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Dale Kirlin, Jr. and Gary Kirlin 4/23/2003 1:39:00 AM
By Peter Gill
 | Dale Kirlin, Jr. and Gary Kirlin.
|  |  | Dale Kirlin, Sr. and his late wife, Marian, raised both a family and a business. Photo courtesy of Kirlin's Hallmark.
| |  | The three generations of Kirlins. From left to right, Brad Dale, Jr., Dale, Sr., and Gary. Photo courtesy of Kirlin's Hallmark.
| |  | | The Kirlins treat associates like an extended family. Gary and his wife, JoAnn (left) stand outside Kirlin's headquarters with Dale Sr. (center) and Dale Jr. and his wife, Jacque (right). |
Gary and Dale Kirlin, Jr. were honored during a gala luncheon on September 25 in Chicago. Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan was the guest of honor.
During the annual ornament premiere at the Kirlin's Hallmark in Columbia, MO, a member of a local collector's club was picking out some additions to her collection. Store manager Joanne Waterman took one off the counter, telling her she already had it at home and didn't need to buy it. The customer wasn't so sure and bought it anyway. The next day she came back to return the duplicate, amazed that Waterman knew her collection better than she did.
"That's really knowing your customer, and ours appreciate it," said Kirlin's Chairman of the Board, Dale Kirlin, Jr. "Our customers will go out of their way to shop at that store. They will drive by several other opportunities to go there to buy because of the way that store manager knows them and takes care of their needs."
The personal service Kirlin's gives its customers is just what one might expect from a single-store retailer. But with 113 stores, the Quincy, IL-based company is the largest independent Hallmark Gold Crown dealer in North America. Kirlin's is remarkable for its ability to think and act like a small organization while achieving big results.
Dale Kirlin, Sr. and his late wife, Marian, raised both a family and a business. Photo courtesy of Kirlin's Hallmark.
Dale, and his brother Gary, who serves as Kirlin's President, take a special pride in growing the family business one store at a time. They treat each associate as one of the family and each customer as a long-time friend. Through their leadership, example and policies, they inspire 1,500 associates to do the same. The result is a business that sets the gold standard for Hallmark stores, is a model of community involvement, and a leader in affairs of the industry.
"From service to their customers and associates to service to their community and the industry, Dale and Gary Kirlin exemplify all that is good about retailing in Illinois," said IRMA President & CEO David Vite. "Gary and Dale Kirlin, Jr. truly deserve to be named IRMA's 2001 Retailers of the Year."
Gary and Dale Kirlin Jr. grew up in the family retail business. As children they wrapped candy on the ping pong table in the basement of their house and hopped in and out of the family station wagon to run packages up to customer's doors during the holidays. They remember watching with wide-eyed innocence as their father, Dale Kirlin, Sr., spent hour after hour, day after day, year after year working at the business. They paid attention as their mother, Marian, explained the finer points of good customer service.
"We saw the whole thing from the beginning and grew up in it," said Dale. "You have to have seen the dedication that they had to the business and the customers, the work they put in, and the many sacrifices they had to make to get to where we're at."
From the start of his small Quincy candy store in 1948, Dale Kirlin, Sr. listened to his customers, eventually turning his Andes Candies store into a greeting card store at their request. Along with his wife Marian, Dale Sr. built a reputation for serving his customers and watching the bottom line. He expanded, methodically opening new stores - 17 in the first 10 years and 32 more in the following five years. In 1969, he brought in his sons as district managers, eventually giving them control of the company on his retirement in 1976. Their mother taught them customer service. Their father taught them the business of retailing.
"He taught us the art of negotiating. How to negotiate prices, drive a good bargain, things like that," said Gary. "And we learned by watching him, the trust he developed with vendors, how he worked the shows and picked out merchandise."
The three generations of Kirlins. From left to right, Brad Dale, Jr., Dale, Sr., and Gary. Photo courtesy of Kirlin's Hallmark.
Like their father, the brothers employ a careful and calculated strategy to keep the company growing. They set up spacious, clean and well-lit stores and fill them with the very latest in cards and gifts. They take advantage of their large customer base and sizeable warehouse, yet operate with the flexibility of a small chain.
