In business for over 100 years, Kieffer’s Appliances, which is located in Lansdale, Montgomery County, has always been a go-to resource for trade and residential customers looking for appliances in the Tri-State area.

One of the owners of Kieffer’s Appliances, Jace Kieffer, has talked about the company’s long-standing history as a premier appliance resource in the area as well as how the company has pivoted during the pandemic to meet the high demand.

“Pre-covid, our business model was ‘Just In Time,” said Jace Kieffer, who oversees all operations for the company. “Our suppliers had full warehouses that we could access each day, bring to our warehouse and deliver within a couple of days. When the pandemic hit, production stopped so those warehouses were not able to be refilled. We knew immediately that our business model had to adapt.”

Jace led the shift.

When production ramped back up again, Kieffer’s expanded their warehousing capabilities by almost quadruple, adding two new warehouses that house four times the amount of inventory that they’ve held in the past.

He admits this was a huge change for the business, but a necessary one.

“We had to rethink our entire sales and operations process and while we made some big changes, they were all imperative to stay relevant for our customers.”

Another obstacle the company had to overcome was the change in time that sales professionals and operations were spending on each order for a customer.

Before the pandemic, a customer would place their order and only interface with the sales representative once or twice, the order would then be sent to operations, who would obtain the products, coordinate and deliver. With the influx of calls to check in on orders that were taking longer to fulfill and the multiple changes in operations that resulted, the company began experiencing a strain on the staff.

“Pre-pandemic, an order was touched 1.5 times,” said Jace. “Now it’s touched 5 or 6 times. It’s because of backorders, multiple deliveries for each order, and customers calling in asking for their products, all for the same end goal.”

With additional warehouse space, more products are brought in much earlier than before – if the vendor makes and releases them, they buy what they see is available as much as they can.  Having a dedicated sales representative assigned to each customer helps control the chaos and keeps the client informed-with good and not-so-good news.

Each Sales Representative now also has a logistical coordinator who handles the processing of each order, places the order with the manufacturer, and schedules installation, freeing Operations to deal with the stressed supply chain.

Pre-pandemic, Jace says that they could get any appliance in a week. The reality is that the wait time can be much longer, but their new team approach and expanded warehouse capacity enable them to serve the customer as well as possible in this new environment.

What To Do If You’re Looking For Appliances?

Kieffer’s Appliances is still one of the largest suppliers of appliances in the region and houses a large enough inventory that wait times should not be as long as they would be if a customer went anywhere else.

Jace gave this advice to homeowners thinking about purchasing new appliances as part of a renovation project.

“If you’re starting a project, think about appliances before anything else! Make sure you come in to choose what you want and get your order in. That will set you up for success!”

The team at Kieffer’s will be honest about order times and maintain open communication throughout the entire process. They know that they’ve put a winning process in place during an unprecedented time and offer their own installation and delivery crews so that homeowners can rest assured that when their appliance is ready, it will be installed professionally and efficiently.

They are happy to report that they are busier than ever and with their winning process in place, look forward to assisting you with your appliance needs!

A Little History

Jace’s great-grandfather started the business as a tire shop in Philadelphia in 1917. It was a time when people purchased blocks of ice that were frozen in an icebox – the first refrigerator. The family business began selling the iceboxes and the rest is history.

Fast forward several years later, Jace grew up in the business, doing everything from filing papers to cleaning appliances to going out on deliveries and assisting with marketing while in college.

While it was never the plan for Jace to work for the family business, he found himself helping out after college and what started out as a short stint while looking for a job has turned into a 16-year position with the company that he helped double in size.

“He grew the business by double,” said Brenda. “New perspective, recent business school, an understanding of social media I think all contributed to his success. It’s been wonderful to have a 100-year-old business with new blood!”