Family vibe helps Polo's Point S stand out in Texas

SAN ANTONIO — In a market overshadowed by the major retail tire chains, Polo Rodriguez Jr. seeks to differentiate his tire and auto service business by building lasting relationships with his customers.

That strategy begins with instilling that philosophy with each employee at his two outlets in San Antonio — Polo's Point S and Extreme Point S.

Rodriguez, 41, is a first-generation American and a second-generation tire dealer.

His father, Polo Rodriquez Sr., has operated a tire store in central San Antonio just blocks from the Alamo since 1983, and Polo Jr. cut his teeth in the industry working for his father before seizing an opportunity in 2005 to launch his own dealership.

"We make a strong effort to get to know our customers," Rodriguez said, acknowledging that not having 10 stores or more requires some creative thinking to differentiate from the competition.

This article first appeared as part of our Small Shop Success stories in the April 7 edition.

"We know so many of (our customers) on a first-name basis that when they come in, it's kind of, you know, the Olive Garden vibe — 'When you're here, you're family' — because we do feel like we have personal relationships with them."

Striving for that personal connection runs top to bottom in Rodriguez's two outlets.

"It's something I've tried to instill in them," he said of his employees, "… to be conversationalist and be active and get to know people. But they took it so much further than that. … They make friends, and people come in and look for them specifically."

That strong bond between the dealership's employees and customers is strengthened by a low turnover rate among workers, Rodriguez said, noting he has to deal very seldom with employees' leaving.

"I believe they try and emulate some of my core values, and I think that's what made us … successful. More than anything, (it) is just being a human behind the counter, not just a salesperson."

That strong sense of building family bonds both within the dealership and with customers is tied at least in part to the Rodriguez' Hispanic roots and the large Spanish-speaking population in San Antonio.

Nearly two-thirds of San Antonio's population of 1.5 million residents is considered Hispanic or Latino by the U.S. Census Bureau, and within that community there is diversity, with immigrants from throughout South America — Columbia, Venezuela, etc. — complementing a considerable percentage of Mexican heritage.

A large percentage of those residents, even those born in the U.S., is more comfortable conducting business in their native language, Rodriquez noted, and as such having a staff that is bilingual is essential doing business in and around San Antonio.

On any given day, Rodriguez added, at least half of customer interactions at his shops will be in Spanish.

That being said, Rodriguez noted he and his team have worked diligently to present a business that's not necessarily perceived as being an "Hispanic business." Aside from the national chains, the vast majority of local independent tire dealers/repair shops are Hispanic, he noted.

That corollary applies especially to his second store, Extreme Point S, located in Live Oak, a growing neighborhood in northern San Antonio.

Rodriguez took over a building there two years ago that previously housed a powersports sales and service business called Extreme Sports. He decided to keep the name Extreme when he reopened it as a tire store in part to play off the brand equity of the name and give it an identity separate from Polo's Point S.

Rodriguez anticipates that location will be more commercial focused, as there are quite a few trucking operations — both large and small — in that area. Business at that location hasn't hit expectations yet, he said, but the signing of two fleet accounts there should move that unit in the right direction.

It was a decade earlier, in 2005, that Rodriguez — in his early 20s and attending classes at nearby University of the Incarnate Word — opened his first store, Rodriguez Tire & Auto, in the western San Antonio suburbs.

That happened while he was still working part-time at his father's store in downtown San Antonio.

An opportunity "too good to be true" presented itself, he said, and with the help of his family and a few dedicated employees, he converted that bit of real estate into an entity that today has 10 service bays, 16 employees and is the anchor for a business that has grown to more than $4 million annually.

That's a far cry from what it was initially, though.

While there's sufficient traffic now to support his dealership, "at that time … it was very common where traffic would back up because there was a cow in the road.

"It seems ridiculous now, … but people would go by on a horse. There were small ranches close by, … and they would go right down the side of the road on a horse and looking for lost cattle or something."