A great deal of Kirlin's success is based on Hallmark's Gold Crown program, a premium-level store format with enhanced merchandise, services, and marketing programs. Kirlin's leverages the Gold Crown program, along with its own innovations, to drive traffic and keep customers returning despite greeting card competition from grocery, department and discount stores.
Each Kirlin's store meets the rigorous requirements to earn Gold Crown status, and all are big enough to stock the entire Hallmark product line, from photo albums and gift wrap to ornaments and stationery. Kirlin's is renowned in the business for expanding on Hallmark's concepts with its own exclusive offerings.
Gifts, candles, and collectibles sourced by Kirlin's make up about 40 percent of its merchandise. These products, including Boyd's Plush Bears, Precious Moments products, and Dreamsicles (figurines) by Cast Art, allow Kirlin's to capture an even greater share of the gift and collectibles business in their marketplace. About 30 of the Kirlin's Hallmark stores also sell candy, some of it fudge made at corporate headquarters.
"Hallmark is a wonderful company to align yourself with. But the way Kirlin's increases its business is to bring other products in," said Robert Ricciardi, president of About Face Designs in Highland Park, one of Kirlin's vendors. "People go into Kirlin's to buy a card and may impulsively buy a gift. They've got such a nice mix ranging from impulsive gift items and nice gifts to collectibles."
A Hallmark executive scans a report comparing the sales of premiere holiday ornaments among the 4,500 stores in the network. Kirlin's numbers are far different from those of other Hallmark chains. So naturally, the executive thinks there was a mistake and calls Kirlin's to double-check. But it's no mistake. While most dealers' sales were basically flat, Kirlin's showed increases of more than 16 percent from the previous year.
"We had calls from three different people at Hallmark," Gary said. "When they found out it wasn't a mistake, they wanted to know what happened. What did we do that was different?"
Kirlin's simply did what no other dealer in the network did - it promoted the premiere ornament sales with coupons for customers and achievement awards for store managers. While Hallmark offered its customers a special ornament in November for anyone buying three of the holiday ornaments, Kirlin's upped the ante by offering a coupon for those wanting to buy the three ornaments right away.
Kirlin's also split its company into five groups of stores based on sales volume to create an in-house contest. Store managers competed with each other for the largest sales increase within the groups and Kirlin's offered two airline tickets to winners in each group. Customers also had a chance to win airline tickets by buying ornaments.
The promotions worked. Kirlin's not only outsold all of Hallmark's other stores, but did so by a landslide. It was the kind of marketing campaign more easily accomplished by small chains or single store operators, but because the Kirlins maintain such good communications with their store managers, they were able to play the part of the small guys and amaze everyone at Hallmark.
"It's really a tribute to how we pulled this off better than some of the moms and pops," Gary said. "Trying to get 113 stores to move in a single direction like we did is not easy."
Kirlin's also takes advantages of its resources as a good-sized chain.
While the owners of smaller companies limit themselves to regional trade shows, Dale and Gary travel to national shows, finding the latest trends and products. Kirlin's was on the cutting edge when Precious Moments products first came out 23 years ago, and again with Beanie Babies a few years ago.
The company stocks its shelves with items most Hallmark stores have no capacity to buy. This year it is offering a quaint nativity set shipped from the Orient. Because Kirlin's buys for more than 100 stores and has capacity in its 92,000-square-foot warehouse, it was able to purchase three container loads full. The sets will sell at $19.95 each.
Kirlin's doesn't hinge its success on sheer numbers of stores, but steps very carefully into growth opportunities. This year, Kirlin's store numbers will remain static.
"A lot of people think success is in the number of stores. The Kirlins think success is what they bring to the bottom line. And that is very important," said retired Hallmark executive Doyle Reed.
As a general rule, the Kirlins select only one of every three expansion opportunities offered to them. They don't make it easy on themselves to open a new store. Their lengthy list of requirements includes the right demographics, the right balance of competition, and a sound building lease. They project a prospective store's sales volume and then limit their growth to what they can effectively manage.
"We just figure that we don't have the ability and time for stores if they're going to have low volume," Dale said. "It's just as much work to run a small, low-volume store as it is to run a large, high-volume store."
