Gulf Coast Shutter & Overhead Doors

"We strive to provide quality service for our customers. We are sorry that you feel you did not receive exceptional service and will take the appropriate action to make corrections where needed. The owners and staff of Gulf Coast Shutter genuinely do care and provide service to our customers well after the sale. We appreciate your business and want to try to support you the best way that we can. We will review our policy and the scheduling of service work to see if we cannot make some changes to improve the process."

"We at GCS take pride in providing the best products for a customer that meets and exceeds their needs and requirements and to also educate the customer so they can make an educated decision. We appreciate the feedback and understand that this customer was upset due to an email that our new salesperson had sent out and mistakenly copied the customer. We apologize and do not condone this action but do provide an open door policy for our employees to discuss issues that bother them and to help them work through it and grow as an individual and improve the business. In this case, our new salesman intended only to express his concern and frustration of the competitive pricing after spending an ample amount of time preparing 9 different quotes for this customer. There was nothing negative about the prospective customer in the email and the salesperson attempted to contact the customer by phone to apologize without any luck or return calls. Since we do not see the other quotes, we have to make some assumptions based on what we know. We do know that some of our products are exclusive and no other dealer in this area can purchase or sell them. We also know the cost of the products, cost of doing business, and cost of having well trained members on our staff. We believe our installers (not subcontractors) are the best in the area because HP is all they do and focus on, and they have many years of experience in doing it. GCS carries exclusive products and there are several cases where the products we carry are superior to other product offerings due to the Florida Product Approval Testing. As well, when we pull a proposal together, we consider not only current but also future changes in the building code; we also understand some of the variances between insurance companies and building inspectors and what they expect to see. There are many factors that can influence price and variables to consider and we try to be as thorough as possible and also do it in a manner that maintains the safest environment for our installers and protects the homeowner. This has been explained to our new salesperson and is now part of our training to help educate anyone new that joins our team. We may not always be the least expensive up front but what we do provide is going to be correct and will help the customer make an educated decision that’s best for them to include selecting a competitor‘s products and services. To stay at the forefront of the industry, GCS is a member of the International Hurricane Protection Association and also very active in the local American Institute of Architects and Community Association Institute. We know that we are the only hurricane protection company in the Florida Panhandle that is a member of the three organizations and active in them. We do this because we believe it helps us to be the best we can be and provide the products and services an individual or business may need. The downside to not using subcontractors, being safe (e.g. using lifts in place of ladders at times), fully insured, and being members of the IHPA and other organizations is that it’s not free and comes at a cost; a cost we believe worthy. We have specialized in hurricane protection since the opening of our doors back in 2001. We work to be the local experts in relation to products, building code, understanding potential changes within the insurance industry and building code, and installation experts. We don’t win every job but do make it a point to try and educate prospective customers to make the choice that is right for them and their situation. We wish this customer and his family the best and based on his investigation we are sure he’s made the best choice that fits their needs. Because of his feedback and other input we did modify our training and oversight for new salespeople to help improve our processes, their education and mitigate potential for problems."