Flanders, who has two daughters, one grown and the other, Kenna, a student at HPA, sees nothing but opportunity in Kona. “If you’re just good at customer service,” he said, “people will come back and also spread the word.”
BY BOBBY COMMAND
WEST HAWAII TODAY
bcommand@westhawaiitoday.com
New business center owner focuses on customer
Business also relocating to Kona International Market
It’s going to be a smaller than Zac’s, but the owner of the new Kona Business Center said he hopes a commitment to customers will return big results.
“Many people have this short-term philosophy of maximizing profits,” said Steve Flanders, who recently purchased the business center portion of Zac’s Photo and Copy Center in Kailua-Kona. “I’ve told my people that you can only say no to a customer once, and if you do they’ll never come back.”
Flanders, who is in the process of relocating the business to the new Kona International Market next to HPM Building Supply, said he will concentrate on copying, shipping, bindery, lamination and private mailbox needs. He has set up temporary quarters in an office next to the old Zac’s, which closed its doors in October.
“The old business was involved in so many different things: Calendars, film, cards, copy machines, but Zac’s first love is photography. He just wanted to get out of the business,” said Flanders. Zac’s Photo-Big Island of Hawaii now services the Hilton Waikoloa Village.
“I decided to focus on the business center — FedEx shipping, copies, lamination, bindery, business cards — and to try to spend more time with the customers, just trying to be nice and suggesting things.”
Flanders said he will try to cut the time it takes to complete all printing jobs, but will also try to help when dealing with a rush order. He also said he won’t charge for bad copies, and will also guide customers into finding the least expensive solution for their needs.
“I’ll tell them, ‘OK, you want color copies, but do you think that you can get the same effect by using pastel papers?'”
Flanders said Kona Business Center’s new location, scheduled to open sometime this week, is also part of the attractiveness of the new shop. The new quarters will allow customers to avoid the traffic on Kuakini Highway and the tight parking lot at North Kona Shopping Center, where Zac’s has been located.
“There is that construction nightmare on the highway, and you know how hard it is to get around in there, especially after they put up that fence (to restrict access to the Kona Brewing Co. pub),” he said.
Flanders, 50, was born in Utah and lived in St. Louis from 1983 until 2004 when he and his wife, Pam, now a teacher at Hawaii Preparatory Academy, moved to the Big Island. Flanders said he was an employee of AT&T for 15 years before he purchased a Kwik Kopy franchise.
He sold the business after joking around with his employees that he was going to move to Hawaii. “We visited and liked the area,” he said. “I told someone that we were going to spend a million dollars on a 700-square-foot house on Maui, and he asked me if I would sell him the business. The rest, as they say, is history.”
Flanders, who has two daughters, one grown and the other, Kenna, a student at HPA, sees nothing but opportunity in Kona. “If you’re just good at customer service,” he said, “people will come back and also spread the word.”