Cole’s Service Center, in Vancleave, Miss., has been owned and operated by the Cole family since its founding 49 years ago. The Cole family strives to deliver great service to the community in which it has deep roots, with 12 aunts and uncles and over 50 first cousins. The road where the shop is located is even named after them! Deanna Cole Eure, who owns the shop with her brother, Wes Cole, shares that her father, Kenneth Cole — the founder of the Service Center — and his siblings “walked home on the road many nights after football, baseball, or basketball practice or games.”
The shop has six employees, not including their mother, Evelyn, who comes in every morning to take the money to the bank. According to Eure, she also doubles as the public relations team in creating a friendly and engaging atmosphere for the office, which is one of the reasons why people keep coming back.
“She visits all of the customers and regales them with stories of Wes and me as children," she said.
Eure thanked DRIVE for the continued growth of her family’s business. After the flood caused by hurricane George in 1998, the shop had to be remodeled. It was around this time they found DRIVE, Deanna says “DRIVE is the reason we are still open and successful.” Her business coach helped her realize how valuable her shop really is, because of this they started to charge properly for their services and see an increase in profit. It was after this instance they committed fully to all of the advice they were given.
It was then that they were “able to run the shop, instead of simply working in it.”
Before she started working with DRIVE, her days were filled with stress, she said, with tasks piling up on the desk to be put off indefinitely. Now, she has a streamlined process figured out with her dedicated staff. The service center now has a shop manager, service advisor, social media manager, and talented technicians to handle every need. Through this process they have become financially stable, the bills are paid, and the shop’s equipment is in great shape. They can also take time away from work, Eure noted, “without having to plan months in advance.”
When not at the shop, Eure is most likely to be seen at her church. She’s the president of the Episcopal Church Women, a member of the Daughters of the King, the Altar Guild, the Flower Guild, and she travels the state of Mississippi as Diocesan Coordinator for the Education for Ministry. If you can’t find her at the church, she’s most likely working on her garden. She’s also proud to say she’s a founding member of the local athletic association that created the Vancleave Athletic Hall of Fame. Here, she gets to document the athletic heroes of her community dating back to the 1930s. The yearly banquet for the inductees is a premier event for the residents, especially the local athletes and coaches.
When the pandemic hit in early 2020, the Service Center made it a staple practice to reach out to the customers in their database to check in on them, with no sales pitch attached, just a courtesy call to check in on their neighbors. As Eure described it, it's “genuine and authentic care.” These actions caused a huge wave of positive feedback and even gave them their biggest year in sales, until 2021 hit, that is. By showing their clientele they are more than just a customer they have created deeper connections with them and reaffirmed the trust they can have in the shop.
Making connections with customers isn’t the only important relationship fostered by Cole’s Service Center's owners. They also love networking with fellow shop owners. Deanna loves hearing about their wins, sharing stories about both the good and bad they’ve experienced. There’s always something new to learn about equipment, programs, and new industry trends and their shop is always looking for ways to improve. “I love hearing about ways to better serve our customers, ways to be smarter for not only their benefit but the shops as well,” Deanna shared.
As she looks forward to the rest of the year, she said she can’t wait to meet more owners and get a chance to, quite literally, talk shop with them, which is why she signed up for the DRIVE EXPO in August. Since she became a Master of Shop Management, she said she enjoys the EXPOs because of the “genuine communication between shop owners” that keeps bringing them back. Deanna calls it “inspiring” and says DRIVE has created an event that is “permeated with comradery and care for everyone.”
Deanna and Wes are also looking forward to a formal celebratory ceremony later this year. The Vancleave Choctaw Live Oak Indian Tribe was recently recognized, and the Cole family donated a piece of their property to them. Deanna shared that they’ve known most of the members all of their lives and can’t wait for this dedication to happen this summer.
