Guaranty’s Word of the Year 2017 – INREACH
There has been a lot of attention given to Guaranty RV and Guaranty Chevrolet’s Community outreach in the past several blogs, but today we are going to talk about Guaranty’s INREACH. I know that’s not a word, but by the end of this article you will see that it is a perfect description.
In The Beginning….
Never one to be satisfied with the status quo, our founder, Herb Nill was always looking for ways to grow and expand his Chevrolet-Oldsmobile dealership here in Junction City. While growth and expansion are a good measure of the economic health of any business Herb and now Shannon, Marty, and Eric Nill understand that growth and expansion is not only good for the bottom line it is good for the community as a whole. The larger and more successful the business the more corporate and property taxes they pay. Rare is the person or business that likes paying taxes, but they are necessary to maintain infrastructure, police and fire departments, and local schools. Property tax is used primarily in the local community while corporate tax is used statewide, and Guaranty is proud to pay our taxes here in the Willamette Valley and the great state or Oregon. More tax dollars going into the coffer is a pretty obvious benefit to having healthy businesses in the community, but don’t forget that those healthy businesses employ your friends and family.
Ripples In The Pond
Employment is also a pretty obvious benefit to the community, but that benefit is kind of like the rock thrown into the pond. Once you throw it in, you see how many ripples it creates. Employing your friends and neighbors gives them a living wage and allows them to spend money on housing, food, entertainment, transportation, and the other basics of American life. They spend the majority of this money in the local community, which in turn provides health and stability to other businesses, which means growth and expansion, which means the need for more employees, which means more people spending money in the community, which means … well you see the ripples now. We touched on taxes earlier and with each additional person employed the tax base also grows. Many individuals pay property tax as well as income tax to both the state and federal government, which are used in the same manner as corporate taxes, with direct and indirect community benefit. Another ripple.
A New Definition
So our case for getting INREACH into Webster’s for the New Year is still a bit vague, but here come some examples that should concrete the definition. Speaking of concrete a lot has been poured around Guaranty Chevrolet and Guaranty RV this past year. A new building was constructed on Third Street that temporarily housed Guaranty GM Certified Auto Service while an incredible remodel took place in their permanent home on First Street. Guaranty’s Auto Service department was in the same building for sixty years and was designed for the volume of business at the time. The Auto service remodel expanded our Chevrolet Certified Service Center to eighteen, state of the art, full lift bays and more than doubled the square footage of the previous building.
These improvements lead to better service for the community, with estimates that say we can now handle twice to the volume of customer vehicle repairs, and that leads to the need for more qualified employees. Yes, another ripple. And since we are discussing INREACH and quality employees we cannot ignore the 215% of the required training, compared to 86% nationally, and the 250 years of combined experience in the department. The building that temporarily housed Guaranty GM Certified Auto Service during the remodel is now being retooled to become the permanent home of the Guaranty RV Body Shop, which will also be a state of the art facility including a paint booth big enough to accommodate todays larger RVS. This allows Guaranty to expand the abilities of the current Guaranty Auto Body Shop and provides the facilities to physically separate the Guaranty Detail Center into dedicated teams for RV and Auto detail. All of this leads to better ability to serve Guaranty customers and, stop me if you have heard this before, that leads to more employees, which leads to even more ripples.
Gateway To The RV Wanderland
Guaranty is fortunate to have the community support that we do, and we do not take that lightly. From the top down we are committed to a world-class customer experience with the belief that we are making friends, not dollars. Another of the many ways Guaranty supports the community is by bringing in revenue from outside of our area, and even outside our state. Guaranty’s vehicle sales, parts, and service on both the Auto and RV sides of the business have consistently earned high Google rankings and our reputation in the community is a positive one. These amenities and their reputation bring folks from all over to do business with Guaranty and while they are here they are likely to go out to eat, grocery shop, fill up their vehicle with gas or diesel etc. all adding ripples to the local economy. Continuing in that vein is the newly opened Guaranty RV Park that boasts 55 camping spots as well as facilities for groups and rally’s to gather. More ripples! More people coming to the area, more goods and services needed, more jobs created, and of course more taxes to support our community.
Inreach
Shakespeare is widely known to have made up words to convey a meaning or concept that had no previous description. I am no Shakespeare, but I believe we have done a decent job of defining INREACH. By continually putting resources back into our dealership the Nill family is Guarantying our success. That success is a strong factor in the stability and health of our community, both economically and physically. Growth can be difficult and sometimes even painful, and Guaranty has experienced a degree of both during the course of the construction projects over the last tear. But, as the old saying goes, no pain no gain, and there is tremendous gain from Guaranty’s inreach. As Guaranty creates external growth through continued inreach we will continue to throw rocks in the pond that ripple out into the community in a positive way. As those ripples expand our community and our business we will need more qualified employees and so will our community at large, even further expanding community growth and well you see where I am going here.
Ripples.
Shameless Plug
Help keep Guaranty and our community growing by applying for one of the many career opportunities available here. You may be the next rock in the pond, where would your ripples go?
