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Garage doors aren’t the most exciting thing to spend your money on, say Garage Door Repair Man owners Terry and Amanda Morris, but when they fail, it can become a security issue.
Repairing and replacing garage doors has kept the couple in business for almost 30 years.
Demand has been growing more rapidly over the last five years, prompting their move to a new head office and garage space in Highgate, Silverdale.
While they operate Auckland-wide, the business has always been based on the Hibiscus Coast. It started in 1987 with Terry working as a solo garage door contractor, while Amanda worked as an accountant in the corporate sector.
Like many small business owners, the heavy workload together with demands of family led them to take a step back and set off sailing around the Pacific for four years.
“For one of those years we had two trained technicians operating in New Zealand and ran the business over the phone from Fiji,” Amanda says.
“When we came back, we decided to combine our skill sets and commit to growing the business.”
Terry has seen the Garage Door technology develop significantly during his time in the industry.
“Automatic doors only became mainstream in New Zealand in the mid-80s. Before that, you’d find airline pilots would bring garage door motors back from the US,” he says.
“Now all of the automatic openers we supply have the ability to connect to the internet, so you can close your garage door from anywhere in the world.”
The business environment has also changed.
“Because of online shopping, people call at any time of the day and night,” Terry says.
“We’ve responded to this by having our calls answered 24/7, so even if the call is out of hours, our customers still get to talk to an actual person, not an automated machine.”
The couple say thanks to their team’s experience, nine times out of 10 they can diagnose the issue and provide a quote before they visit the job.
While the brand has been built around Terry’s extensive knowledge, he and Amanda acknowledge the team behind them.
“Our technicians and admin staff are great – almost like our family.”
