The Satellite Shelters, Inc. sales team (from left)—Jeremy Zaayer, Billy Sevchek and Matt Lawellin—will work with companies on multiple projects. The familiarity enhances the relationship with clients and allows them to readily cater to a company’s specific needs.

Satellite Shelters, Inc. improves efficiency at job sites. This 1260 Model mobile office was set up on an energy project in New Town, North Dakota.

If there is an art to blending in, Satellite Shelters, Inc. has mastered it. For nearly half a century this national provider of temporary and permanent building solutions has worked to build a reputation for being “The First in Space”—and is doing everything it can to live up to that billing.

Satellite Shelters is a company boasting one-stop shopping for essential structures in the time-pressed construction world. For purchase, rent or lease, these units provide workspace, storage space, gathering areas for meetings or lunch breaks—and much more.

“We cater to various clientele, including construction companies that need to expand available workspace,” says Jeffrey Seamans, branch manager in Hamel. “Our buildings often blend into the background at job sites, so people tend to overlook them until you point them out. I never noticed them until I started working here in 2009. Once you see them, you start to notice them all over the place.”

Satellite Shelters has been called upon to quickly set up offices and base camps for disaster relief areas after flooding, tornadoes and other natural disasters. The company also designs and delivers multiuse office buildings, temporary and portable classrooms for schools, medical modular units, specialty buildings and blast-resistant safety shelters.

Personalized Customer Service

The Hamel branch, established in 1988 on the outskirts of Minneapolis-St. Paul, serves clients in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota as well as in parts of Iowa and Wisconsin. In Hamel, the fleet has doubled in size since 2012.

One of the key reasons for the branch’s success is the personal touch offered by all 17 of its staff members. Seamans says the “tip of the branch spear” includes sales team members Matt Lawellin, Jeremy Zaayer and Billy Sevchek, along with drivers Dave McDonough, Dennis Adickes and Kyle Gabrelcik.

“Our drivers work full time delivering and picking up units year-round, each man averaging about 75,000 miles annually,” Seamans says. The drivers, as well as the service team, have a combined 61 years of employment at Satellite Shelters.

Seamans lauds all of his employees for always helping each other out and giving great customer service.

“These will be the guys on the other end of the phone helping you get what you need,” Seamans said. “We don’t use call centers or online forms to communicate with our customers; we use people. We feel that so much is lost when you can’t communicate directly. Our team will be the single point of contact for your company. Their responsibility is to understand your company, what you need, where you’re going and who your people are.”

Seamans, along with operations manager Matt Hilde, yard supervisor Stan Parochka and service supervisor Paul Poepping, stress the company’s seven core values: Put Others First; Wants to Wow; Safety First and Always; The Best at What We Do; Proud Work Ethic; We Are Winners; and We Don’t Cheat at Solitaire.

The last core belief might not make sense to outsiders, but it becomes crystal clear when you discover it’s based on character. At Satellite Shelters, it’s a reminder to do the right thing even when nobody is looking. This and each of the other values are reinforced daily companywide.

The result is that, for the past four years, the above-mentioned drivers have never taken a sick day and there have been zero recordable injuries per OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) guidelines over the past decade. Any size, any shape, single—or multi-floor—all are delivered by a trusted team of drivers.

Multiuse Units Offer Logistical Value

To bolster its customer service initiatives, the team shares its considerable knowledge of the practical application of products with every client. This personal touch is critical because shelter functions and sizes can vary greatly, and the uses extend far beyond what people generally expect.

The concept of modular space solutions has grown significantly over the last 10 years. “A lot of companies are just learning about all of the products we have for solving space issues,” Seamans says. “It’s becoming popular because we can deliver temporary and permanent building solutions to the market faster and more cost-effectively than traditional site construction. Regardless of size or complexity, Satellite has a division or team that specializes in it.”

What’s more, blast-resistant technology—introduced into the company’s product offerings about five years ago—enhances safety for workers in challenging settings. Last year, one of the company’s BRMs (blast-resistant modules) was put to the test during an explosion at a refinery in Superior, Wisconsin. Seamans says workers were in the shelter and remained safe.

“I can’t say anyone would or wouldn’t have been injured without it, but I do know that everyone went home,” Seamans said. “Our BRMs are designed and deployed specifically for that reason.”

Satellite Shelters’ two biggest competitors recently merged, and while many companies may look at such behemoths coming together as a disadvantage, Seamans and Hilde look at it as an opportunity to improve the service that Satellite provides and enhance the company’s position in the market.

“It provides us with an opportunity to capitalize on increasing our customer base because of how we operate,” Hilde says. “Our clients can trust they’ll get people on the other end of the phone who have experience and who will work with them from beginning to end.”

“Year after year, I am amazed at the synergy and collaboration of this group,” Seamans says. “There are so many components that go into the process of delivering a building and setting it up. The sales reps understand the scope and type of building the customer needs and the time frame in which it’s needed. They also understand the site challenges, safety procedures and specific regulatory requirements. Our operations department must ready the building and adjust the floorplan to the customer’s specifications. Our drivers and set teams (people who work directly with loading and delivering the shelters) have to carefully consider logistics to get the building to the site safely, then prep and install it. This doesn’t happen successfully unless our communication and workflow process are cohesive between all of our people.”