The banquet hosted by the Kirlins on the eve of their annual managers' meetings is a night like no other at the company. More than 100 store managers and district managers from across the Midwest gather for a festive evening capped off with presentations of the company's most coveted awards - the Store of the Year Award and the M.A.K. Customer Service Award.
The Kirlins generate excitement for the awards ceremony, raising tension in the crowd by naming the runners-up first. When they announce the winners, the room erupts in shouts and cheers, even tears. Cameras flash and store managers leap from their chairs to hug the winners. It is obvious these awards represent the pinnacle of pride and achievement at Kirlin's.
Gary and Dale make sure associates know how much they appreciate their efforts. They visit the winning store, handing out pins and a trophy and giving each associate a full day's pay. The brothers top it off by taking store associates and their spouses out to dinner.
The M.A.K. Award, instituted in 1989, is the Kirlin's way of honoring their late mother, Marian A. Kirlin, and her legacy of outstanding service. Gary and Dale learned to focus on customer service by watching their parents deal with customers one-on-one. Their mother, more than anyone, stressed treating each customer specially.
"Mom believed you take care of the customer and ultimately you'll be successful," Dale said. "It's something we have learned and re-learned."
Partly because of their mother's influence, the brothers were spurred into focusing on customer service standards after an especially difficult year for the business. They instituted the company-wide service program called H.A.T.S. (Hi, Ask, Thanks, Smile) in 1986.
H.A.T.S. has become a focal point for their associates. Used in training new staff, reinforced at manager's meetings, and stressed whenever customer service is discussed, the program's principles have become second-nature for many Kirlin's associates. More than just helping the customer find a gift, to them it means getting to know the shopper personally and treating him or her as an individual.
"We treat the customer the way we would want to be treated," said Sandy Allen-Schelsky, manager of the Kirlin's Hallmark in Crestwood, MO. "We get to know them as people. We just get out and do things for people."
Store managers get to know their regular customers on such a personal level that they visit them in the hospital, help them with a local charity drive and send them birthday cards. One manager even accompanied a customer to her church for a Sunday service.
It's 10 a.m. on the last Friday in July and Dale and Gary sidestep their busy schedule for an important appointment: Associates at the corporate offices in Quincy are celebrating their co-workers' July birthdays in the lunchroom. Dale Sr. is there, along with Kirlin's Advertising Director Rob Ebbing, tables full of secretaries and bookkeepers, and a few guests. They sing "Happy Birthday" then dig into cake and ice cream.
The Kirlins treat associates like an extended family. Gary and his wife, JoAnn (left) stand outside Kirlin's headquarters with Dale Sr. (center) and Dale Jr. and his wife, Jacque (right).
It is here at the Quincy headquarters that the feeling of a family-run business begins.
Even though the chain now stretches from Oklahoma to Ohio, Gary and Dale make sure no one feels lost in the shuffle of a big company. They visit stores frequently, keeping managers and associates in touch with the corporate base. The brothers have an open door policy, solicit staff opinions, and encourage associates to call them by their first names.
The Kirlins make a special effort with new store managers, bringing them to Quincy for five days where they meet family members and fellow associates. The relationships that develop between corporate staff and store managers bridge the miles between far-flung stores, often making associates feel more than just a part of the company - many feel like part of the family.
"There's definitely a family feeling," said Elaine Snyders, store manager in Alton for 22 years. "I remember Gary's and Dale's kids when they were small. I've watched them grow. They'd bring them in, along with their wives, to meet us. These people don't remove themselves from you."
Executive secretary Mary Locke said she thinks of Dale and Gary like her own sons. The brothers consider her part of their family as well. She's been to the Kirlins' major family events, and they, in turn, have been to her's. District manager Stacey Grosenheider said it was these kinds of relationships that made her want to be part of Kirlin's team.
"It made me feel that these people feel a part of each other. I just can't imagine Kirlin's not in my life," she said.
These relationships exist because the Kirlins make special efforts to get to know their associates.
"It's easy to maintain that close-knit family type of feeling when you've got four or five stores, but it's more difficult when you're running 100-plus stores in 10 states," Gary said. "Still, we think that we've managed to do that."
