Why a Higher Calling Means Better Results For You.

SOLO’s name is an acronym for Serve Others, Love Others. Founded in 1983, Barry Sokol selected the name because it represented his core values for the business: providing outstanding service to others, and caring for others by providing great quality custom orthotics.

As the leadership of SOLO transitioned from Barry to a new generation, we asked Lindsay Sokol Szjeko, President of SOLO to share what the name means to her.

What did Serve Others, Love Others mean to you when you first started here?

People were kind, respectful and putting others before themselves. I saw this come through to our customers when I spent time in the Customer Service department. We received high praise for our service. It was really neat to witness first hand, especially knowing that was Dad’s vision from the beginning.

What does Serve Others, Love Others mean to you today?

In order to serve others, love others, you need to be humble, kind and put others before yourself. I wish I could say this always came naturally to me, but to be honest, this is something I could never do on my own. I trust God to help me by asking for his guidance and will in my life and the business. My Dad started the business and I hope we can work together so the business endures beyond my lifetime.

How will you continue to keep it in the forefront of our organization?

The SOLO Leadership Team defined what it means to be a SOLO employee. We decided what traits we felt embodied the ideal employee. We were not allowed to have that as a value for others if all members of the Leadership Team did not display that trait themselves. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to work together to ensure that moving forward, we continue the Serve Others, Love Others culture we were founded on.

Then we shared those values with our team at SOLO and continue to foster a culture that promotes our values. We provide t-shirts with the Serve Other, Love Other tagline to reinforce our core values.

When we interview potential new employees, we share our company values and mission with them and encourage them to ask us questions about who we are and what we believe. We help them determine if SOLO is the right fit for them. SOLO has been blessed to find many great new employees to add to the team and they have all been very positive about our culture.

What does Serve Others, Love Others mean to SOLO customers?

Our team lives the serve others, love others model. Everyone is kind and takes pride in what we do as a team. It is important that we treat our customers and our fellow employees with love and kindness. I believe our team does a remarkable job of listening to the customers and doing what is fair by both them and the team here at SOLO. We have a knowledgeable staff that is always ready to help our customers with any need they have.  Our employee turnover is very low, so our customers form relationships with our staff. We consider our employees as part of the family.

On the manufacturing side, our team understands the value of what they do. They are improving a person’s quality of life with the device they are making. Our custom orthotics are handcrafted and meticulously reviewed to ensure the quality our customers have come to expect of SOLO.

 

 

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