Featured business profile
Total Office Products and Services
It’s Monday, 9:45 A.M. and the phone is ringing in the office supply store. Meanwhile, you are sitting on the floor in the copy room covered in toner trying to fix a printer cartridge with an unfurled paperclip. The question is, who do you want answering the phone in the office supply store? Tracey the trainee at “The Eraser Junction”: “Um, yeah we sell printers. I didn’t know laser printers used cartridges. I thought they just used a laser beam. This wasn’t in the video. Hold on. I’ll ask Josh. JOOOSH! JOOOSH! It’s a customer . . .” Or Chris Vessels at Total Office Products & Service (T.O.P.S.)? Chris has over 27 years in the office products and industry and the knowledge that comes along with it. The answer is clear. If trying to find the right products and services for you office has got your head spinning you know who to call.
T.O.P.S.’ office and main warehouse is located in a large but unassuming building at 3326 Krammers Lane. On the outside T.O.P.S. looks like any other warehouse, but when you walk inside you notice two things. First, you are greeted by Betty Vessels’ smile, good humor, and helpfulness. Next, you notice a row of framed documents on the wall. Initially, you may think these are awards, diplomas, and certificates of some kind. But when you get closer you realize that they are appreciation letters from customers. The datelines on the letters range from the early 1980s’ to the present. One letter begins: “Just wanted to drop you a line to point out something we’ve grown so accustomed to—T.O.P.S. wonderful service!” By comparing the letters one can trace the evolution of office technology over the years. Some of the early letters were obviously written with a typewriter while the later ones are in e-mail format.
Over the years, the office products business has changed along with office technology. Around 15 years ago the large “big box” office stores began moving into Louisville leading to the closure of many smaller locally owned office products businesses. But even without the gargantuan advertising budget, prime locations, or purchasing power of these chains, T.O.P.S. has managed to stay competitive by offering not only superior customer service, but competitive prices. It is not always true that one has to choose between the low prices of the big box store or the customer service of the local independent business. T.O.P.S. gives you both! The Vessel family business also offers unique services, such as a “Stock Room Maintenance Program” where T.O.P.S. employees make regular visits to you company’s stock room, take inventory, and automatically resupply you with any product that is running low.
Behind the low prices and good service, however, there is a story. A story that any of the employees at T.O.P.S. would be happy to tell you. Once more, it is a story with familiar places and character because it is a local story. T.O.P.S. was founded in 1979 by lifelong Louisville resident Bill Vessels. Betty, Bill, and Chris all enjoy living and working in the area. “Louisville is a small big city,” Chris says. “It is a close-nit community; everybody knows everybody. But the city is big enough to support many types of businesses. What I like most about my job is the different kinds of people I get to meet from local lawyers and doctors to executives to people with home offices.” Chris explains that their relationships with their clients are strong. He tells about the time a local doctor forgot to buy milk for his morning cereal and called T.O.P.S. because he knew they were supposed to make a delivery to his office that morning, and T.O.P.S. brought him milk. It is just this kind of “extra-mile” contribution that locally owned, independently operated businesses bring to the community, and why LIBA is their advocate.
Total Office Products and Services
3326 Kramers Lane
Louisville, Kentucky 40216
(502) 636-9278
(502) 636-3269 fax
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