Withstanding the Test of Time

QuantumMail.com Celebrates 20 years of Innovation and Service

By Maria Patterson

In today's era of corporate takeovers, bankruptcies and buyouts, how exactly does a family-run business manage to survive-in fact, exhibit astronomical growth-for 20 years? Ask QuantumMail.com, and they'll tell you that it's all about changing with the times, staying ahead of technology and, most importantly, listening to your customers.QuantumMail.com-a Quantum-Direct Inc. company-was originally founded in 1986 as Quantum Systems Inc. by Jim Damman, a former Michigan Lieutenant Governor and real estate executive. Now celebrating its 20th birthday, the Austin, Texas-based company has grown from four to 165 employees and is one of Xerox's largest color customers in North America. Named to Deloitte's Technology Fast 500 and Texas Fast 50 in 2006 and two-time recipient of the Inc. 500 award (2005 and 2006), the direct-mail printer services over 75,000 end users and is 70% over 2004 in terms of production volume.

QuantumMail.com currently serves thousands of successful businesses from dozens of industries throughout the United States. Through the development of custom on-demand print and mail services, QuantumMail.com's goal is to offer its customers time-saving, lead-generating marketing solutions. Today, the company prints and mails millions of direct marketing pieces each month.
Not bad, for what Jim Damman intended to be a "retirement business." And for his son, company President & CEO Steve Damman, the journey has been nothing short of remarkable.

Taking Chances
After leaving politics, Jim Damman became an executive at a large real estate company in Michigan and then moved to Austin in 1985 to become general manager of J.B. Goodwin Real Estate. "Unfortunately, I brought the real estate depression with me and I was in a position to decide what I was going to do with the rest of my life," he explains.
While in Michigan, Damman had created a direct-mail system for the agents at his company. "It was a useful and successful program, and it seemed to me that I might be able to figure out how to generalize that system so that I could provide that same service to multiple companies across the country."

With that small seed of an idea, Damman hired a contract programmer and launched Quantum Systems in the spare bedroom of his family's home in 1986, using a Compaq 386 with a 40-meg hard drive.

The idea-both in its goal of creating a service that any real estate agent could use, along with its early emphasis on technology-was clearly revolutionary in the marketplace at that time.

"Right from the start, we wanted to make the process of doing these mailings as easy and efficient as possible," Damman recalls. "Automation was a part of our thinking right from the very beginning."

Damman used a line printer to produce the direct-mail materials. Orders were taken during the day via telephone or mail, entered and then produced at night. Before leaving the office in the evening, Damman would tape the ends of paper forms together to feed through the printer in the event one box of paper wasn't enough for the night's production run. He would then call home to his wife, instruct her to sit the phone down while, at the same time, sitting the office phone by the cacophonous line printer. Once home for the night, Damman would listen periodically to ensure the orders were running smoothly. Silence, of course, was a bad sign, requiring a return trip to the office to get things moving again. But it was necessary to meet the company's ambitious goal of next-day-order turnaround.

"It was pretty crude in terms of today's technology," Damman admits, "but at the time there was no one else doing it."

In 1992, however, Jim Damman reached a turning point. "I knew a lot of people in the real estate industry from previous associations all across the country. One of those people was Jim Weichert and I had been pursuing him as a potential customer since the beginning."

Damman's tenacity eventually paid off when Weichert signed on as a customer. This would now mean, however, that Quantum Systems would need to grow in order to accommodate this new level of volume. That's when Jim Damman reached out to his son, Steve.

"What I had originally envisioned was a little company that I could operate as a retirement company where I could find some nice, retired lady to run it for me day to day," says Jim Damman. "Obviously, it became much more than that."

Like Father, Like Son
Back at that point in 1992, Steve Damman was 12 years into his career in the hospitality business, and living a nice life with his wife, Debra, and their three young children-ages 3, 5 and 8 at the time-in Michigan. That was also the year, however, that Jim Damman enlisted his son's help.

While leaving the hospitality business and heading to Austin was the furthest thing from their minds at the time, Damman and his wife were in a position to reconsider. The couple was literally ready to close the deal on a house in Tulsa, Oklahoma-where Steve Damman had recently been transferred-when Jim Damman's call came through.
"I had mixed emotions," recalls Debra Damman, vice president of marketing and strategic alliances for QuantumMail.com. "The hospitality industry wasn't really conducive to family life. Although I was really excited for Steve to leave the hospitality industry, I was pretty scared about accepting a move that was so risky."

"My wife and I discussed it and what it boiled down to was that we didn't feel like we had too much to lose," Damman recalls. "We didn't want to be in a position in the future to ask ourselves, ‘what if we would have tried that.' So we moved from Michigan to Texas with three small children, no health insurance and much less income."
"It was an adjustment coming from Michigan to Texas," recalls Debra Damman. "Steve and his Dad worked really long hours and there were times I wouldn't see him for days. I used to have to call just to see how he was doing."

