Past Winner Stories
Indianapolis Southside Harley-Davidson & Buell
www.indysouthharleybuell.com
In addition to Harley Davidson and Buell motorcycles, Indianapolis Southside Harley-Davidson & Buell carries a complete line of genuine Harley Davidson Motor Parts, Motor Accessories, Motorclothes, Collectibles and Buell Apparel and Accessories. Southside Harley-Davidson & Buell also features a state of the art service department. We are Indiana’s oldest factory authorized exclusive Harley-Davidson & Buell dealership.
The Challenge
Building and moving to a new store and leaving a downtown Indianapolis location where there had been a motorcycle since 1919.
In 1997, Harley-Davidson Motor Company approached the Schulteti family with a new national marketing plan. They wanted the Schulteti family, who had owned a Harley Davidson dealership in downtown Indianapolis since 1947, to move to a new location. The marketing plan called for a more even distribution of Harley-Davidson dealerships throughout the Indianapolis area. For many years the only two dealerships in Indianapolis had existed less than five miles apart from each other.
Initially, the family wanted to stay at their downtown location where they had been a motorcycle dealership at the same site since 1919. They reasoned that since motorcycle riders had been coming there for nearly 80 years, it made sense to stay in the same location.
Although the building at 701 S. Meridian Street was three stories tall and had 13,000 sq. ft. of space, the retail and service departments together consumed 10,000 sq. ft. of space leaving a scant 3,000 sq. ft. of space for offices and inventory. After careful consideration, the Schulteti family decided to explore other options that would allow them to better serve customers through an expanded service department with state of the art equipment and increased retail space that would allow for a greater variety of merchandise.
Thus began the search for a new home for Indianapolis Southside Harley-Davidson and Buell. The Schulteti’s had several important criteria for their new location. It needed to:
The Challenge
Building and moving to a new store and leaving a downtown Indianapolis location where there had been a motorcycle since 1919.
In 1997, Harley-Davidson Motor Company approached the Schulteti family with a new national marketing plan. They wanted the Schulteti family, who had owned a Harley Davidson dealership in downtown Indianapolis since 1947, to move to a new location. The marketing plan called for a more even distribution of Harley-Davidson dealerships throughout the Indianapolis area. For many years the only two dealerships in Indianapolis had existed less than five miles apart from each other.
Initially, the family wanted to stay at their downtown location where they had been a motorcycle dealership at the same site since 1919. They reasoned that since motorcycle riders had been coming there for nearly 80 years, it made sense to stay in the same location.
Although the building at 701 S. Meridian Street was three stories tall and had 13,000 sq. ft. of space, the retail and service departments together consumed 10,000 sq. ft. of space leaving a scant 3,000 sq. ft. of space for offices and inventory. After careful consideration, the Schulteti family decided to explore other options that would allow them to better serve customers through an expanded service department with state of the art equipment and increased retail space that would allow for a greater variety of merchandise.
Thus began the search for a new home for Indianapolis Southside Harley-Davidson and Buell. The Schulteti’s had several important criteria for their new location. It needed to:
- be in a highly visible location on the Southside of Indianapolis
- have easy access to the highways and byways for Harley-Davidson owners
- be reasonably priced and allow for plenty of parking
They found the perfect location at the southeast corner of the Southport exit off Interstate 65 after many months of searching and began building their future home.
In gearing up for the move, the dealership, which had only 17 employees (including family), began a rapid hiring process designed to dramatically raise the number of employees. The goal was to get them trained and involved in the business before moving so there would be fewer growing pains. By the time they moved in 1998, the number had risen to 32 employees.
This hiring process was crucial because Southside Harley-Davidson had built their reputation on knowledgeable sales and service staff. For the first time, employees would greatly outnumber Schulteti family members and everyone wanted to make sure that change was a positive one.
About the same time, the dealership purchased a computerized inventory system with a point of sales component. Although it was risky to try implementing a new system right before the upheaval of a major move, the Schulteti family felt that the longer everyone had to get used to the new system, the easier the transition to the new store would be.
The Solution
Falling back on the family values that had served Indianapolis Southside Harley-Davidson and Buell so well for more than 50 years.
Today Southside Harley-Davidson’s state-of-the-art facility has nearly 50 employees and four generations of the family working. The shiny new building has 35,000 sq. ft. and the service area size has tripled. The store is open seven days a week and Harley riders from all over the country stop in regularly.
