Gene and Susan Walker have owned the Overhead Door Company of Brunswick™ for 22 years. Gene was hired and trained at the age of 19 at the Overhead Door Company of Savannah™ and started back in the garage door business when he returned to his hometown of Brunswick, giving him 35 years of experience in the industry.
One day, Gene attended a PTA meeting at a Brunswick school for his son, where Susan was introduced as a member of the Glynn County Board of Education. Gene struck up a conversation after the meeting and before they knew it, they were the only two left in the building. During this conversation, Gene learned that Susan had a background in bookkeeping, and asked if she would like to help him out at the company. She agreed and the two were married two years later.
When asked what it’s like to work with family as a distributor, Susan said,
It can be challenging, but for the most part we enjoy working together. We try not to step into each other’s areas and we always discuss and make large decisions together. The most important thing is to respect each other’s boundaries and keep a sense of humor.
-Susan Walker
Working together and keeping a sense of humor appears to be working for the Walkers. The distributorship was recently featured in International Door & Operator Magazine as a top performing door dealer for their strategic planning, diversification and continued steps toward business efficiency and improvement.
While they continue to strive for improvements, their core focus remains the same.
We always offer a quality door, because you are doing the customer a disservice by selling them anything else. We practice good, fundamental customer service, and we always do what we say we’ll do.
- Gene Walker