Charleston Custom Carts – Taking the Low Country By Storm
In The Beginning
It was in February 2018 when eight-year master mechanic Matthew Smith made the decision to start a custom golf cart shop in his garage. At the time, little did he know that in just two short years, he would have two thriving locations and that Charleston Custom Carts would be one of the largest custom cart brands on the Eastern seaboard.
Charleston Custom Carts started as a hobby in a garage as golf cart dealers often do. Matt was a master mechanic for working for Honda and Chevy, but decided he wanted to go back to school for his engineering degree. In school, Matt was helping friends with golf carts, and building a few for himself. One thing led to another and CCC was born.
CCC is truly a family owned business. Matt focuses on the custom builds and service, while his wife Daniel handles general manager duties including, customer service, billing, scheduling, and account management. Matt’s brother is the head technician and oversees the service center. Personal attention and customer satisfaction is the main focus of the business and CCC prides itself on superb customer service. Matt’s motto is simple: “Make the customer happy at all costs.”
Explosive Growth
The rapid growth of Charleston Custom Carts and the transition from a garage-shop to respected dealer is almost unbelievable. In less than four-months after being in his garage, Matt knew that the Charleston area was desperate for a fully customizable golf cart provider and he also knew that he needed a real shop. In a centrally-located area of dramatic growth known as Daniel Island, Matt found a perfect location to open his first showroom and service center.
Matt and his small team of three spent two-months building-out the new location and determined to raise the bar from the traditional golf cart shop, and focus on creating a comfortable and inviting retail location for its customers. Instead of the dark, grimy, and often chaotic golf cart shop Matt was used to visiting, he wanted to create more of a “motorsports” style showroom; clean, well-lighted, bright-colored and sophisticated.
The Daniel Island, SC shop opened its doors in February, 2019 and was instantly a huge success. So much so that in a matter of a few short weeks Charleston Custom Carts filled the 5,000 square foot shop with new customer repairs and custom builds and immediately needed more space. Matt realized that they simply did not have enough space to build enough custom carts to meet the demand. Never mind that the new location was barely a month old. Matt knew he needed to expand.
Charleston Custom Carts #2
With almost providential timing, Matt learned that the owner of a long-time golf cart dealership located in neighboring Mount Pleasant, SC wanted to sell his business so he could retire. The location was perfect, the facility was perfect and Matt jumped at the chance to purchase Low Country Golf Carts in Mount Pleasant.
Low Country Golf Carts had been in business a long time and had garnered a very large customer base, as well as a terrific reputation for providing excellent service and customer satisfaction. Matthew moved quickly and worked out a deal with the owner to purchase the business and all the existing inventory. Just seven short months after opening Charleston Custom Carts in Daniel Island, SC, Matt opened the doors to his second location in Mount Pleasant, SC.
Like the first location, the Mount Pleasant facility would experience extensive renovations in order to duplicate the highly popular, lounge-like atmosphere of the first. The grand opening in January of 2020 attracted hundreds of friends, family and customers that all joined together to celebrate the new and highly-anticipated store.
The new location is almost 15,000 total square feet of retail showroom and shop space. It now serves as the headquarters and flagship for Charleston Custom Carts and truly elevates the traditional golf cart shop in both aesthetics and customer experience. One walks in and immediately feels an automotive showroom appeal, elegant, comfortable and chic.
Charleston Custom Carts currently has seven employees and builds exceptional custom carts for buyers all over the country.
Changing The Market
Matt knew that the Charleston golf cart market was lacking built-to-order custom carts and this quickly became Charleston Custom Cart’s specialty. The customer is empowered to design every aspect of their new golf cart with CCC’s in-house design center complete with a massive 70-inch touchscreen configurator.
The customer selects everything with the 3D builder and then works with Matt and Danielle to make their custom golf cart or LSV (low speed vehicle) a reality.
Integrating New Technology
The popularity of Charleston Custom Cart’s design studios are a big part of their instant success. They offer samples of bodies, seats, wheels, and accessories. The customer can then see how these accessories will look on their future cart with the all new 3D Golf Cart Builder on huge touch screens in both of their locations.
The 3D Builder (3DGolfCartBuilder.com) allows the customer to not only customize every aspect of their new golf cart, but see the cart in real time, making changes to colors, seat textures, and accessories on the fly and get accurate pricing every step of the way.
In addition to the instore design studios, the new 3D Builder compliments CCC’s state-of-the-art website (www.charlestoncarts.com) where customers can not only build and get a quote for their new golf cart, but they can also schedule service and get up-to-date information on new builds, features, and news.
Constantly Evolving
Now having plenty of space with the two locations, Charleston Custom Golf Carts has the ability to build dozens of golf carts each month to meet the big demand in the Charleston Area. Their two strategic locations have complete service centers and are located conveniently in Daniel Island, SC and Mount Pleasant, SC -two of Charleston’s high-growth areas.
Charleston Custom Carts has a very good reputation and has hundreds of 5-star Google, Facebook, and Yelp reviews. Matt Smith’s commitment to customer satisfaction and service excellence has certainly paid off in a big way.
For more information on Charleston Custom Golf Carts:
Website: http://charlestoncarts.com
Facebook: http://facebook.com/charlestoncarts
Instagram: http://instagram.com/charlestoncarts
Phone: 843.800.8626
Addresses: 1161 Highway 41, Mount Pleasant SC 29466 & 2300 Clements Ferry Rd, Daniel Island SC 29492
