An Empire Founded on Service
Empire Home Furnishings honors community, customers
Empire Home Furnishings has set a standard for customer service and quality furniture in Valley City for over half a century, helmed by a dynasty of good salesmanship and a love of community.
“Nancy and I have owned Empire in this location for a little over seven years,” Paul Hilborn, co-owner of Empire Furnishings, told the Times-Record. “My dad (Russell) was in business on the west end of town for 45, 46 years. Almost 50 years. He had started that when he came out of college, he worked for a fella, he bought the business and expanded it over its lifespan four to five times, making it at one time the largest showfloor in the state of North Dakota.”
Hilborn is a natural salesman, gregarious and proud of what he can offer the customer. He’d pause to take calls from customers, and he greets folk who come to the store warmly. Customer service is something that has been instilled him thanks to the tireless example set by his father, whose lasting impact on how Empire does its business remains strong to this day.
“I’ve talked about this many times, I couldn’t have learned in college what I learned from my dad,” Hilborn said. “He was an exceptional businessman and it was always about the customer and service to that customer. My dad would refuse, do everything possible (to not raise prices). The mentality is you need to go to a bigger store to save money … in reality, it’s the exact opposite. A small mom and pop, they have more control over everything. My dad may take a small margin … but if we would do that, we would have staying power over the years. My dad would have many customers who bought from him the entire time he was over at that west location.”
Hilborn was taught the most essential component of salesmanship from his father.
“Honesty,” he said. “In this case, there’s a perfect example. (This customer) would like to have her dining room set, but I’m not going to tell her something that I can’t live up to. If I tell you a date I’m going to come over, whether it’s to repair a mechanism or something on a recliner, I’ll be there that date, and if I can’t, I’ll be sure to call, because things do come up.
It’s just your word. How old school is that? Back in the day, if you gave your word, that was worth more than anything written down on paper.”
It’s far from a one-man show. Empire’s current success owes just as much to Nancy Hilborn, whose personal touch helps lend the main showroom its luster, and her talents help ensure their inventory never sits still for long.
“I’m going to give all credit where credit is due and that’s Nancy. She has a built-in knack, she finds the unique, the unusual … throughout different regions, some furniture sells better elsewhere,” Hilborn said. “We have something we call ‘casual country’ … it’s furniture that fits this area.”
His workforce, too, carries on their commitment to quality and customer service. Empire offers free delivery and installation of furniture within 30 miles, and they draw heavily from Valley City State University to provide manpower.
“We’ve been able to have a constant pull from the college, young men looking for delivery. Oftentimes they are the last face the customer sees and we get many compliments,” Hilborn said. “We just want to make your shopping experience pleasant.”
Free delivery has been a tradition since the very earliest days of Empire, but providing this service has been a larger challenge as gas prices have grown burdensome.
“It probably came up for the first time when delivery prices really rocketed. That big delivery truck, it resists a lot fo wind on the Interstate, we watch the gas needle go down,” Hilborn said. “But we have never, in the history of owning Empire or my father (owning it) charged for delivery. We had a dilemma: are we going to charge, break a tradition that’s 50-plus years of history?”
Instead of breaking that tradition, they reduced the radius of their free delivery, from 60 miles to 30.
And people are still very receptive,” Hilborn said. “Because delivery from out of town elsewhere … minimum is $80 up to and more common is $130. That’s a sizable amount of money.”
It’s not enough to simply bring you your furniture – what sets Empire apart is their willingness to serve the customer well after the piece is installed in their home.
“Here’s something that’s probably unheard of,” Hilborn said. “If we have an elderly customer and they have a two-sided mattress and need to flip it … here’s what my dad did: he’d have a calendar, have it laminated and he’d put it between the box spring and the mattress. When this elderly woman went to change her sheets and she noticed she could at least lift up the corner, if the timeframe was there to have the mattress flipped, she’d strip the bed down, call Empire and my brother and I would run over and flip it for free.”
In the days when they sold televisions, he’d come over after a power outage to reset customers’ TVs for them as well.
“That’s just something my dad knew was something our customers appreciated, needed and it kept them coming back for years and years,” he added.
There’s no talking about Empire without mention of its founder. Hilborn even has a name for the pearls of wisdom his dad has provided him over the years: Russellisms.
“I refer to several of my dad’s sayings as Russellisms: ‘when you work hard, when you come home you want to be comfortable.’ You don’t want a broken chair that leans to one side,” Hilborn said. “And (Nancy) just has a knack for putting in good merchandise. Another Russellism: if you trust the sales rep, you can rely on the furniture being good. Why would you put something on the floor that wouldn’t sell?”
So much of the commitment to the customer seems to draw strength from the strength of the community the Hilborn family serve.
“We are so thankful because of this city and the surrounding area, and people are good here. They are. They’ll lend you a hand, if you have a flat tire, they’ll pull over. If we need to fight a flood, we rally like no other. Those values are just main street throughout this area,” Hilborn said. “We see (them) as more than just a customer, they are friends who come through that door.”
Empire Home Furnishings is located in the heart of downtown Valley City, right on Central. They are open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Fridays and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays, closed on Sundays.