Experts in Fire
Woodland Direct, Inc. offers a multitude of indoor/outdoor fire-related amenities
Woodland Direct, Inc. thrives through its mission: “Learn. Shop. Enjoy.” Andrew Ingram, founder and President, explains the slogan that permeates the company culture:
“Learn—we want to provide learning opportunities through several venues.
Shop—we want to offer the most valuable shopping experience.
Enjoy—we want to build lasting relationships with loyal customers.”
These three facets of the enterprise are communicated to everyone involved with the corporation—from vendors to team members to customers—in various ways.
Learning
Based in Auburn Hills, Michigan, the firm provides sales and service for all things fire, including indoor gas and wood fireplaces with all the associated accessories, outdoor fire pits and custom fire features along with barbecue grills and outdoor kitchens. Ingram says it is one of the largest e-commerce companies focused on the fire-products market.
The learning process began for Ingram as he grew up working in his father’s fireplace-installing venture. He continued his family heritage by launching Woodland Direct in 2004. Under his father’s tutelage, Ingram gained understanding of the industry and to that he added the internet market, not available during his father’s tenure, which offers abundant opportunities to reach more customers.
“The ‘Learn’ aspect of our mission is important to us and we have endeavored to create the top knowledge base in our industry,” Ingram says. Under the heading “Learning Center,” Woodland Direct’s website offers educational articles to customers for every category of sales. For instance, under “Patio Heaters” you can learn “everything you need to know about the benefits, performance, cost, safety and maintenance of natural-gas patio heaters.”
Consumers can also sign up for emails and receive special offers, tips and articles such as “The Top 5 Fire Pit Articles of 2018” with titles including “Fire Pit Safety and Maintenance” and “Is it Safe to Use a Fire Pit Under a Covered Patio?”
“To keep up with ever-changing products and requests from consumers, Woodland Direct consistently adds new learning content and innovative products to its catalog,” Ingram says.
All Woodland Direct sales team members are certified in gas, wood and pellet technologies through the National Fireplace Institute (NFI). Ingram acknowledges that NFI has a “pretty tough certification process.”
Individuals from other departments must acquire certification as well. “That requirement has produced the largest assembled team of NFI-certified experts in the world,” Ingram adds.
Woodland Direct’s employee training schedule runs year-round, except during the fourth quarter—the busy time of the year. Each week, manufacturers come into the Auburn Hills facility to provide hands-on training with their products. “We want to stay on the edge of what is new by having employees participate in continual and ongoing training for all products,” Ingram says.
Shopping
The “Shop” portion of Woodland’s mission focuses on relationships with vendors and manufacturers. As an authorized dealer for over 250 manufacturers in the fireplace, chimney, wood stove and outdoor living markets, Woodland Direct provides customers with access to a huge variety of products.
Woodland Direct can accommodate designers, architects, builders and contractors looking for something unique or custom for hotels and resorts, schools and hospitals or country clubs and parks. Because of the company’s size, it is able to work on projects of any scale.
While working with contractors and builders, the sales team of 45 will daily encounter a project that could be considered high-profile. “Our national reach has allowed us to be involved with a number of VIP customers,” Ingram says. He doesn’t feel comfortable sharing specific names as he values their personal privacy—particularly of those people whose celebrity status would draw inordinate attention.
“E-commerce facilitates the shopping process by allowing us to put a storefront in everyone’s home or office and in every ZIP code in the United States,” Ingram says. “It provides access to our customers from our perspective; but from the customers’ perspectives, they can conduct business on the job site through their iPads by going to our website. And they can call us at any time.”
Woodland Direct has two shopping categories. First, there’s cash and carry—the product that the homeowner can either come in and pick up or order and have delivered, such as a fireplace screen or a fireplace tool set, a grill or any consumer-friendly accessories.
The other side of Woodland Direct’s trade is technical in nature and represents the majority of its sales. This requires an industry professional to be involved in the process at the installation level. “Sometimes, we work directly with the designer, contractor or architect on a project. Other times, the clients of these professionals will find something on Woodland Direct’s site that they like, and we will initially help them choose the items that will accomplish their desired effect. Then the contractor will be looped in at a later time,” Ingram says.
One additional value for professional purchasers is that Woodland Direct provides special buying programs and will assign a dedicated account representative to each professional as well.
Enjoying
“In our mission, the facet of ‘Enjoy’ in part represents phenomenal connections with our team, our vendors and our customers. This has allowed us to grow like we have,” Ingram says. Woodland Direct’s team genuinely wants everyone to develop a great bond that creates win-win scenarios for customers and employees alike.
Of particular importance is attention to building an employee family. “Day to day, we build relationships and create an environment where people like to come to work,” Ingram says. Team activities in the summer include a kayaking event on a local lake in Michigan, bocce ball and volleyball. Also, their involvement in multiple service projects each year helps build a sense of team pride in their community accomplishments.
“One especially enjoyable event stands out,” Ingram says. “During the summer of 2018, Woodland Direct was featured as a leading small business by the Detroit Lions and Comerica Bank Small Business Program. We took the whole team to the Lions game. It certainly was a highlight for us; but then, so is the satisfaction of seeing ‘Learn. Shop. Enjoy.’ culminate in final creations—featuring fire—that will last for the enjoyment of all.”