10 and under tennis facility developer of the Year: Fast-Dry Courts Inc.
Recognizing that children need to develop a love of tennis is what makes contractors enthusiastic about creating facilities for the 10 and under set. For Fast-Dry Courts Inc. of Pompano Beach, Fla., it all goes back to recognizing how essential it is to instill that passion.
“My whole family grew up playing tennis,” says Vice President Todd Dettor, “and it’s the love of the game that gives you a whole different perspective.” Fast-Dry, which won TI’s Builder of the Year Award in 2005, continues to endorse 36- and 60-foot tennis courts and to listen carefully to what its customers want. Only by doing that, says Dettor, do they continue to meet their customers’ needs.
And one of those needs recently was a project in March at the Tamiami Tennis Center in Miami that resulted in the 10,000th lined youth-sized tennis court in the country. For Fast-Dry’s continued support of providing the infrastructure needed for youth tennis, it is Tennis Industry’s 10 and Under Tennis Facility Developer of the Year.
“I think 10 and Under Tennis is a wonderful thing,” Dettor says. “It’s always about the customer and it always should be. If you take yourself off the pedestal, you become a resource. You build a trust with the other person. That’s the way it should be.” — Mary Helen Sprecher
Tips For Success
• Work with your customers and make sure you understand them. Always make them part of the decision-making process; you want to create a relationship that is going to last.
- Stay in touch, from the initial call through the whole process to a survey afterward.
- You don’t want to focus on money; focus instead on building something for that owner they can be really proud of.
- At the end of the day, you need to have helped the consumer. That’s the goal.
See all articles by Mary Helen Sprecher
About the Author
Mary Helen Sprecher 
is the managing editor of Sports Destinations Management Magazine, a niche business-to-business publication for planners of sports travel events, in addition to being an RSI Contributing Editor. She is the technical writer for the American Sports Builders Association and works as a newspaper reporter in Baltimore City.
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