Our company has been around for over 45 years, and during that time we’ve always had a showroom. I loved having it—it was beautiful and impressive. But with the uncertainties in the economy, it was hard to justify paying for it every month. I also wanted to better compensate our employees who are working so hard for us and dealing with the continual increased costs of living, so in October 2024 we made the decision to change our retail business to being completely mobile.
The change was scary at first. We are creatures of habit, and after years of going to the showroom, it seemed strange not to. But the rented space for our showroom and its warehouse was 4,500 square feet, and we were spending $8,000 a month just to keep the lights on. It felt like the foot traffic didn’t justify that price tag, and half the time I was already bringing samples to clients’ homes as I was doing my estimates.
I was concerned about how clients would react and the fact that they wouldn’t have the hundreds of samples to choose from like we had in our showroom, but we’ve only gotten positive comments about our switch. In fact, they absolutely love it. It’s actually less of a burden for them because I’m bringing the samples right into their homes.
I also discovered that it’s a benefit to not have hundreds of samples available for clients—that was overwhelming, and they didn’t know where to start. Now, before I go to their homes, we do an interview so I get a general sense of what they are looking for: reds, browns, grays, natural? If they have photos, I’ll ask them to send those. So before I get to the home, I have a good sense of which samples to bring and if they need prefinished or site-finished flooring.
Being in a client’s home helps me direct them and design the space with them, particularly with those clients who aren’t sure of what they are looking for. It’s an easier process when we can see the samples in their homes with their lighting, their cabinets and their furniture.
A lot of our work is sanding and finishing, so we have made a lot of samples, and the clients are able to live with the samples in their home for a week or two before making their decision. We make sure our samples are big enough to give a good range of the color and variation in the floor.
All those samples are large and require a lot of storage space. When I knew we would be making this switch and would no longer have a warehouse, I bought a personal property that has a climate-controlled outbuilding where we can store some of the guys’ supplies and all of our samples.
The change to not having the showroom was a huge transition, and I was super nervous about it, but it went off without a hitch and turned out to be a positive for our company, our employees and our clients.
