Customer Profiles
Most of the time, it’s the small buildings that mean the most to Armstrong’s customers
A 20 Year Dream in the Making: Armstrong Made it Simple
“I was going to go with a pole barn, then I saw your ad online and decided to ask for a quote,” says Eric O. of Wabash, Indiana. “I’d been wanting a building which could be both a workshop and storage and I’d been wanting it for about twenty years.”
Not every building that Armstrong Steel engineers and delivers is a factory or an industrial complex or some remarkable engineering feat. In fact, many of our buildings are simple structures with four walls and a roof – but that doesn’t make these less worthy of our attention.
Armstrong’s reputation of delivering quality buildings to people who’ve been dreaming about owning a simple backyard steel building comes from the fact that we consider every building, large or small, simple or complex, to be important. We understand how meaningful these buildings are to our customers and their budgets – even the small ones - especially the small ones.
“The price from Armstrong Steel was right for our budget,” says Eric. “I’ve never constructed a building like this before.” From the moment Eric placed his order for his steel building, Armstrong’s project management was on the job.
It's the Little Things that Make the Biggest Difference
“I realized that, based on the simplicity of the building, I could apply additional discounts,” says Eric's Armstrong Steel project manager. These savings amounted to hundreds of dollars. “A few hundred dollars doesn’t always seem like a lot of savings to a company with big budgets, but to a customer like Eric, who’s building something in his backyard, it helps a lot.”
Because Eric could be flexible with his delivery timeline, it was suggested he opt for Consolidated Freight – an option which Armstrong offers to customers that allows them to bundle a building with other buildings headed in the same direction so the freight charges are reduced (See: The Armstrong Process) We tried to save him money in as many ways as we could.
Eric had a few requirements. “One thing I was nervous about was whether the color would match my house, and since I was building it out of steel, I was worried about the paint matching [wood color vs. steel panel color],” he says. His concerns were assuaged with the spectrum of popular colors which Armstrong Steel offers. “The greens match almost perfectly, I was really happy about that.”
When Eric received his building in the fall, he noticed that a couple of the side panels had been scratched in shipping. “Eric called me immediately. Even though the paint scratches wouldn’t affect the structural integrity of the building, we know that people want the building they’ve been dreaming about for decades to look good… to look better than good,” says Kitty Uhle, Armstrong’s Shipping and Logistics Manager. “They shipped me new panels right away at no charge and I received them before I even got to that point in the erection, so it all worked out perfectly,” says Eric.
"Easier than I Thought"
Eric had never assembled and erected a steel building before, but found that it wasn’t nearly as difficult as he anticipated. “I had no big problems putting it together, all the pieces went together the way I saw in the [erection manual] and when I had questions, like on how to install the eaves, I called and she sent me an (easy to follow) sketch on how it was supposed to fit, no problem,” he says.
“I would work on the building in the evenings and on weekends,” says Eric, “it seemed like more of a hobby and less like work that way. It took me a few months, but I enjoyed doing all the work, myself.”
When Eric was asked if he would recommend Armstrong Steel he jumped at the chance to answer. “A lot of people I know around here think pole barns are the way to go. But I know my building is going to stay standing, and it was a cinch to put up, so, yea, definitely I’d recommend Armstrong Steel,” he continues, “and any company that wants to help me save money is good in my book!”
The reason Eric’s story is a customer success isn’t because Armstrong Steel did anything particularly out of the ordinary. We aren’t telling Eric’s story because we were successful; we’re telling it because Eric was successful. He bought a steel building and he finally realized a dream he’s had for decades – it’s big to him.
To us, a success like that is why we do what we do, every day.
To learn more about Eric's building and other Armstrong Steel Buildings, please visit maps.armstrongsteel.com