Meet Paul House of Red Wing Shoes!
Previously we interviewed Bill Gardner, owner of Red Wing Shoes in Richmond, Virginia and got a better insight into the story of how Red Wing came to Richmond and what sets them apart from the competition. Part of that was the amazing staff that they employ, so we were happy when Paul House of Red Wing Shoes Midlothian, a long-time employee of the Gardner Family and Red Wing Shoes, agreed to sit down and share his thoughts.
Paul has been with Red Wing Shoes and the Gardner family for more than 20 years and attests that his favorite part of the job is “being nice to customers”. As for his favorite Red Wing shoe, Paul said that his favorite shoe from Red Wing is “stock number 875, which is an old, old boot. It’s been in the line for 40 or 50 years.”
Paul’s reason for preferring that boot is a testament to Red Wing boots. When he was younger he was buying K-Mart shoes for $11.99 a pair roughly every month since they kept falling apart. His father got mad and asked him how much he was spending on shoes in a year and spent the $60 to buy Paul a pair of good Red Wing 875 boots, having him repay him at $12 a month.
“I wore those boots for 13 years and got them resoled 5 times,” Paul said, but that’s not where the story ends. While working for a home builder Paul was trying to get on the best grew and the boss asked him three questions: Did he have a truck, which he did. Did he have quality tools, which he did. And what type of shoes was he going to wear. When Paul showed his Red Wing boots he got the job as most of the “young punks” as Paul called them wore sneakers at the time, which did nothing to protect the feet.
Perhaps the best part of the interview with Paul highlighted the amazing customer service that Red Wing gives to all of their customers, returning, new, and potential. When asked about his best customer story, Paul talked about how a man came in to the store right after he started, mad and slamming his boots down on the counter.
The man angrily stated “these shoes are killing my feet and what are you going to do about it?” Paul stepped around the corner and asked Frank [Gardner] what they should do for the guy, showing Frank the shoes. Frank looked at the boots in Paul’s hand and said “well, that’s not our shoe.” It turns out the boots were Iron Age, a competitor of Red Wing at the time.
Paul wasn’t sure what to tell the man, to which Frank responded “Well here’s what you do. You give him this bag of socks and tell him that that’ll help him be a little more comfortable until he can come and get a really good shoe.”
Paul went back to the man and explained that the shoe wasn’t a Red Wing shoe, but offered the socks, explaining that they should help with his comfort and that when he was ready to come back and get a Red Wing shoe. The man, of course, wasn’t sure and stopped several times on his way out of the store to be sure that it was ok for him to take these socks, which Paul assured him it was.
What makes this story even better is that the next time the Mobile Unit went out to Phillip Morris, the same man came out and bought a pair of Red Wings, and continued to buy Red Wings from that day forward, even bringing out others, telling them “Come on, get some Red Wings. You oughta let these guys help you. They’re gonna treat you right and take care of it if there’s a problem.”
According to Paul that was his first experience with an irate customer, but Frank always said “if you can win with them [irate customers], you got it. They’re the toughest, so if you can take care of the tough guy, everybody else is easy.”
Paul House of Red Wing Shoes, and all of our employees, from the now retired Frank Gardner to Bill and his entire staff, are committed to just this type of customer service. Visit one of their three convenient locations and learn what sets Red Wing Richmond apart from the competition – it’s not just the boots. It’s the people.
