2020 Is Definitely One For The Books!
From a global pandemic that shut down factories and brought our industry to a screeching halt to the crazy weather we have seen not only in New England but throughout the United States, there’s nothing that 2020 hasn’t throw at us. Yet despite all odds and everything working against us we pulled together as a team to supply restoration parts uninterrupted throughout the entire pandemic. This was no easy feat and couldn’t be accomplished without loyal customers such as yourself who continued to order from us despite everything going on in the world.
2020 didn’t come without its set of unique challenges that showed us not only where we excelled but more importantly where we fell short. Throughout the year we changed and adapted to the environment in our industry and we would like to take this opportunity to share with you everything that happened in 2020 and all the exciting stuff coming in 2021. Join us on this adventure as we say goodbye to 2020 and welcome 2021 with open arms and optimism.
2020 Year In Review
COVID-19
- Much like everyone else we greatly increased our safety procedures & sanitation in accordance with local government mandates & recommendations that will continue long after COVID-19
- For the safety of our Employees & Customers we shut down our showroom and suspended parts pick-up, we know this one was not favorable but was a sacrifice we had to make
- To help curb the spread in Connecticut we played our part by cancelling our cars and coffee events
- Our warehouse was able to maintain the highest fulfillment rate in company history
- When areas struggled others jumped to the call helping out wherever they could. Marketing & Developers were helping with customer service and others were moved to the warehouse to keep up with the demand and get you your parts fast
Sales & Customer Support
We’ll be the first to admit that this area of our company struggled to recuperate after COVID-19 hit the states. In just 1 short week we lost over half of our call center representatives and struggled to get new hires in the door. During this time others in our industry closed their doors in accordance with local stay-in-place orders which caused the largest demand for our services in company history with 50% less staffing. These individuals worked overtime, coming in early and staying late to provide you the service you were accustomed to. In order to accomplish this we had to make many changes to our operations.
- Introduced a brand new phone system that reduced hold times by providing more options to get you in touch with the correct representative
- Introduced an industry first with a brand new email ticketing system providing answers faster and more accurately than ever before
- Introduced a brand new live chat feature to help customers online rather than over the phone
- Overhauled our RMA/Returns process to make it easier than ever to return unwanted or damaged products
- Brought on more customer service representatives than ever before to reduce hold times and keep up with increasing demand
- Added a comprehensive system for monitoring backorders and drop shipments to better notify our customers of potential delays
Warehouse Operations
Unlike our call center, the warehouse was for the most part uninterrupted throughout 2020, but still faced its own set of challenges. With demand at an all-time high for our product and services, the warehouse had to extend its operating hours to keep up with the demand. In doing so they were able to maintain a record fulfillment rate which is still ongoing today.
- Improved shipping rates by working directly with UPS to pull live rates from their databases
- Increased shipping safety procedures that required all shippers to wear PPE to reduce the risk of spread to our customers
- Re-introduced international shipping to over 200 countries to help people around the world with their restorations
- Worked with overseas manufactures pre-COVID to make sure our shelves were stocked and ready aiding in our record breaking fulfillment rate
- Had most in-stock orders shipped the same day the order was placed (a feat even Amazon couldn't maintain)
Marketing & Development
Despite many of our Marketers and Developers stopping all projects in March to assist in other areas, they were still able to accomplish many things that aided our success in 2020. The most important and their daily goal was to work with all departments to be as transparent as possible during these trying times. While many projects are on hold until 2021 we’d love to share what they were able to accomplished in 2020.
- New Parts & Brands
QA1
Top Street Performance
- An all new and improved SS396.com Blog featuring more articles than ever before
- A brand new self-service help center to help people get answers while hold times were high
- Newly updated online PDF catalogs to aid while USPS struggled with transit times
- A brand new Monthly newsletter to keep our customers up-to-date with everything going on at Ground Up, Inc. SS396.com
- More ways to save with the introduction of weekly deals, clearance products, new products, and more
- A whole new car line - yes they somehow found the time to add 1970-1988 Monte Carlo parts to our extensive catalog offerings
Customer Cars
Help Us Choose December's
Car Of The Month!
When we set out to design an all-new blog we had one goal in mind and that was a better showcase of our customer’s success stories. To date, we have crafted over 200 articles featuring our customer’s cars giving other restorers inspiration for their own projects and instilling confidence in our products. In addition to this, we have also introduced Customer Cars Of The Month where we handpicked the best customer car of that month and featured it. This month we want your help in choosing what car should be featured. We searched for the best submission and now we are leaving it up to you to vote on your favorite!
Continue scrolling to cast your vote today!
Continue scrolling to cast your vote today!
Continue scrolling to cast your vote today!
What's Coming For 2021?
2021 is shaping up to be an exciting year for Ground Up, Inc. with many things set to roll out over the course of the next 12 months! While we are not going to give away all our “secrets” we are happy to share some of the things that have us most excited.
- A brand new look and feel for our emails
- An all new desktop shopping experience
- An all new mobile shopping experience
- More brands and even more products
