Browse Forums Kitchen Corner Re: What makes you select a kitchen company? 21May 02, 2009 10:58 pm [quote="SmartPack"]I'm happy to admit i don't believe in pressuring for sales. I hate it being done to me so i don't do to others. I probably do need to work on my sales/marketing skills to try and distinguish early on who is genuine and who is a fly by. Otherwise I end up putting in all that work for nothing alot of the time. [quote] putting in all that work is part of your job securing the sale is about how good you are at it To respond to Bingoshelley, my number one complaint about customers is honesty. Why dont people tell us up front what there intentions are. If we knew we can then appropriate the sales pitch accordingly. [quote] the sales pitch should be about what you can offer that others cant.we are in their to purchase a kitchen so thats all the intention you should need If you are gaining two or three quotes then great lets get to it. [bingoshelley] of course people are going to get quotes we are spending big money and buying a kitchen is also an emotional purchase. If you dont know why your looking at the kitchens then say so, we can both have a laugh and a giggle and move on. [quote] dont under estimate the browser buyer they may be your biggest customers later on But when people come in and haggle for the best price then say its too much...why??? [quote] because they have cheaper qoutes obviously. Just say what the price is you have been given and we will do our best to match it or beat it, is it that hard? [bingoshelley]why dont you give your bottom dollar price in the 1st place then at least you know you cant go lower so your not wasting your time. The worst is if your after a price to undercut another quote and subsequently get a better price from them. This drives me nuts! [bingoshelley] hey no matter what the quote im going to be my best to get the best price if you cant compete so be it Ive been upfront and honest and given my undivided attention and experience so why cant a customer be courteous and do the same with me??? [bingoshelley] how can you say youve been upfront and honest when you can beat a quote you have formerly given to get the job. if all tradies gave their best possible quote then customers wouldnt need to go back and forth asking for you to better it. Sales can be unforgiving hence the bad rath you can get from sales people..rightly or wrongly. [bingoshelley] why be rude or get upset with a customer when this is the feild you chose.a customer has every right to be upset if they feel they have been wronged in any way as a sales person its up to you to calm the customer down and handle the problem not upset the situation more. lastly i really dont think sales is for you given your responses to the forum answers i can only imagine how you handle customers in real life situations. stay safe happy building Re: What makes you select a kitchen company? 22May 03, 2009 9:02 am What I would like to see is more "kitchen designers" rather than "sales people". The way I see it, if you are a great designer and have great people skills you would be flying high. There are far too many "sales people" trying to be "kitchen designers", it just doesn't work. Re: What makes you select a kitchen company? 23May 03, 2009 11:00 am We try to choose our (Kitchen) Tradesmen based on personal references ... ie. friends and family that might have used that particular tradesmen once/serveral times. So far, we've had very few bad experiences using this method ... Re: What makes you select a kitchen company? 24May 03, 2009 11:52 am Your probably right bingoshelley, sales may not be my forte however design is so amalgamating the two has been a very interesting journey so far. What I listed are the things from the otherside of my experiences so far. Theres two sides to everything. I move between three showrooms everyweek and the customer base is very different at all three so I have leapt into the deep end well and truly. Our factory showroom at smithfield is very busy due to being in and amongst soo many kitchen providors. The customers generally are looking for the cheapest of the cheapest kitchens. At Auburn, the tendency is to haggle the price or at least bargain a discount somewhere. At stanmore the focus is quality and service, not so much the price. I have my best experiences at Stanmore out of the three showrooms The sales go through soo smoothly and the end result is great, sometimes overwhelming, that a simple collaboration between two/three people can create such a beautiful living space. Yes it probably does reflect socio economic demographics however the sales challenges are there. I think personally as much as i wish to have incentives/commissons, we dont and probably never will. For the customer this is a great, it makes the focus on their wants and needs greater than the dollar value the sale makes. Kitchens are like finger prints, no two are ever the same!! SmartPack did the kitchens for Channel 9's Home Made TV Show Re: What makes you select a kitchen company? 25May 03, 2009 12:01 pm Neverfinished 3. We have a kitchen which is challenging in terms of layout. These kitchens are the best to do. This is when a designer can really show off there skills and definitely use there valuable experience. I dont get to do alot of these as everyone seemed to be building a new house with a square space. However since this economic downfall has seen a lot of renovations and DIY projects become the priority instead and the these kitchens quotes come in left right and centre, its great! Post your plan and I'll give you a hand. Kitchens are like finger prints, no two are ever the same!! SmartPack did the kitchens for Channel 9's Home Made TV Show Re: What makes you select a kitchen company? 26May 03, 2009 2:49 pm smaart is there anyway you can sell your kitchens direct to manufacturers and not deal with customers you may do better or if you are serious about doing good then get some professional training in sales you may not like the difficult customer but when they feed you its an old saying but its very true. dont bite the hand that feeds you. stay safe happy building Re: What makes you select a kitchen company? 27May 03, 2009 2:54 pm SmartPack Your probably right bingoshelley, sales may not be my forte however design is so amalgamating the two has been a very interesting journey so far. What I listed are the things from the otherside of my experiences so far. Theres two sides to everything. I move between three showrooms everyweek and the customer base is very different at all three so I have leapt into the deep end well and truly. Our factory showroom at smithfield is very busy due to being in and amongst soo many kitchen providors. The customers generally are looking for the cheapest of the cheapest kitchens. At Auburn, the tendency is to haggle the price or at least bargain a discount somewhere. At stanmore the focus is quality and service, not so much the price. I have my best experiences at Stanmore out of the three showrooms The sales go through soo smoothly and the end result is great, sometimes overwhelming, that a simple collaboration between two/three people can create such a beautiful living space. Yes it probably does reflect socio economic demographics however the sales challenges are there.