Jason Caba, our senior sales exec, always has his iPad on estimates. We give all our sales staff iPads so they can pull info for clients quickly.
Our size gives us an advantage when it comes to customer service, and part of that service is offering a 100% satisfaction guarantee to all our customers. People are apprehensive when they’re buying a wood floor, and they like the peace of mind that comes with our satisfaction guarantee. Because we offer that guarantee, however, we have to go the extra mile to make sure the client is choosing the right floor and is completely satisfied when the project is done. To do that, we’ve developed a system to prevent claims. Here’s how it works:
We get to know the home so we don’t overpromise
I started out as a subcontractor before founding my retail store, and I got a huge education early on in how retailers overpromise clients. Most of the flooring companies I worked for had salespeople who would basically promise customers anything to make a sale. Then us subcontractors would show up to the job, and the client’s expectations would be outrageous.
People replace their floors maybe once or twice in a lifetime, so we don’t expect them to have a complete understanding of hardwood flooring. When we’re meeting one-on-one with a client, we get to know the client as much as we can. We ask the typical lifestyle questions (do they have pets? kids?) and also take into account where the flooring is going to be installed and what the architectural design of the home is.
You learn a lot with experience when it comes to guiding clients to the right floors for them. For instance, in Georgia we work in a lot of small ranch-style homes with little natural sunlight, yet clients will say they want a really dark floor. I'll put some dark flooring samples down and try to show them that it's going to make the whole room feel very dark—heavy and cave-like. I have to be honest, because the bottom line is you want customer satisfaction at the end of the project. A visualization tool that digitally inserts the flooring into a picture of their home often helps. People may see a picture in a magazine of a fabulous home with a dark floor and say, "Oh, that's beautiful, that's exactly the look I want!" … but their home might not be like that magazine home, and you just have to show them the reality.
We sand thoroughly and apply finish on color samples
Color selection is clearly important, and you need to be sure the samples are representative of what the floor is actually going to look like once it's completed. So when showing clients samples for site-finished projects, we go through the exact sanding process we would use for the final product. This is a lesson we learned the hard way early on. If you haven't sanded, popped the grain, and put the finish on top, you're not really giving a good indication of what the stain is going to look like. And if you've ever had to re-sand an entire floor, you're willing to take those extra steps to make sure the samples show up accurately.
We always have the info on hand
We provide iPads to our staff so they always have product information at their fingertips, no matter where they are. That's crucial, because you never know what people are going to ask. How thick is the wear layer? How many square feet are in a carton? The staff don't have to say, "Well, let me check on that when I get back to the office." They can look it up immediately so details and questions don't get lost. We also take pictures of the homes with the iPads during estimates, which I later convert into work orders. If there's an unusual layout the installers need to know about in advance, I have all that visual information ready for the work order. Plus, when we lend sample boards to clients, we can check them in and out using iPads to easily keep track of them.
We text updates during the install
A lot of times clients go on vacation while we're installing their new floors. At the end of the work day, we text them photos of how the project is going. Someone asked me to do it for them once, and they appreciated it so much I started doing it for all of our installation projects. I found it had a real impact. Customers love to see it, and it keeps them updated with how everything looks, allowing us to pause if something looks off to them or if they have any questions. You're in someone's house and you've taken their money, so it's reassuring to them to see you're not in Vegas.
We turn high-risk projects down
As far as we'll go to accommodate our clients, sometimes declining a project is unavoidable. I had one just the other day where the guy wanted a repair of about 2,000 square feet of solid hardwood flooring in his basement. I said the best thing he could do was replace it with engineered flooring, because that's what engineered flooring was manufactured for. Otherwise he would continuously have to hire people to make repairs down there. He said, "No, I want to stick with solid," and I said, "I'm sorry, we just can't help you with that because you're taking a risk." There's so much information on the internet that people will do a little bit of research and make up their minds. As flooring professionals, we know better. Why would you install something you know has a high risk of failure? I just don't do it.
We honor our word
We once had a designer client who picked the color for a couple of young homeowners, and the homeowners ended up not liking it. Any other flooring retailer probably would have said, "You picked it, you live with it." But we didn't, because it's not really the right thing to do. So we re-sanded that floor at no cost, and the homeowner ended up writing us a glowing review. It cost us out of pocket for sure, but in the end, that review ended up covering the cost based on the number of jobs it generated.
We've only had to honor our guarantee maybe a couple of times over the years. We've been in business since 2007, and a lot of our original floors are still holding up great because we took those extra measures to get them right the first time. Sure, we still make mistakes, but when we handle a custom floor that's installed with craftsmanship, I take pride in that, and my guys take pride in that. It's cool driving around Atlanta and seeing some of the unique homes and being like, "We did those floors."
RELATED: Retail Excellence: The Winners of the First WFB Outstanding Retailer Awards
