Levin Furniture provides a variety of furniture and bedding for the entire home.

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Sam Levin founded Levin Furniture Co. in 1920 after his wife, Jessie, suggested he start “a dignified business,” as opposed to peddling various wares. Vice President of Operations Ward Dingmann says the business was successful from its start because of the long hours Sam and Jessie put in, as well as their dedication to service. This included Sam Levin’s system for credit and installment buying. The company says his use of these techniques was so successful he never had to remove a customer from his books during the Great Depression; he frequently accepted chickens, eggs or other bartered goods for desperately needed mattresses or furniture.

“Since its beginning, this company has been dedicated to providing the best overall customer experience,” Dingmann says. “It is definitely a differentiator in the market if we deliver a quality experience. We are conscious of the importance of the overall value gained from positive association’s customers have with our products and their experience with us. Also, customers can trust us because we are not going to go away – we are a solid business and will be here to continue our services.”

Based in Smithton, Pa., Levin Furniture serves customers from 13 locations throughout Pennsylvania and Ohio. The retailer provides a variety of furniture and bedding for the entire home, as well as a line of couches and reclining chairs branded with the logos and colors of various professional and college-level sports teams.

Recently, Furniture & Interiors spoke with Dingmann about Levin Furniture’s dedication to providing customers with quality experiences, as well as how it is weathering the slow economy.

Furniture & Interiors: How does the firm maintain a high level of service?
Ward Dingmann: Service should be important to all furniture companies, but we live, breath and constantly focus on ensuring we provide great customer service. That includes doing what we say and delivering on what we promise and maintaining a commitment to quality throughout our entire organization.

We are frequently recognized in our market for customer satisfaction. We are not pushy during sales and we own our own delivery trucks and hire our own drivers, so we interact with customers throughout the entire buying process. We are there to help our customers – even with little things – right from the beginning. We also have a call center, so we can work with customers to handle any issues immediately.

F&I: Do you take steps to ensure quality among your manufacturers?
WD: For our exclusive line of logo furniture, we work with a local manufacturing company, with which we have an exclusive agreement on sports-themed furniture. We have a very strong partnership with them and are intimately involved with maintaining quality there.

For other products, our vice president of merchandising frequently visits the manufacturers, tours the plants, inspects quality and follows up with the freight forwarders. As soon as the furniture arrives at our warehouse, we check it for quality. There are three quality checkpoints before a piece of furniture leaves our warehouse to go to a customer’s home, and there is a final checkpoint when the furniture is delivered.

F&I: How is Levin Furniture improving its overall operation?
WD: The market is definitely down right now, but we continue to hold our own. To start, we are focusing on cost containment. We continually review every line item for every cost and find other ways to reduce what we are spending. We have improved our transportation fleet so the vehicles get better mileage and we are cutting down on waste in the office. These changes provide both cost and environmental benefits.