You’ve heard all the old cliches on how to gauge a person. I remember when I was thinking of getting engaged a wise old male relative related to me that I should observe how my wife treated her Dad if I wanted a peek into my future. While I’m sure the same applies for women evaluating men in how they treat their Moms, in business, it’s more complicated to gauge a company and its leader…and in South Florida…well as the say in New York…forget about it.
Given that I, Paul Ramkissoon, am in the web technology and digital marketing space…well let’s just say…I’m not sure that reviews and testimonials are always believable. So I figured I needed to throw in my two cents on Celso Balan and B&B Rolling Door Company …read on to find out why.
I had the pleasure of being introduced to Celso Balan on a fateful day back in 2009 by his nephew Michael, who at the time was an employee of mine. Given the length of what has blossomed into a wonderful long term business relationship and friendship, I wanted share a different perspective on Celso and B&B Rolling Door Company. I want to share a vendor’s viewpoint, because in business…how you treat your vendors says an awful lot about a firm and its leader. Ok sure, again client testimonials are fine, etc. but I don’t have a commercial door needing installation or servicing, so I had to rely on my observations to gain insight into Celso Balan and the amazing company, B&B Rolling Door Company, he has built in Miami over the last 25+ years.
Well for starters when we met, Celso needed a website…”nothing too flashy and fancy he said…I just need to do it so clients know I am still kicking”. After all, his book of business already read like a who’s who of Miami’s rolling door businesses from large warehouse, manufacturing and distribution businesses to just about every major retail and wholesale major mall/ strip mall anchor tenant you could think of. So we naturally obliged and built a website for a firm that did not really need one for marketing purposes, but instead just because they felt every business should have one. In all that time from then to now, all I kept hearing were great things, never a bad word from a client or employee…not a single negative to this day.
As the years rolled on, we got a call about a pain point with Celso’s business software and ended up developing a custom solution integrated inventory to accounting to GPS on the vehicles, etc. This undertaking unfortunately went off the tracks in terms of timeline, Celso though was cool as a cucumber, never got upset and was patient throughout. Not one word in anger, not one moment where we felt he was nothing but in our corner. In retrospect, I can’t think of a single other client scenario in 20+ years of business where we were behind on schedule on a software delivery and the client was so gracious. No doubt that is why his firm’s client retention is through the roof and his business continues to go from strength to strength.
I could go on and on, but simply put I have found in Celso someone, who achieves great things yet remains humble, honest in business dealings and a terrific leader for his team. Like his clients who have found a wonderful resource in B&B Rolling Door Company amidst the murky waters of South Florida, we likewise have found a valued long term client. Speaking of clients, Celso adds a few notables, like the Miami Marlins and Miami Dolphins to his client list. Not surprisingly though, even to this day, even with all the large accounts, no client is ever made to feel too small. If you take anything from this article, take this…just meet the man, in fact meet any one of his team members and you’ll “get it” right away. If I had a commercial door this might have been a client testimonial, until that day though…for now I can only report on what I have seen and witnessed over the past several years as a vendor and I remain pleasantly amazed.