Advanced Business Equipment is our January Small Business of the Month

“We know our local businesses and put our customers first.” 

For 40+ years, Advanced Business Equipment has been providing the top technology to the local business community. The family-run business attributes its long-term success and retention to putting its customers first.

Read our full Q&A with Advanced Business Equipment below…

Tell us a little about the history of the company.

Advanced Business Equipment is a 2nd generation, family run business. The current CEO, Kevin Jackson, is the son of founder Harry Jackson who started ABE in 1981 with just 4 employees, selling the top technology of the day: typewriters and fax machines. Kevin joined the family business in 2002, becoming CEO and President upon Harry’s retirement in 2008.

Little known fact or trivia about your company?

The average client relationship with ABE is 18 years. Customer retention is high because, as an independently owned and operated technology provider, we can be more flexible than the manufacturers. We know our local businesses and put our customers first.

What are you most proud of about the company?

The long tenure of our sales, delivery and service tech team members. The average tenure of our staff is 12+ years. This means our customers know their sales reps by name and frequently know their service technicians by name as well. By the same token, our sales reps have had the opportunity to develop long-term relationships with their customers and have a solid understanding of their needs.

Best advice you’ve gotten for operating a small business?

It’s not enough to offer great products. You must make a name for yourself in offering high-quality service and support after the sale. We have earned brand loyalty, and the trust our clients place in us, over a span of 40 years of excellence in service and support.

Tips for other small businesses?

• Engage with your community. Get to really know the businesses and people through local Chambers and professional organizations.
• Prioritize customer support. Your job isn’t finished after the sale—it’s just begun. Continue to grow your relationships by serving your customers’ needs.

What’s next on the horizon?

We want to help customers adapt to the challenges that have come about due to COVID, many of which seem to be here to stay for the foreseeable future:

1. Affront the work labor shortage by getting more out of the technology they already have, with software integration for workflow automation that can streamline workflow processes, HR onboarding processes, etc.
2. Adapt to shifting employee landscapes with enhanced technology for remote work situations and staff collaboration tools, such as SmartBoard technology
3. Continue to keep abreast of new technology offerings to protect their employees and their businesses, such as the thermal body temperature scanner.
4. We also want to help clients protect themselves against the costs of cyber attacks and protect their environments, both remote and on-premise, from the growing threat of ransomware, through our Security Operations Center (SOC) and network protection. We want to guide customers to put the right data protection strategy in place and formulate a disaster recovery plan to minimize any disruptions.

Our tagline is “Together, We Are More”. How does that apply to your business or what does it mean to you?

“Together, We Are More” means, for ABE, working with our community to help it grow. ABE can only be as healthy as the communities it serves throughout WNC and the Upstate.

For our for-profit businesses, this means transparency and honesty in our recommendations for their needs—not overselling or overcharging. We want to recommend solutions that best fit their needs and help them grow.

For our non-profit customers—and we partner with a lot of them—this means not only transparency and honesty but also supporting them with time and/or donations when possible.

In addition, we offer a free nonprofit spotlight where we focus on a nonprofit mission and story through blog posts and shares, marquis signage and a digital billboard ad, all put together and coordinated by our marketing department.

“Together, We Are More” also means finding new ways to interact and promote interaction amongst small businesses in our community, helping each other to grow, such as the #smallbusinessshoutoutchallenge we recently spearheaded with 8 Chambers in WNC and the Upstate, for National Small Business Week. We plan to make this a regular event for NSBW.