From a brick-and-mortar beginning, I&I Mobile Tire Services has grown into a 24/7 mobile tire service provider with more than 20 vans, its own call center, a wholesale business and more.
Owners and husband-and-wife team Ini and Ijeoma Ibanga say it all started nearly 10 years ago when they saw a need to provide more services within their home market of Atlanta, Ga.
Before opening I&I Mobile Tire Services, Ijeoma — a second generation tire dealer — and her husband had their own retail store in Gainesville, Ga. “We would get calls from clients and they would ask if we could go to them,” she says. “So we figured we would pilot a mobile tire service.”
Today, I&I Mobile Tire Services’ vans serve customers across the greater Atlanta area. (The couple has since closed their retail store.)
Ijeoma describes the vans as a “tire shop on wheels” and says the company’s mobile service focuses on tires and related services right now. But the couple sees an opportunity to provide other, on-site services like oil changes.
Handling calls
Several years after getting I&I Mobile Tire Services off the ground, Ijeoma and Ini identified another need: a call center that customers could use for scheduling tire installations.
“We had local representatives here that we trained exclusively to take inbound calls and turn them into leads or business,” says Ijeoma. “It was really good, but then when COVID-19 happened" I&I Mobile Tire Services began to experience high employee turnover. The couple took a leap of faith and hired a third-party call center, but that didn’t work out.
“I decided to build (our) own” call center, says Ijeoma. “I developed the metrics on how to sell, how to overcome (customer) objections — the whole nine yards on how to create a customer.
“You still have to get customers to wrap their mind around” the idea of mobile installation, “so there’s still a lot of sales” associated with the process.
Ijeoma started with two agents when she first built the company’s call center and kept adding from there.
The center has freed Ijeoma and Ini to focus on other aspects of I&I Mobile Tire Services’ business.
“When we first started, I&I Mobile Tire Services was just my husband and I,” she says. Ijeoma answered the phones and Ini performed tire installations at customers’ locations.
“We didn’t have a blueprint,” she explains. “No one told us how to do this.
We were just guessing and that obviously isn’t sustainable. Keep in mind this is a 24/7 operation, so I was jumping out of bed at all hours to take calls. But we were young and thought, ‘OK, let’s do this for a couple of years and just work through it.
“I had thought about” establishing an in-house call center “for so long” that when the opportunity made sense, “I was ready to execute it, so I took the risk.
“You can’t take calls and do quality work” with just a two-person team, she says. “Something is going to suffer.”
I&I Mobile Tire Services’ call center currently employs a team of 10 agents, with more on deck.
Landwave wholesale
With a high-functioning call center in place, the Ibangas identified another opportunity: wholesaling tires to other dealers.
“My dad told me that a lot of times when you’re looking for ways to add revenue, you need to just do it inside of the model you have and what you’re good at and take those skills and find ways to multiply that,” says Ijeoma.
“I figured, ‘I’m good at sales and I’m good at managing and I’m innovative. Why not utilize the products and experiences I have to really take this to the next level?’”
This prompted Ijeoma and Ini to create Landwave Wholesale Tires, which offers same-day delivery, next-day delivery and two-day delivery options from the business’ warehouse in Atlanta. “We sell various brands and have everything from entry-level tires to your tier-one Michelins and Goodyears,” she says.
Ijeoma says the goal is for I&I Mobile Tire Services to have its own private brand of tires to wholesale one day.
Building franchises
An opportunity that the Ibangas jumped on more recently is launching a franchise program. “It’s very, very new,” says Ijeoma. “We maybe launched it a month ago.”
They created a website with information for potential franchisees, who would operate under the I&I Mobile Tire Services brand but would have their own territories.
“We (would) build out their van, give them the territory and do the marketing,” notes Ijeoma, who adds that she and her husband are negotiating with several potential franchisees.
They are also developing an app to support franchisees by helping customers connect with them. “If you wake up and your tire is flat, you’re not thinking about getting a tow. You just go into your app and you click I&I Mobile Tire Services and we come right to you.
“I would really like to see us have several locations throughout the 50 states with the franchises.”