In time, Debra Damman made her own contributions to the company, first by volunteering her time to help collect receivables. "I was really motivated," she recalls. "I remember times when we had to use our personal credit cards to make payroll and us needing to have the money to pay the bill when it arrived."
Debra Damman's role at the company soon grew into many areas, including customer service, sales and marketing.

QuantumMail.com's early days, therefore, were very much family affairs. The Dammans and their children even assumed the role of cleaning crew on the weekends.
Granted, there were several years, says Steve Damman, where he wasn't sure whether or not his and Debra's decision was the right one. But hard work and a "can-do" attitude kept them focused and committed to the company's growth.

"We were going to stick with it as long as we possibly could," he explains. "If it kept moving, then we would keep moving with it."

Changing with the Times
And move it did. Now looking back over the 20-year history of the company, Damman can pinpoint several areas as critical to Quantum-Mail.com's growth continuum, but perhaps none more than technology.

"It was much different at the beginning," says Damman. "The thought of an Internet for commerce wasn't even really known about in 1992. Also, the way we received and processed orders was dramatically different than what we do today. Technology has changed everything."

One of the ways technology and the Internet had an impact on QuantumMail.com's growth was in the ability to move its services online in 1999. The Dammans recognized not only the importance of integrating the Internet, but of bringing on the right person to guide them through the transition.

Chris Anderson, vice president of information technology, came to QuantumMail.com in 1999 from a position as a programmer with the Texas state government.

"It was in the middle of the dot.com craziness," Anderson recalls, "and I needed to get out there and see what was available to me. I learned from a co-worker that this position (at QuantumMail.com) was available and it was intriguing to me. I felt like it might be a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a great company."

Anderson's instincts were correct. "It was a little scary for me to leave the stable environment of the government, and at times I wondered if it was the right decision, but it turned out well." Very well, in fact. Anderson also met his wife at QuantumMail.com.
At the time, Anderson was the only programmer on staff during a very stressful time. "We were going through a big transition to try and get on the Internet," he explains. "The technology was moving quickly and I learned about a lot of stuff I hadn't known before-very quickly! I felt overwhelmed. As we continued to grow, we were able to hire additional help. Looking back, it was a wild ride, but a very rewarding ride."

In addition to the Internet, technology also boosted QuantumMail.com's position in the marketplace by stepping up the quality of its print products. QuantumMail.com currently holds the world record (according to sources as Xerox) in most impressions on one of their iGen3 printers-over 2.5 million impressions in one month on one machine, to be exact.

"With the advancement in digital printing technology, we were able to produce a better product," says Damman. "Before we moved to the current iGen3 digital color presses, we had been through three generations of digital color printers. We were able to gain the latest and best technology available in digital printing."

"Making the decision to bring our printing capabilities in-house allowed us to control quality and service, and allowed us to keep our price points at a low cost," adds Debra Damman.

"The people we have working here have always had a great interest in technology, so we tend to keep up with what is coming down the pike and what would work for us," Damman explains. "To us, it's just kind of perpetual homework that keeps us on the front edge of technology."

Technology, Yes-But People, Definitely
Staying ahead of the curve in technology, however, is directly correlated to the company's desire to serve its clients. Taking a page from his hospitality industry experience, Steve Damman has made customer service paramount at QuantumMail.com.

"A lot of technology companies see technology as the be-all and end-all. I don't think we ever felt that way," says Jim Damman. "We felt our products and services were the most important thing and that technology was implemented to the extent it could enhance our products and services to our customer base. Technology is important, but only to the extent that it serves our broader goal."

"We have always wanted to be exceptional in our customer service offering," says Steve Damman. "Average was not acceptable. There's a tremendous amount of trust placed on us by our customers that requires us to have that exceptional level of service throughout, whether it's in production or people answering the phones. Our general policy is to make our customers happy and to do that, we need to empower our customer support associates to make decisions to avoid problems from escalating. That way the customer can have a resolution on that first phone call."

Freddie Baird, executive vice president at QuantumMail.com since 1998, runs the day-to-day operations at the company. A journalist by trade, an out-of-work Baird originally applied for a job at QuantumMail.com as a graphic designer.

During the interview process, however, Steve Damman quickly recognized that Baird could play a much larger role at the company and hired him as an operations' assistant, where Baird soon learned all facets of the company. The following year, Baird was charged with helping Anderson get the company ready for the Internet.

Technology aside, Baird agrees that QuantumMail.com's customer service is one of the greatest contributors to its long-term success.

"We take customer service very seriously," says Baird. "The guy that answers the phone has the power to make it right with that customer. As a result, people know that they can work with us and trust us. We view our customers as a partnership. We're helping to protect their brand and their image in the marketplace."

According to Baird, Quantum-Mail.com's customer support department is segmented into a call-center staff in charge of fielding calls to the company's 800 number; account managers who work directly with larger customers; and creative minds on hand to customize products at the client's request.

