Doenges Ford-Bartlesville Oklahoma-a Genuine Legacy

By Russ Mullin Guest Contributor

To Live-To Love-To Learn-To Leave a Legacy. The term legacy implies leaving something of value for others to enjoy and or benefit from. Before you can pass along or bequeath value you have to earn the value. True value is earned by design, desire, vision, sacrifice, giving, learning , passion and hard work.

Giving Back to the Community. We hear this term a lot and at times  “giving back to the community” echos  a shallow rhetoric theme.  Some businesses have no idea what giving to their community really is. I have seen ads in different forms of media proclaim “We give back to the community”.  Action speaks louder than words.  The business that really gives back value does so incognito. You don’t need to brag about it.

A local, hometown business is dependent on the local population for survival and success. The business must offer their products at a fair price and excellence in service after the sell.  Excellent service is another over used and abused word. When we discuss the  equation of a Legacy  the terms service and excellence must be defined.

What is Excellence in Service? To achieve excellence does this mean satisfy 100% of your customers 100% of the time?  I think we would both agree this is a fantasy. No one person or company is 100% .  But 97% or 98% is a fantastic number to shoot for.

The 3% Brain Damage  Rule. I have found in my business career that there are three people out of every one-hundred I cannot satisfy regardless of what I do.  Sometimes I think these three customers are people who’s  sole goal in life is to complain and spread misery, they are radioactive in any environment they occupy. If you work in any customer service environment you will meet three jerks out of every 100 customers you encounter. To prevent brain damage when you encounter a jerk just say to yourself “one down two to go”.

Excellent Service is Not A Destination. Now I don’t want to leave the impression that the other 97 customers are always in the “hunky-dory” mode. We have our service problems but I can tell you we solve 99%  of all service issues.  You may ask well how about the other 1% ?  Well there is at least one loon out there  for every 100 customers who will never be satisfied. I call it one of  life’s mystery that will never be solved.

So What Does All of This Have to do With The Doenges Legacy? Before you can even be considered a Legacy excellent service needs to be an integral function and part of you business DNA. Excellent Service covers a wide net. You need to think in terms of Service in the following four areas.

• Excellence in Service to Your Customers
• Excellence in service to Your Employees
• Excellence in Service to Your Vendors
• Excellence in Service to Your Community

To build a legacy you need to hit the ball out of the park on all four of these service levels. Then you have to do it for five or more consecutive years.

The Doenges Family has been an Excellent Service Provider in All Four Arenas For the Last 69 Years! The Doenges team has mastered these  four areas of Exemplary Service for 69 years. How many other enterprises, nationwide,  have achieved this plateau of distinction? Well we both know that answer, few and far between. 

Awards Should  be  Designed to Recognize Superlative Achievement. One proud community in Northeast Oklahoma hosts a prestigious Award Program called the Legacy Hall of Fame . According to Julia Crouch the Bartlesville Community Foundation that produces the event; The  2010 Legacy Hall of Fame honoree, the Bill Doenges family, represent generations of giving back to the community of Bartlesville.

Bill Meets Bert 69 Years Ago-The Start of Another Bartlesville Legacy. Crouch  continues, the Doenges family story came to life in Bartlesville in 1941, when William C. “Bill” Doenges, purchased the Ford dealership from Bert Gaddis. Bill had already been working in the car business for over twenty years, operating numerous dealerships, including Tonkawa and Coffeyville. Bill continued to expand his business and bought the Ford agency in Tulsa in 1948.

How Bill and Elizabeth Spreed the Wealth. Crouch added , the car business wasn’t the only love that Bill Doenges passed on to his family. He and his wife Elizabeth really cared about this community. Through their leadership and financial support for dozens of organizations, sports teams, and causes, the couple set a great example for others to follow. That spirit of generosity is seen in present-day Bartlesville, as the Doenges family continues to invest quietly in valuable programs and community projects, including being the longest-running sponsor of an American Legion baseball team in the United States.

Today, two generations later, Doenges Toyota Ford Lincoln Mercury continues its success as a premier auto dealership in Bartlesville.

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