In preparation for our Customer Service Manager’s retirement, we welcomed Brenton Conner to the Induron team almost 3 months ago to work alongside Barry Peters and learn the tricks of the trade. Brenton will be taking on a range of responsibilities, including taking orders from customers, writing up orders and bills of lading, completing cycle counts in the warehouse, managing batch tickets, making adjustments to inventory, checking color matches, monitoring shipments and more.
We are thrilled to officially introduce Brenton as our new Customer Service Manager. Learn more about Brenton in the Q&A below.
Q: Tell us about your background, experience in the paint/coatings industry and how you came to work for Induron.
A: I began working in the coatings industry in college working at Lowe’s. I spent about 3 years in the paint and flooring departments working with mostly DIY and architectural coatings. After graduating, I was recruited into Sherwin-Williams’ management program. I was trained at the Auburn, AL store and was eventually asked to move to the Bessemer location during my training period to work as the Assistant Manager, as they had lost their previous assistant and were in a tight spot. I spent three years helping to manage that store and dealt with products ranging from DIY coatings to what could be considered “light industrial” coatings.
Q: Are you seeing any new trends in the coatings industry? If so, please describe.
A: A growing focus on the environmental impacts of humans and their actions on the planet. Certain states have slowly become more demanding about what VOC levels and chemical compounds coatings should contain. This is mostly focused towards the more politically liberal states for now; however, the coming generations are more environmentally conscious so it’s likely this trend will spread in the future decades.
Q: Why Induron?
A: I’ve always been interested in industrial coatings since I started working in the industry, so when Jeff called me about a possible job offer it piqued my interest almost immediately. So far, I’m mostly enjoying how close everyone is at Induron.
Q: What’s the most challenging part of your job?
A: So far, the most challenging part is learning the ins and outs of all of the different products. As far as day to day work goes, the most challenging thing I’ve done here would be color matching.
Q: Tell us about a project you’ve worked on that you’re especially proud of.
A: At my previous job, I had to do several types of color matches with paints, stains, lacquers and even vinyl sealer. One of the stain matches I was able to pull off was for an old church door. A customer wanted me to match the color of a natural pressure treated pine and gave me a dark red oak to do it with. After several days of trial and error, I was able to pull it off. From then on, the customer would only let me match stains for him.
Q: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
A: When working with customers, do your best not to take anything personally.
Q: If you could have dinner with any person living or dead, who would it be and why?
A: Probably my Grandparents. Three of them died before I was old enough to really appreciate them, and I’d like another chance to spend time with them.
Q: What person has had the biggest influence on your life and why?
A: My dad. He’s taught me pretty much everything I know about hard work, finances and just life in general as a man.
Q: Tell us a little about your family, pets and/or hobbies.
A: I have two siblings, a sister and a brother, who are both younger than me. My dad is a contractor in Auburn, Alabama and my mom doesn’t work anymore. We have an older dog named Hannah. She’s a mix between a black lab and a weimaraner. My own hobbies are trying new foods, weight lifting, and gaming.