Last Friday on 2/25/12, I posted “NOW YOU SEE IT NOW YOU DON’T” Which was about my awful customer service experience at a DIY home improvement store. Today I want to tell you about what happened next.
The next morning, Saturday, my daughter came to my house and we sat down and made a plan as to how we were going to find a new floor for her Condo. My closest friend happened to call when my daughter was there and he suggested a flooring store close to his home. He said he hasn’t personally bought anything from them yet, but has had several people tell him that this store was honest, fast, carried top quality floors and most important had excellent customer service.
I didn’t see where we had anything to lose by going to look, so into the car we went and up to the store we drove. The store wasn’t much to look at from the outside. It is located in an older strip center and didn’t have anything as far as street presence was concerned. When we walked into the store there wasn’t much to impress us there either. It was one very large open floor with stacks of flooring in rows. Each stack had a 4X8 sample sheet of the flooring standing in front of it with the information about the floor on a sign attached to the sample.
Against one wall were large rolls of carpet with the same signs on each roll and on another wall the same layout for vinyl and linoleum. Like I said nothing to impress us so far. To one side of the floor area were kitchen and bath cabinets along with displays of special order flooring and the “service desk”.
I will admit I was starting to get a little worried at this point. But we decided to walk around a little while since we were already there. NOW IS WHEN I STARTED TO GET IMPRESSED! The hardwood flooring that was in this store was the same as I had seen at the DIY store except it was less than half the price.
In a few minutes a sales rep came over to us and he was dressed in jeans and polo shirt nothing fancy but wow did he know his flooring. I was now really impressed. He told us more in 15 minutes than I ever needed to know about floors and yet he didn’t do it in a sales pitch, he did it as we carried on a conversation.
He also told me about his company (he was the owner) and what he did for his customers. He told me that he was there to help my daughter decide what she wanted and what she could afford. He wouldn’t sell, he would let her buy! OK NOW I WAS VERY IMPRESSED!
After listening to him my daughter started looking around based on his recommendations. SHE WAS IMPRESSED! It took her about 20 minutes to have 3 floors picked out which she liked. The owner came over and told her about each floor. He never mentioned price, he simply told her what was good and what was bad about each floor.
He ended it with the statement, I would not buy this one, and pointed to one of the floors. It was the most expensive one. When I asked him why, he said I have a floor so close to that you can’t tell them apart and they are of equal quality. He then said and the other floor is about 50% of the price. If you like this one the most I will show it to you. My daughter didn’t think that it was her first choice so we did look.
I looked at the signs and saw that the remaining floors were within 20 cents per SF of each other. I told my daughter that. She made her decision and the owner took out a pad and did some calculations. He then turned to my daughter, showed her the price and asked her if it was within her budget. She told him yes and he showed the price to me.
Now I NEVER buy only on price, the quality and value has to be there. This floor was better quality than what we saw the night before at the DIY store and the price was…$1200.00 less.
The owner than said he could have it installed Tuesday (today). I asked about the flooring being in the house for 3 days to climatize, he said all his floors are in a climate controlled store so there was no need. I asked about measuring the floor, he said he would send his man out Monday. Every question I asked he had not only the answer, but a great answer.
I just got home from my daughters condo where she has the most beautiful new floor I have seen in a long time. I also now have a flooring store that I can and will recommend to everyone I know for a long time to come.
Customer service, value, and honesty isn’t dead, it is hiding in places like OVERSTOCK FLOORS etc.
Lorin
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