Only a carpenter can see how a carpenter works: Carsten Stork (right) skillfully showcases Eugen Penner's ZEP team with his professional photos and videos. (Photo: © ZEP Team)
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In addition to a super-professional website, Eugen Penner's ZEP team particularly shines on Instagram. Carsten Stork is responsible for photos, videos, and text.
Boss, social media manager, masseur – all carpenters. Eugen Penner leads the #zeparmy team from Bielefeld . Carsten Stork is by his side during the interview with handwerksblatt.de. Physiotherapist Joschi isn't allowed to say anything. He has to take care of the carpenters' and roofers' stiff muscles on Fridays.
DHB: I thought Selim was joking when he was Interview said that he had recently been to your place and had a massage.
Eugene: But it isn't. We have a physiotherapist here every Friday, and when we have guests, they're always the first to go.
Carsten: Joschi trained as a carpenter, like us. Now he's a masseur. But he's part of the group. When he's with us on Fridays, he chats with everyone first. If you have any problems, you lie down on the massage table with him, and then we get started. It's not just a three-minute massage; he sometimes works with you for half an hour or forty-five minutes.
Eugene: We also have a barbecue every Friday afternoon.
Carsten: The bottom line is, we're a huge family. I've heard it from outsiders too: "You guys are banging on for hours!" When they drive to work in the morning, our cars are there. When they drive home in the evening, our cars are still there. You see: We enjoy being at the office. Not every day after work, but most of us stay an extra hour on Fridays.
Eugene: Sometimes we have to throw them out completely.
DHB: The fact that you have good chemistry should make it easier to attract good people, right?
Eugene: Exactly. We want to hire the best people. They don't have to be perfect in terms of craftsmanship, but they have to be excited to work for us. Not everyone can relate to our spirit, though. We once had a master roofer here. He only lasted three weeks. At his old company, he wasn't used to everything being so well organized and working with tablets.
Carsten: Eugen's credo is: Everyone who starts working for him gets a new company phone. It doesn't matter whether it's Samsung or Apple. This connects the entire company. There's a WhatsApp group for every project, and everyone working on it is invited to join. A huge amount of communication takes place, and everything is resolved directly between employees. That's pretty awesome. I've never seen anything like it at any other company.
DHB: What is it that defines the special spirit of the ZEP team?
Eugene: Despite all the stress, we want to have maximum fun. You shouldn't even notice you're working. We're only satisfied when we've achieved our daily goal and the customer is happy, too.
Operations management
Operations management
Operations management
DHB: You can see every day that you have fun at work Instagram Since when has the ZEP team been represented there?
Carsten: I checked. Since August 1, 2015.
Eugene: A good friend of mine said at the time: "Hey, you absolutely have to go to Instagram! There's a saddler for motorcycles there who gets orders and good feedback through it." So we said: "Okay, then let's do it!" In the beginning, my girlfriend at the time Marlene von Tiesenhausen helped me with this, who works in a marketing department.
Carsten: Eugen produced the content himself and uploaded it as he pleased. Then it eventually died down.
Eugene: Besides Instagram, I also have to take care of orders, staff management, and accounting. If you start seeing social media as just a side effect, you'll only be able to deal with it so-so. We've now handed over most of the management of our social media channels to Carsten.
Carsten: I started posting regularly in September 2020. By then, Eugen had 2.300 followers. A month later, there were already 1.000 more subscribers. Until the end of October, I did all this after work or took vacation time. I worked for my father's company for twelve years. Since the beginning of November, I've been self-employed and now work on my own. I take photos, write texts, shoot videos, and offer drone surveying.
Eugene: You can see from the photos and videos that Carsten is an expert. He knows how carpenters work. I think that appeals especially to people in the trades.
The ZEP team's social media channels: The ZEP team on Instagram , on Facebook and on YouTube.
DHB: Do you plan your Instagram posts or does it happen spontaneously?
Carsten: We plan the posts with the program "Later" a week in advance, but still leave us the space to spontaneously squeeze in something. Like Eugene's birthday, for example. I've chosen something else for that.
DHB: Do you have certain themes that keep cropping up?
Carsten: We don't have a fixed concept. The posts introducing our employees are easy to plan. I took portraits of everyone, showing the ZEP team in a uniform look. Otherwise, I drive around the construction sites with my camera and take my photos there. Then I look at the photos and consider what would be best to write about each topic. Basically, the posts are very current. Mostly from the same week, sometimes even from the previous week.
DHB: Who are your followers on Instagram?
Eugene: Easily half are colleagues from the trades. The rest is divided between suppliers and customers. We notice that people are watching us. Roto reacts very strongly to the posts. They pick up on our flow and use our reach. Not via Instagram, but for their marketing. When they launch new products, they sometimes use our company's pictures as a springboard. But also via Facebook and I get a lot of feedback via my WhatsApp status.
DHB: Who is the target audience of your posts?
Eugene: The stories are clearly aimed at the people who follow us. It's very important to come across well-groomed in the feeds and demonstrate how well and reliably we work. We can't overdo it; everyone has to immediately understand what we're trying to say. After all, our existing customers, as well as new ones, are watching them. We also reach the younger generation well via Instagram. Entire classes watch the posts and then come to our website. And ultimately, it's also a sign of appreciation for the amazing work my employees do.
DHB: Do you pay attention to how the posts are doing and what is being commented on?
Carsten: Yes, yes. Other people's opinions are important to us because they inspire us for our own craft work or our social media activities. Others are only trained to ask a counter-question to generate more traffic, build reach, or achieve better rankings. That's not our primary focus.