He said he and his team believed it was an area "primed for growth and residential," and that has proved accurate as middle-class neighborhoods grew up around that location.

Opening his second location was as much a matter of necessity as it was opportunity, Rodriguez said, because his business had reached the point where he was having trouble scheduling all the business at hand at his one location and also had too many qualified employees.

That meant growing to a second location to accommodate both.

The new location is in an area that's growing and demographically secure enough to allow "us to dictate what we want to sell, … quality products and services."

Rodriguez is a pioneer in another way as well. He was the first dealer in Texas to convert his business to the Point S program — but it wasn't something that he had been considering prior to it happening. In fact, he calls it a "happy accident."

Point S was holding its annual owners' meeting in San Antonio, and a business partner invited him to come to the gathering and meet the Point S team and dealers.

Over dinner, Rodriguez learned of the program's basics in a casual setting, and a few months later Point S reached out to him to gauge his interest.

At first, Rodriguez said he was attracted to Point S for the buying power it would bring his business, but eventually he was won over by the camaraderie among Point S franchisees, the range of programs (buying, training, etc.) available and the fact that he would be able to retain his own name on the dealership in partnership with the Point S branding.

At his first Point S owners' meeting, "we were greeted by so many people that have been in the industry as long as we have, or sometimes longer, … but when they're open and talking to you and inviting you in, you know as a fellow owner they want to see you succeed and want to see the best for your business."

And much like his family approach to running his own business, Rodriguez said he discovered Point S runs much the same way.

"It's really a network of owners, and most of us are like-minded. And it's really one big extended family that you become part of a bigger corporate family or a bigger business," he said, noting that he can pick up the phone and discuss a problem or opportunity with any of a dozen or more fellow Point S business owners.

The biggest hurdle for him in joining Point S was the rebranding of his business, but in the end he came to recognize the program doesn't restrict him to selling the "flavor of the month," but instead allows him to "have some say in what's available."

In fact, he was so sold on the program that his father decided to join him as a Point S dealer based almost entirely on his recommendation. That makes three Point S points of sale in the San Antonio area.

Considering his experience working in what essentially is a bilingual business environment daily, Rodriguez said he hopes other Point S colleagues will reach out to him if they have questions about that aspect of doing business.

In terms of employee recruitment and retention, Rodriguez said employee referrals are an important element in recruiting new employees and offering decent benefits, and treating employees fairly helps keep good employees on board.

Most of Rodriguez's auto technicians are either ASE-certified or are working toward such certification.

To foster that, he often offers to cover the expenses of a tech's travel to a training site, and that at times can include the employee's spouse/family, turning that potential time away from family into a mini family vacation.

Getting back to ways to stand out in the San Antonio community, Rodriguez points out his dealership is involved in a number of community philanthropic endeavors, including one he was working toward the weekend of April 4-6 — the San Antonio CarFest, an annual charity event organized by the Community of Automotive Professionals (CAP) in that area.

During the event, 25 donated vehicles were to be repaired and restored by CAP member companies to be re-donated to local residents in need, as determined by area non-profits.

Polo's Point S donated 20 sets of tires toward that project.

Polo's Point S' other major community projects are support for stocking a local food pantry dedicated to ensuring school-age children have access to healthy lunches throughout the summer and school holidays, and a local charity's annual back-to-school backpack-stuffing project.

For both of those, Polo's Point S/Extreme Point S seek to engage their clientèle as well, asking customers to donate canned goods for the former, for example, or tie the donation of a backpack to the purchase of a set of tires.

Looking ahead, Rodriguez said his next target is wholesale. He's secured some land in the area where he hopes to build a wholesale tire distribution business in the coming years to complement his retail and commercial endeavors, one that potentially could tie back to the Point S network at the point when the group starts adding more points of sale in Texas.

'We make a strong effort to get to know our customers.'

Tim Smith, Polo's Point S and Extreme Point S