
“We have a lot of repeat business because people like our customer service,” Stone said. “Max has a lot of repeat customers thanks to his efforts and everything service does to get equipment ready and help customers once they have it. If they have a problem, we try to help them through it. It’s harder when they’re out of state, but we can still point them in the right direction, whether they need parts or service.”
Company culture
Trenga said Clark has cultivated a company culture that drives employees to treat customers very well.
“Everywhere is going to have the machines, but not everywhere is going to have the dedication and understanding we do,” she said. “We are determined that customers feel taken care of. That’s not true at every company, and it starts from within. Our company culture drives a staff that is motivated to achieve a common goal.”
“We’re a family-owned and -operated business – we’re not treated like numbers, so we don’t treat customers like numbers,” Stone said. “I think bigger dealerships see customers as dollar amounts, not people. We know our repeat customers by their first names, and they know me by my first name. Sometimes they are driving by and stop in to say ‘hi.’”
“From the guy who washes the machines to the guys who service them and the rest of the team, we have a great support system,” Ford said.
Trenga said no one works in a vacuum if a problem arises because everyone pitches in to help.
“We’re not a big chain, so we can focus on the smaller things,” Stone said. “That’s one of the things I truly enjoy about working here. It’s nice to work for someone who understands that life happens. Adam cares about his employees and cares about his customers.”
Expanding client base
Ford said quick responses, top-notch customer service and the ability to sell equipment country-wide have contributed to Clark Equipment’s growth.
“We’re also able to help with financing and shipping to customers all over the country, which has made it a lot easier for me to sell equipment,” he said.
Ford said it is critical to deliver on promises made and to be transparent in all transactions.
“My favorite part of the job is being able to solve problems for people,” Ford said.
Clark said he listens constantly to client needs in order to make available the equipment people need when they need it.
“If we keep getting customers asking for something, we start buying it,” he said. “I would never have thought we’d be selling forklifts. Three years ago, I didn’t have any forklifts. I try and keep track of needs so I can fill them.”
Newer-model machines without the new equipment price
“We don’t hold onto equipment too long,” Clark said. “I try to turn everything over within two to three years. These machines are so expensive, it’s hard for the average contractor to afford them. A big advantage to working with us is that we take the edge off the price of buying new.”
“Clark is unique there, too,” Trenga said. “You’re renting and buying used machines, but they’re newer with fewer hours. Some companies keep equipment for 10 years. Here, people can get newer machines more competitively priced.”
Before any equipment goes out the door, it is subjected to a number of checklists. There are checklists for machines being rented out, for those being sold and for those being received into inventory.
“We go through everything to ensure everything is working,” Stone said.
For rentals, Clark Equipment uses the Record360 Rental Inspection app to record equipment condition.
“That protects us and the customer,” Stone said. “If something gets damaged on the job site, we have the proof for insurance.”
There’s another checklist when equipment returns from rental, and the service department goes through everything again.
“When we sell an item, there’s an even more detailed checklist the mechanic performs before anything goes to the customer,” Stone said. “They go through and make sure everything works; even though these customers are purchasing used equipment, they’re getting top-notch vehicles.”
New, bigger location
Clark said the new location provides space to have all equipment centrally located; early on, Clark rented additional spaces and had to take clients to different locations where equipment was stored.
“It’s easier to manage the inventory,” he said. “I’m very particular about the way my equipment looks and how it’s maintained. With everything in one location, it makes things much easier for my staff and customers.”
“The layout is much better geared toward success,” Trenga said. “We can have clients come and look at everything. It’s convenient to the Thruway, and it turns out it’s not much further from where they were originally getting machines. We’ve expanded our clientele east. It might not be budget-feasible to some of the smallest clients, but we’ve been able to serve everyone we already did and the people who are out here.”
Stone said the service department facilities are much improved, also.
“Rentals are flourishing, and we’ve got a lot of new customers purchasing equipment,” she said.
“It’s been great,” Ford agreed. “We have more room to store equipment, so we have a larger inventory; that equals more sales. The expanded, more efficient shop set-up allows the guys to get machines in and serviced faster, which means I can sell them faster. Basic maintenance and new asset check-in is quicker, too.”
Future vision
Clark plans to open a second location in another city within two years.
“I don’t know if we’ll go to Albany, Rochester or Buffalo, but I want to find a couple more team members, get a couple more processes in place, and I either want to buy somebody out or open a new store,” he said, adding that Canastota will be his headquarters. “After we have a second location set up, the third and subsequent location will come quicker.”
The goal is to open two new locations within the next five years.
“The challenge for me will be managing subsequent locations successfully, then keep rolling them out,” Clark said. “We have between 600 and 700 machines and sell 30 to 50 machines monthly. We rent a few hundred machines every month. The operation is pretty amenable to scaling. I just need a couple more key people – a couple more mechanics and one or two more good over-the-road salespeople. A couple more years of saving my pennies and we’ll open another store. Growing the business is fun.”
Why Clark
Staff cited Clark Equipment’s customer service and family-owned business environment as top reasons people should do business with them over competitors.
“We’re all family here, and we take pride in getting people quality used equipment for a great price,” Ford said. “We take a lot of steps to make sure the equipment is in excellent condition. Even if a machine was just inspected when it came off rent last week, we bring it through again to make sure everything works and it’s up to date on maintenance and service.”
“Adam has been in this industry his entire life, starting with his grandfather and father,” Stone said. “He’s very knowledgeable, and his people are very knowledgeable. There is always someone in this building who can solve problems.”
“It’s 100-percent a relationship business,” Clark said. “You have to be competitive on price and deliver a good product, but friendships make it much more fun, and everyone involved is much more productive and profitable ”
Clark Equipment Rental and Sales is located at 4 Technology Blvd., Canastota. For more information, call 315.472.7607 or visit ClarkRents.com.