MERCER, Pa.—In 1958, the Brooklyn Dodgers played their first game as the Los Angeles Dodgers, the New York Giants became the San Francisco Giants and Cliff Hale first stepped up to the plate as a U-Haul Dealer. Today, going on 57 years later, Hale and his team at Evergreen Trailer Sales and U-Haul Dealership are still swinging for the fences and batting a thousand when it comes to providing superior customer service.
Back in ‘58, Hale was successfully handling two businesses—a mobile home park and a trailer-sales company—when in rolled his first glimpse of what would become his third. A customer who had rented space in Hale’s trailer park was moving in with a U-Haul trailer in tow.
Hale immediately realized that a U-Haul Dealership would be a perfect complement to his trailer-sales business, so he got the phone number of U-Haul headquarters in Phoenix and made a life-changing call. Shortly after, he was opened as a trailer-rental dealer and quickly moved up to renting trucks. Now, Evergreen sells custom hitches and so many U-Haul moving and storage boxes that Hale sometimes has trouble keeping them on the shelves.
A perfect match
According to Hale, his business success is rooted in the fact that renting U-Haul equipment is such a perfect match for his main business of selling travel trailers and utility trailers.
“I couldn’t think of two businesses that would work better with each other,” Hale proclaimed. “Plus, we’re a one-stop shop for whatever a customer needs for moving. And we’re always ready to serve people.
“What’s critically important to b eing successful as a dealer,” Hale added, “is that you’ve got to pay attention to the trailer hookup. We take enormous pride in making sure everything is done right. We own this place, and we don’t want our customers to have a bad experience.”
Family business
As it has been from the beginning, Evergreen Trailer Sales and U-Haul Dealership is a family business. Cliff Hale’s wife, Pauline, and their son, Craig, help run the daily operations. With the Hales, the importance of providing excellent service has been passed from one generation to the next.
“All of our business operations feed each other,” Cliff Hale explained, “and we make sure we take good care of people who patronize us, because someone who rents a piece of U-Haul equipment today might wind up buying a travel trailer tomorrow. I absolutely know that if a customer has a bad experience with U-Haul equipment, they won’t come back to see me if they need boxes or anything else we sell.”
