All three Tum-A-Lum locations are along I-84 in Oregon, an advantage that provides high visibility to Portland-based suppliers who daily drive past on their way to other locations. Frequent supplier visits allow Tum-A-Lum to increase its customer response times and keep up with customer needs in an increasingly “always on” workplace.
Driving Technology
Dittmer takes pride in Tum-A-Lum’s desire to focus on the ever-changing technological needs of his customer base.
“The lumber business has never been a leader in technology,” Dittmer said. “In part, that’s due to the fact that lumber owners believe that their business is relational. It’s face-toface. Keeping up and leading in technology hasn’t been all that important. You have to keep up, but it hasn’t been important to lead.”
Leadership in technology is shifting, Dittmer said. His new customer base is using technology at a greater frequency and it is important for any LBM dealer to be a focused on the tech space. The presence of a large Google server farm and its employees near Tum-A-Lum’s The Dalles location reminds him of this fact, Dittmer said.
The efforts in tech need to happen not just in store operations, but in marketing and branding as well. “We didn’t have a social media strategy until just recently,” Dittmer said. “Now we have a strategy. We’re on six social media sites. We’re revamping our website. We’re working to be much, much more interactive with our customers.”
Dittmer acknowledges that statistically, most customers who come into his store have already done a lot of online research before walking in the door. If Tum-A-Lum hasn’t met that customer’s requirements from a social media and website technology point of view, then that customer is going to go elsewhere.
“It’s brand marketing,” he said. “It’s difficult to measure the impact of social media. We’re still trying to find ways to measure the results, but we’re certainly getting in front of customers, and that’s what we need.” New products, new techniques and new designs are all aspects of the company’s social media focus said Dittmer.
Next Generation Leadership
Dittmer said that while customers were the initial focus of Tum-A-Lum’s social media strategy, potential employees also make up part of the social media audience.
“When I first started in this business, people were proud to be a part of the home building industry. Now, we’re not a sought-after industry. We have to find ways to encourage younger people to join our organizations,” he said.
To bring in younger, more technologically focused employees, Dittmer has introduced a management training program at Tum-A-Lum. A new hire in this program will “sit in each chair in our company,” he said. A current management trainee just finished two months working with a Tum- A-Lum contractor customer.
“It’s one thing to see the business from across the counter,” Dittmer said. “It’s another to see it from the end of a hammer.”
As Dittmer and the staff at Tum-A-Lum focus on leading- edge technologies, business growth remains the foremost objective. Acquisition isn’t out of the question as Dittmer keeps his eyes set on like-markets in the region. The successful remodel of the Hood River location has inspired talk of a similar project in The Dalles, as well as possibly relocating and upgrading the Pendleton location.
In an area of the country as scenic as the Pacific Northwest, it’s likely that any future Tum-A-Lum store remodels will include an inspired view of the world.