During one of his many store visits Dale Kirlin, Jr. sat down and listened as a store manager excitedly told him how well the Yankee Candles were selling. The manager wanted to move other merchandise aside and double the traditional four-foot display for the candles. Other managers agreed this was a good idea. Using a flexibility more common among single-store retailers, Dale and Gary immediately approved the request for several stores. Almost immediately, sales of the candles doubled based on that single change. Kirlin's soon made similar adjustments at the rest of its stores.
The Kirlins make it a regular practice to listen to their district and store managers, and they take notes. More often than not, they follow through with changes, allowing managers the authority to make necessary adjustments. As a result, managers feel encouraged to make more suggestions.
Associates are also asked to participate in developing Kirlin's training program, which continues to be refined from the inside-out, using input starting at the store level. The entire chain benefits from a very consistent program which is flexible enough to accommodate programs and technology changes in the stores. But it also results in building company ownership on the store level.
"They let me feel like it's my store," said Snyders of the Alton store. "They give you the empowerment to make your own decisions and they back you up."
Jim Crusinberry, Hallmark's multiple account manager dealing solely with Kirlin's, said store managers don't simply work their 40 hours and go home. Because they are given a certain amount of control, they are dedicated and focused on achieving their goals.
This empowerment leads to staff loyalty, and the loyalty leads to very little turn-over in an industry known for turn-over. The average Kirlin's manager stays with the company seven years, and 17 of the managers have stayed 15 years or more. Associates stay partly because the Kirlins treat them well and offer fair salaries and benefits. But to a larger extent, they stay because they are made to feel part of the business.
The staff managed by Allen-Schelsky in Crestwood, MO enjoys working at the store so much that they recently rejected job offers from a neighboring jeweler who promised them more money and less time on their feet. They told Allen-Schelsky about the offers, but laughed about them. Many have worked at Kirlin's for 10 years or more and they weren't about to leave. Allen-Schelsky has managed the store since it opened 17 years ago.
"It's my baby. These are my associates," Allen-Schelsky said. "They too feel like it's their store, their company. A lot of our decisions go into running the store."
Regular customers have a similar connection with their local Kirlin's store, Snyders said. "We tell our customers when we win an award. They feel like this is their store too. When we want to make a change, we feel like we have to ask them first."
Dale and Gary respect their associates' loyalty and work even harder for them because of it.
"The decisions we make affect 1,500 people ," Gary said. "So we're very cautious and critical of ourselves. Because these people count on us to make the right decisions."
When Hallmark Cards, Inc. wanted to get a foothold in Cleveland, Ohio, the hometown of its chief competitor, American Greetings, company executives sat down and formulated a strategy. They needed a strong Hallmark store to establish their presence, a store that would not only do a good job representing Hallmark, but one that would meet with unqualified success, paving the way for more Hallmark stores to follow. They turned to Kirlin's Hallmark.
Gary and Dale learned from their father what it means to develop a bond of trust with vendors. They have maintained those relationships even as a new generation of Hallmark executives have taken over. Because of that trust and Kirlin's unmatched success, Hallmark has developed a unique level of confidence in the retailer. Hallmark executives often consult Kirlin's when making decisions affecting its stores. In essence, Kirlin's stores are models for other stores in the network.
The Kirlins leverage their success by strongly influencing Hallmark's standards. Kirlin's has become so influential within the network that Hallmark knows it has a 98 percent chance of selling one of its programs to the rest of the network if it can get Kirlin's to buy into it first. Hallmark looks to Kirlin's to get a sense of gaps in their product mix and to find ways of improving on everything from price points to packaging.
Because of its size and influence, Kirlin's is allowed some input on the criteria Hallmark sets for its stores. A couple of Kirlin's associates serve on Hallmark's Catalog Advisory Board, giving Kirlin's some influence on what goes in the Hallmark catalogue for the rest of the stores in the network.
"Kirlin's stores take advantage of the programs that Hallmark offers and the Kirlins have always been generous in sharing their experiences and expertise with us," said Don Hall, Jr., Vice Chairman and Executive Vice President, Strategy and Development, Hallmark Cards, Inc.
