The Abt key to 85 years as a family business

Surviving and thriving for 85 years in a notoriously cutthroat industry is no mean feat. And doing it as a family business might seem even more difficult.

But remaining a family-run business that entire time is not the success itself, it's the vehicle with which we've achieved that success. It's pretty simple: we've made it 85 years as a family business by treating everyone like they're part of the family.

We often tell new customers "welcome to the family," and that's something that we genuinely mean. We treat them like family, we listen to them when they come to us with a problem or even if they just have suggestions for a new product or service.

We approach them with empathy and sincerity when they do have a problem, and we do what we need to take care of those problems. When you really help someone who has been disappointed by your service, you turn that potentially disgruntled customer into an advocate.

When customers trust us, they know that their friends can trust us as well. Word-of-mouth referrals have always been our best advertising method, since the day we were founded. And when people tell you about Abt, they'll usually tell you, "I've got someone there." Many of our customers have a favorite salesperson who they will return to year after year.

Some Abt salespeople get "passed down" to subsequent generations like a family secret. Longtime customers' children will come in when they move into their own homes and work with the same salesperson their parents have always used. So there's a sort of built-in confidence for these new customers.

And all of this is dependent on having good workers. So we hire good people and treat them like family. We trust every employee to make executive decisions when helping customers, so they don't have to seek out a manager to solve a problem.

Sometimes they make a bad decision, but that's part of the learning process. Knowing they won't get fired for a bad decision made in good faith means our employees are confident to go above and beyond to keep customers happy.

As for the future? We'll stick with what works, as we've always done. We plan to remain family-run by continuing on with all of those same practices. Offering the best service and complete shopping experience unlike anything else around, both in-store and online. Backing up all of our products with our in-house service departments.

We've regularly added new product categories and will continue to do so, always offering our customers something new. It's important for us to reinvest into the company - we are perpetually hiring and continually renovating the store. Our upcoming expansion means we can carry more inventory, offering our customers more options and cutting down on delivery wait times.

And, of course, there's an entirely new generation of Abts ready to tag in and guide the business through the next 85 years. But there's no free ride for them here.

First, they need to fulfill the requirements set by my father for any Abt who wants to work at the store: Go to college, then get a job somewhere else for at least two years and learn what it's like to work in the real world so you can come into Abt and bring value to the business.

• Jon Abt is co-president of Abt Electronics in Glenview.