Josh Rickford, Curtis Restaurant Equipment

Josh Rickford credits his two tours of duty in the United States Navy for teaching him incredibly valuable lessons about commitment, dedication and leadership. He applies all of them to his current role as a senior account manager for Curtis Restaurant Equipment, a Springfield, Ore.-based foodservice equipment and supplies dealer. He has been with the dealership since November of 2018, including a five-year stint as the branch manager at Curtis’ Medford, Ore., facility. Today, his customer base consists mainly of quick-service restaurants.

Q: How does your military experience shape your approach to working with customers?

A: It played an integral role in teaching me how to work with people from all different types of backgrounds. When you are in the military, that’s probably the most diverse
group of people to be associated with. While serving on a ship, you work with a diverse group of people from throughout the country who come from different backgrounds and walks of life. In doing so, you learn to become a team and function as a unit. This was absolutely beneficial for me. Being able to see different cultures and having the ability to take in different perspectives and ideologies really allows a person to learn to be flexible. And from my perspective gives you a better understanding of how to work with people.

Q: What’s your secret to keeping everything on time and not letting anything slip through the cracks?

A: It’s communication and just the desire to want to do better for the customer. Not everything goes as planned. There are things that do fall through. It’s ownership of what doesn’t go right that you have control over. Being transparently honest with my customer base and not overpromising certain things and being realistic is important. 

Q: How has the way you work with your clients evolved for the better over the years?

A: I treat my clients as if they were my best friends. My whole intent is to have a relationship that is greater than just a working relationship. With one of my clients who lives in Arizona, I spend personal time with him now. I flew down to Scottsdale to spend some time with him and his wife. To me, if you go into it with that perspective of wanting to develop something greater than just a working relationship, you’ll be much more successful. 

Q: What excites you the most about working in the foodservice industry?

A: My customers because of the relationships that I get to build with them and the friendships that I get to create. And that goes back to my experience in the military because the relationships I created in the military are incomparable to any other aspect of life. I served in the Persian Gulf in a very hostile environment, and these are people that I trusted with my life, and they did the same with me. I learned at a very young age that my relationships are so very important to me. I had to carry that over into my professional world.

DSR 3-2-1

Josh Rickford, Curtis Restaurant Equipment, sits down with Jason Wange, Foodservice Powerplant Network, to talk about being named an FE&S DSR of the Month. 

Find more episodes of DSR 3-2-1 here. 

Foodservice Equipment & Supplies Presents DSR 3-2-1 is sponsored by Salvajor.