While Hallmark and Kirlin's leaders don't always see eye to eye, there's always some give-and-take between the two companies. They have so much impact on each other's success. Just as Kirlin's counts on its Gold Crown status to stay ahead of its competition, Hallmark knows that Kirlin's has the expertise on the front lines of retailing.
"Over the years we've had some interesting discussions when they've changed things," Dale said. "We just feel we're closer to the field then them. There have been ups and downs, but we've gotten through them. It's like a marriage."
In 1993, after the Mississippi River overflowed its banks and flooded various communities in its wake, Kirlin's approached Precious Moments with the idea of creating a special ornament to honor volunteers who helped out in the disaster. The design was that of a man filling sandbags with his shovel. The piece was made available throughout the country. Because Kirlin's stores were located in several towns that flooded, Gary and Dale turned it into a community service project, donating $5 from the sale of each piece to meet the needs of flood victims.
For as long as Kirlin's has graced downtown Quincy, the company has been in service to the community. Dale Sr. constantly gave back to the community with both time and money and his sons learned from his example.
The Kirlins are always willing to give when the need is there, and they don't cut corners when it comes to their community. They spent a half-million dollars refinishing their own building on the high-profile corner of Fifth and Maine streets. The building became the crown jewel of downtown and won an Illinois Main Street Award for historic preservation, providing a real boost to the Historic Quincy Business District.
When the Quincy community was building the multi-million-dollar Oakley-Lindsey Community Center, the Kirlins not only helped raise funds, but donated generously. The board room in that building was donated in their mother's name.
The list of organizations that Dale and Gary have served runs the gamut from the Rotary Club and Boy Scouts to the Quincy Chamber of Commerce and City Council. Community service is a part of both their lives.
The Kirlins also encourage their associates to set similar good examples in their own communities. In Moline, store manager Claire South started a card shower for nursing homes in Moline. Assorted 99-cent greeting cards were set out by the register and customers were asked to buy a card or two for nursing home patients who couldn't get out to shop themselves - the store filled a box with 275 cards.
"I'm proud to work for a company that cares about its community. That's the kind of people I want to work for," South said.
The Kirlin's take a leadership role in the industry through their involvement with the International Council of Shopping Centers, the National Federation of Independent Business, and IRMA.
Dale, Jr. has been an IRMA Director since September 1996. His father held a similar spot with IRMA from 1961 through 1964. Of all the organizations that Kirlin's is affiliated with, Dale, Jr. calls IRMA one of the most effective and supportive of all.
"IRMA is the one with the best payback and the most support to our business," Dale said. "I look at some of the programs and things IRMA supports both politically and socially, it just fits so well with what we believe in.
"There's no other organization we've ever belonged to where it actually paid us to belong. It's very unusual and very unique."
For a business that has long staked its success on cultivating a family relationship with associates, it is only fitting that the Kirlins would turn to one of their own family members for future leadership at the company.
Dale's son Brad, 30, is following a path to future leadership that is developing slowly and carefully under his father's watchful eye. He learned the many facets of the business through a variety of jobs from part-time warehouse work while still in school to his current full-time position as district manager.
While his knowledge in the workings of Kirlin's Inc. increased tremendously since coming to work there full-time, Brad's understanding of the company's unique relationship with its associates has developed throughout his life.
Ever since Brad was a young boy walking into the corporate offices with his father, Kirlin's associates treated him like a part of the family. They giggled with him as a toddler stopping by the store for a taste of candy and listened to him as an active boy telling stories about his baseball games. Associates always made him feel that the office was his home-away-from-home.
"They've been like a family since I was a kid," he said. "Just like a big, extended family."
Brad's personal relationships with many associates evolved into something more professional after he returned from college and started his career. True to his roots, he never lost his personal connection with them, even when they became his colleagues. If anything, he developed a new level of respect for their dedication and loyalty to the company.
"I've gained a lot of appreciation for people throughout the entire chain. I appreciate what they do and what they mean to the company," he said. "We have a unique situation here and I realize how important that is to our future."
Brad may be a manager and family member, but he makes it clear to associates that he is one of them. He feels part of both the corporate team and the unique bond his fellow workers have with his real family. At Kirlin's, there was never much of a difference.
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