One of the things that have helped make the past four years a smooth ride for Southside Harley-Davidson is a training program that includes videos and tests for parts, service and clothing. Human resources has become a much more important component of Southside’s success and a future goal for the company is the development of additional in-house training resources.
A focused approach to serving customer needs from sponsoring a H.O.G. (Harley Owner’s Group) Chapter to offering training seminars (complete with certificates) to customers and special charity events, has allowed Southside Harley-Davidson to maintain and grow their customer base.
As soon as they moved to the new location, the Schulteti’s began gradually upgrading the computer inventory system and adding modules such as service, major units (incuding motorcycles) and book-keeping. With Harley-Davidson’s help they began to implement design integration, a 21-week plan profitability. Through diligent use of the inventory management system, Southside has been able to better track merchandise trends to meet customer needs.
But the Schulteti family didn’t stop there. They quickly focused on another retail outlet –this one on the World Wide Web. When Southside Harley-Davidson went online one year ago, it was surely a step that founder George Schulteti could never have imagined when he began working in Milwaukee’s Harley-Davidson factory in 1922.
Although the website catalog is managed by Harley-Davidson Motor Company and all stores offer the same merchandise, it is clearly the family’s commitment to service that keeps the mouses clicking on their website when customers could go to any Harley-Davidson site.
Future plans for the store include an addition to the facility to enlarge the service and storage area, high-speed internet access and raising a fifth generation of Schulteti’s to carry on the family tradition of serving Harley-Davidson and Buell riders in Indiana.
Perhaps the most telling sign of success is the longetivity of the Southside Harley-Davidson employees –the average full-time staff member has been with the company eight years –and the loyalty of customers, many of whom are second and third generation Harley-Davidson owners.
In gearing up for the move, the dealership, which had only 17 employees (including family), began a rapid hiring process designed to dramatically raise the number of employees. The goal was to get them trained and involved in the business before moving so there would be fewer growing pains. By the time they moved in 1998, the number had risen to 32 employees.
This hiring process was crucial because Southside Harley-Davidson had built their reputation on knowledgeable sales and service staff. For the first time, employees would greatly outnumber Schulteti family members and everyone wanted to make sure that change was a positive one.
About the same time, the dealership purchased a computerized inventory system with a point of sales component. Although it was risky to try implementing a new system right before the upheaval of a major move, the Schulteti family felt that the longer everyone had to get used to the new system, the easier the transition to the new store would be.
The Solution
Falling back on the family values that had served Indianapolis Southside Harley-Davidson and Buell so well for more than 50 years.
Today Southside Harley-Davidson’s state-of-the-art facility has nearly 50 employees and four generations of the family working. The shiny new building has 35,000 sq. ft. and the service area size has tripled. The store is open seven days a week and Harley riders from all over the country stop in regularly.
One of the things that have helped make the past four years a smooth ride for Southside Harley-Davidson is a training program that includes videos and tests for parts, service and clothing. Human resources has become a much more important component of Southside’s success and a future goal for the company is the development of additional in-house training resources.
A focused approach to serving customer needs from sponsoring a H.O.G. (Harley Owner’s Group) Chapter to offering training seminars (complete with certificates) to customers and special charity events, has allowed Southside Harley-Davidson to maintain and grow their customer base.
As soon as they moved to the new location, the Schulteti’s began gradually upgrading the computer inventory system and adding modules such as service, major units (incuding motorcycles) and book-keeping. With Harley-Davidson’s help they began to implement design integration, a 21-week plan profitability. Through diligent use of the inventory management system, Southside has been able to better track merchandise trends to meet customer needs.
But the Schulteti family didn’t stop there. They quickly focused on another retail outlet –this one on the World Wide Web. When Southside Harley-Davidson went online one year ago, it was surely a step that founder George Schulteti could never have imagined when he began working in Milwaukee’s Harley-Davidson factory in 1922.
Although the website catalog is managed by Harley-Davidson Motor Company and all stores offer the same merchandise, it is clearly the family’s commitment to service that keeps the mouses clicking on their website when customers could go to any Harley-Davidson site.
Future plans for the store include an addition to the facility to enlarge the service and storage area, high-speed internet access and raising a fifth generation of Schulteti’s to carry on the family tradition of serving Harley-Davidson and Buell riders in Indiana.
Perhaps the most telling sign of success is the longetivity of the Southside Harley-Davidson employees –the average full-time staff member has been with the company eight years –and the loyalty of customers, many of whom are second and third generation Harley-Davidson owners.