Eugene: Feedback is very important for all areas. You see something cool or develop an idea a little further. I like Instagram because there's hardly any negative content. That's why we've moved away from Facebook a bit. All the posts we put on Instagram are simply copied there, plus a few gimmicks that we share.
DHB: Do you pay attention to how the number of subscribers develops?
Carsten: The number of subscribers isn't everything. Whether it says 3.000 or 10.000, I couldn't care less. Many people underestimate their own reach. We're getting noticed in the region. We've received inquiries from television. The editors said: "We've been watching you for weeks. What you're doing is crazy. We want to film with you."
Eugene: The Chamber of Crafts, competitors, suppliers—everyone checks us out. Our reach also gets us better terms. When we buy materials, we don't have to negotiate for long. Good prices are quoted right away. Four or five percent discount without any further ado. On the other hand, we're also happy to share our reach and try to help a few people out.
DHB: Who have you supported recently?
Eugene: We have a vehicle builder on hand. He's now equipping two of our vans with everything he can think of: a massive shelving system, a compressor, power, a microwave, a kettle, and a heater. The guys were very accommodating on the price. In return, we'll be making a short documentary about them soon. We only announced it on Instagram and Facebook. This alone has already brought in so many new customers for the vehicle builder that he doesn't know what to do with them. The impact of these posts is sometimes quite enormous.
DHB: You seem to be pretty busy yourself. Do you really still need social media to get work?
Eugene: Yes, but in the future, it will be more important to filter out the right customers. We can control that.
DHB: How?
Eugene: Starting next year, we want to focus on our favorite work: converting roofs into living spaces, building extensions, adding storeys. Anything that's difficult to calculate. To attract these customers, we need a solid foundation on Google, Facebook, and Instagram.
DHB: That sounds very cautious. What's stopping you from pursuing this plan?
Eugene: First, Carsten needs to properly position himself with his self-employment. We're not his only clients. If he can estimate how much time he has for us, we can develop a concept. We have a lot of content that needs to be released on the same day. Otherwise, it'll fizzle out. Perhaps we'll have to adapt and choose stories that can be released easily.
DHB: What's next for you with Instagram and Facebook?
Eugene: Next year, we'll be pursuing two communication channels. We'll use Instagram primarily for recruiting young talent and for exchanging ideas with other companies. Facebook will be important as an advertising tool for acquiring business.
DHB: Let's move on to moving images. When did you get involved with Instagram TV?
Eugene: I guess about a year ago.
Carsten: But these videos are just the beginning. We presented a crane and a lift for roofers. We also did a few videos with the drone. But that was pretty trivial. We are planning to shoot proper videos for the ZEP team, though. The effort involved is truly enormous.
DHB: Selim and Flo from "Roof PRO" seem to be doing quite well...
Carsten: The two film with GoPros or their cell phones. We want to take the quality up a notch or two. But that also makes it more complex.
DHB: The ZEP team’s homepage also mentions the Youtube channel linked. The last video upload there was three years ago. Have you closed the YouTube chapter?
Eugene: No, we will also focus more on this in 2021.
Carsten: Although nothing has happened for so long, according to Google Analytics, a huge number of people are still coming to our website via YouTube.
DHB: How often do you evaluate Google Analytics results?
Carsten: At least every three months, Eugen meets with the web designer and the SEO specialist. I take care of Instagram analytics. We have the Pro version of Later. I regularly check how the hashtags are performing and how many story views we have. Our stories are really powerful. They are consistently clicked on 1.600 times. 98 percent of those watch the story from start to finish.
DHB: The website The ZEP team appears incredibly professional. Great pictures, and customers are offered numerous options for contacting the company.
Eugene: The founder of our website, graphic designer Heiko Meißner, is responsible for this. He was allowed to use the site as a prototype from the very beginning and test out every technical aspect available on the market.
DHB: I particularly like the live chat function with the Tawk software. As soon as you are on the site, a dialog box pops up in the bottom right of the screen and you can immediately start a conversation with your Employee Dijandra write. Will this be well received?
Carsten: Dijandra is online right now. She says people often respond to it. Every day, very consistently.
Eugene: The chat function is the most used. We also offer video consultations via smartphone. To save time and travel, customers can briefly explain how we can help them, schedule an appointment, and we'll then call them back via video call via WhatsApp. However, this isn't as popular yet. Perhaps we need to promote it a bit more.
DHB: Now it's your turn to recommend my next interview partner. Who should I talk to next?
Eugene: There is this family business that goes by the name natural talents is just taking off on Instagram. She and her husband are both carpenters. They sometimes go to the construction site on Sundays with their children and dog. It's a completely different format because the whole family is featured.
Carsten: That's true. Lena and Holger are very personal and started their personal blog at the end of June. One month later, they had 100 followers. They now have over 1.900 subscribers. Their numbers really exploded, especially in October and November.
DHB: I do have one more question. What does the abbreviation ZEP actually stand for? The E and the P probably stand for Eugen Penner, but the Z...?
Eugene: The Z stands for carpentry. But there's already another suggestion. I'm currently training to be a master roofer. A few people in my class, who have nothing but nonsense in their heads, suggested I should replace the Z with a D. Then we'd be the DEP team. I think I'd better skip that.
Name: Eugen Penner
Age: 38 years
Conclusion: Master
Trade: Carpentry/Roofing
Business: ZEP team
Location: Bielefeld
Employee: around 30
Website: zep-team.de
Influencer in the trades #003,5 Click here for the interview with Selim Fritz.
Influencer in the trades #005 Click here for the interview with Lena Ridder.
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