"If someone calls and says, ‘I'd like to have a piece that looks like this,' we have people ready to go," says Baird, explaining that this design service is particularly important to smaller, independent firms who may not have in-house marketing departments.
The ability to offer this level of service is tied directly to technology, of course. With 25 programmers on staff, QuantumMail.com is able to respond quickly to clients' needs.
"Technology is very near and dear to our hearts," says Baird. "We invest very heavily in programming because we feel it gives us the flexibility that if the customer asks for something we can move quickly and meet their needs. It helps us be very flexible-we're able to change as the market changes very rapidly."

According to Baird, Quantum-Mail.com takes technology a step further by bringing its programmers in direct contact with its customers. "A fair number of our programmers are plugged directly into our customers," he explains. "If we need to develop a custom program for a customer, we have an IT guy involved in that communication so that they can hear directly what the customer is looking for.

"Everything we do is built by our customers for our customers," Baird continues. "We try to keep up with the trends in the industry to make sure that we're consistently up to date on our site and with our service. We listen to our customers."

QuantumMail.com directs its people-oriented focus inward as well, offering all employees full benefits, generous bonuses and profit-sharing.

"The bigger you grow, the more important your people become to you," says Jim Damman. "The more people you have, the more you are relying on the people down the line to market the company successfully. That only happens to the extent they are properly motivated to succeed."

A Consistent Standout
Despite changing market conditions and a bevy of new marketing products, QuantumMail.com has managed to stand apart in the marketplace throughout-even in an environment where so many marketing efforts have shifted online.

"We believe that our print product complements the online space," says Damman. "There is a lot of effort by real estate companies to develop Web sites. One way to get consumers to those sites is to have professional-looking marketing materials mailed to them."
"In the real estate industry specifically, our service and quality stands out and the fact that we've been around for 20 years shows that we're consistent," says Baird. "We do what we say we're going to do and if by chance we make an error, we notify our customers before they're even aware of it."

According to Damman, strong marketing is a critical component of the real estate professional's business, no matter what the market. "There is a lot of competition in the residential real estate market and people need a way to differentiate themselves," he says. "Frequency is important-the more they mail to a particular customer, the higher the probability that they will be the ones to get that phone call.

"Studies show that people still respond to direct mail," says Baird. "People don't mind getting things in their mailbox. But we would never say do one without the other. Direct mail can help drive people to your Web site, but it's also a low-impact, non-intrusive way to get your name in front of somebody.

"Our goal and our mindset is to make our customers feel like we're an extension of their marketing department," he adds. "We work hard on our relationships."

The Next 20 Years
According to Damman, even with the real estate market experiencing a slight downturn this past year, QuantumMail.com's business was healthier than ever. "We are very aggressive in our pricing and services," he explains. "We are always a cost-effective option for people, even in a down market."

"We feel there's a lot of opportunity in the residential real estate market yet," says Damman. "We don't see any end in sight to the type of growth that we've experienced."

Sidebar:Pursuing the Dream

Sound advice from the founders and principals of QuantumMail.com on embarking on an entrepreneurial journey

Jim Damman, founder, Quantum Systems: "You must have a dream and you must have enough energy to be able to pursue that dream. Know that you have to go through good times and bad. There was more than one occasion where I was ready to lock the door and forget it. Had I not had the tenacity to stay with the dream, we would not be here today. You also have to have some degree of flexibility and pay attention to what your customers want. You can't be going down that narrow lane without paying attention to the side roads."

Steve Damman, president and CEO, QuantumMail.com: "Stick with it. If you really want to succeed, giving up is not an option. There were a lot of years that were stressful, but we could see past where we were at the moment to where we could be and would be. We continued to pursue our dream and make it happen."

Debra Damman, vice president of marketing and strategic relationships, QuantumMail.com: "You have to have a dream, but you also have to continue to dream in order to grow. You have to believe in hard work, consistency, diligence, patience and have a can-do attitude."

Freddie Baird, executive vice president, QuantumMail.com: "As you grow, getting good people is essential to making things work. You have to find others who share your dream and vision and tenacity. You can only get so far on your own."

Sidebar: Growing through the Years

QuantumMail.com's long-term success over the years is directly linked to its steady path of growth and innovation. Among the company's accomplishments under the direction of President & CEO Steve Damman:

Launched the direct-mail industry's first electronic ordering process with QDirect, a modem-to-modem system.

Put the company and its services onto the Web in 1999.

Created QuantumCopy.com for on-demand print and ship services
Saw to it that QuantumMail.com was first to offer online design tools, digital-color printing and personalization, variable data printing and laser printing of agent photos on direct-mail pieces.

Developed the concept of custom online marketing centers that control, support and promote the customer's brand.

Contributed extensively to the exponential growth and success of QuantumMail.com with a constant eye on innovation and staying ahead of new technology. QuantumMail.com grew over 700% over five years 2001-2005 in terms of production volume. QuantumMail.com staff size has grown 100% since 2004.

Real Estate Hot Topics

Profit Center: Real Estate Tips, Training & Events

RISMedia Solutions

RISMedia on the Go

Today's Featured Listing