Being the Most Responsive: An Interview with Al Voigt

Al Voigt is CITY’s newest District Manager for our Polk City, IA depot. We caught up with Al to learn more about his history with CITY, and what he loves most about his job.

Al started at CITY as a Route Service Apprentice in 2015, and very quickly earned his own route. The following year, in 2016, Al won the Route Service Representative of the Year award is an award that is voted upon by his fellow route representatives.

At the end of 2016, Al was offered a new role, in a new CITY division. Al started CITY’s First Aid division and now it has grown to an entire team. When the District Manager role opened, an offer was made to Al, and he decided to go back to his original CITY roots to lead a group of route service representatives in one of our fastest-growing markets.

“With all the roles I’ve had, it comes down to ownership. Taking ownership of my service route that I had, taking ownership of selling, installing, and servicing the First Aid division, and even now, taking ownership of my group of guys, and everything they’re doing and the responsiveness as well. That’s carried over from day one of me running a route back in 2015. Being the most responsive and getting things handled as quickly as possible,” Al says about his success at CITY.

Part of what Al likes best in his job is “being able to take care of people’s problems. If they reach out to me, most know now that it’ll be within 24 hours that I’m with them in person, on the phone, or on email, telling them how their issue will be handled. Now it may not get resolved in 24 hours by having something there for them, but they have that peace of mind knowing I’m working hard at getting it figured out.”

Throughout Al’s career at CITY, Regional Manager Mark Ballo has been there to support Al.

“Al is probably one of the most responsive people that I work with. He’s incredibly conscious of the customer, the company, and the employee and it’s his greatest gift to CITY. He’s dependable and effective at execution. You have to be able to do, you can’t just plan to do, and Al is great at getting things done,” Mark said.

When Al isn’t working, he enjoys spending time with his wife Kelly, and their five children. They recently built a brand-new house that is in a development right across the road from the depot. They have a pond, and Al enjoys fishing and hunting. “Since COVID hit, we are real homebodies. We have pretty much everything we need at the house, and enjoy lots of family time.”

It’s not just the short commute that makes Al love his new role. Al loves working with the team at the Polk City depot, and plans to be at CITY for a long time. “It has its challenges, it has its rewards, and being able to work with the group of people we have, and to work with Mark, it’s been awesome. I’ve had some learning moments for myself, and I’ve had some learning moments with the Route Reps, and just focusing everything on the same page, and getting everybody to be great. I’m excited to continue in my position and continue to teach, coach, and train. This is probably since I’ve started, the greatest group of route reps that we’ve had. They all have great attitudes. We have a solid group, and we’re just going to continue to grow and be great.”