[ I think personally as much as i wish to have incentives/commissons, we dont and probably never will. For the customer this is a great, it makes the focus on their wants and needs greater than the dollar value the sale makes. yes its amazing what money can do when its not an issue maybe you should service the rich people and leave the poor people to other companies. im not trying to be mean it just seems you are very negative to the people who want value for money i really think if your a great kitchen designer then surely you could get work with an expensive designer showroom. stay safe happy building Re: What makes you select a kitchen company? 28May 03, 2009 3:30 pm Quote: yes its amazing what money can do when its not an issue maybe you should service the rich people and leave the poor people to other companies. Im not trying to be mean it just seems you are very negative to the people who want value for money I really think if your a great kitchen designer then surely you could get work with an expensive designer showroom. Shelley, you have wrong I work for a flatpack kitchen company, thats the core business 'value for money'! Wheather you spend $20 or $8000 it dosent matter, you still get the same service. The opinions I gave in response to your original post are a result of a meagre amount of incidents over the years in all different places. 99% of the time all is well. I thought others would like to know what sales people felt as we dont really hear alot about it. Have you worked in retail or sales shelley? Or know anyone that has? Kitchens are like finger prints, no two are ever the same!! SmartPack did the kitchens for Channel 9's Home Made TV Show Re: What makes you select a kitchen company? 29May 03, 2009 3:43 pm i have worked in sales my whole life however im of the old stock where the customer is always right even when their wrong and i have never been rude to a customer ever. sales can be very rewarding but a few sales people i know think they are doing the customer a favour by serving them which gives sales people a bad name. the customer pays your wages without then you are a head full of ideas only. i think the way you explained it sounded like you think they owe you maybe thats not what you ment. i certainly hope not in any job you have good and bad experiences i try to focus more on the good side of life i guess stay safe happy building Re: What makes you select a kitchen company? 30May 03, 2009 4:05 pm Quote: few sales people i know think they are doing the customer a favour by serving them which gives sales people a bad name. We all know some of them Quote: I think the way you explained it sounded like you think they owe you i in no way had that intention, my apologies I enjoy my job and hopefully always will, especially when working with the old stock I work with my boss' mum, shes a scream, a real character - certainly shows me a thing or too! But thats the nature of sales, the old teach the new, the new annoy the old with know it all attitude until it screws up then oldie to the rescue, with a smirk of course Kitchens are like finger prints, no two are ever the same!! SmartPack did the kitchens for Channel 9's Home Made TV Show Re: What makes you select a kitchen company? 31May 03, 2009 4:09 pm very true young one lol stay safe happy building Re: What makes you select a kitchen company? 33May 03, 2009 5:23 pm SmartPack I'm happy to admit i don't believe in pressuring for sales. I hate it being done to me so i don't do to others. I probably do need to work on my sales/marketing skills to try and distinguish early on who is genuine and who is a fly by. Otherwise I end up putting in all that work for nothing alot of the time. To respond to Bingoshelley, my number one complaint about customers is honesty. Why dont people tell us up front what there intentions are. If we knew we can then appropriate the sales pitch accordingly. If you are gaining two or three quotes then great lets get to it. If you dont know why your looking at the kitchens then say so, we can both have a laugh and a giggle and move on. But when people come in and haggle for the best price then say its too much...why??? Just say what the price is you have been given and we will do our best to match it or beat it, is it that hard? The worst is if your after a price to undercut another quote and subsequently get a better price from them. This drives me nuts! Ive been upfront and honest and given my undivided attention and experience so why cant a customer be courteous and do the same with me??? Sales can be unforgiving hence the bad rath you can get from sales people..rightly or wrongly. My builder has given me a rough $15k to spend on my kitchen. Common sense tells me that if I come to you and say I have $15k to spend on my kitchen, you, as a sales person, are going to try and spend every dollar of that $15k even if I wished to try and save some of it for another part of my new house. It's a difficult thing to get around. Re: What makes you select a kitchen company? 34May 04, 2009 8:26 am SmartPack But when people come in and haggle for the best price then say its too much...why??? Just say what the price is you have been given and we will do our best to match it or beat it, is it that hard? Sales can be unforgiving hence the bad rath you can get from sales people..rightly or wrongly. Sorry, but how about you just give the best price to begin with rather than waiting to see if you can knock another $100 off the price last quoted by the customer? I think it is reasonable to assume that all customers would be getting more than 1 quote. We made an instant decision (there and then) when we found a guy that quoted fairly and seemed genuine. Re: What makes you select a kitchen company? 35May 04, 2009 11:58 am I dont generally ask what there budget is unless they bring in other quotes. This can give a guide as to what people are prepared to spend, not neccessarily buy. The layout is designed first to best suit the room and the customers needs as ultimately this will be what makes working in a kitchen timely or a breeze The kitchen is then priced according to what doors and benches they wish for etc... If the quote comes in above there budget then alternatives are found or the quote is trimmed down. If someone walks in and says i want to save as much money as I can, then everything is gone over with a finetooth comb. As said before I am honest with customers, its too hard trying to lie or to hide things just to make that extra dollar I want to make sure customers know everything about there kitchen before sign off or going elsewhere. If the decision is wrong, it has to be looked at everyday and is a nasty feeling in the end for both parties. What more can I do? Kitchens are like finger prints, no two are ever the same!! SmartPack did the kitchens for Channel 9's Home Made TV Show Re: What makes you select a kitchen company? 36May 12, 2009 5:14 pm This thread is a great read. The experience I've had with getting quotes for kitchens from as early as February this year was to come up with my own rough designs/cabinet layouts, faxed or emailed them to a couple of different companies, and wait for their response. The first one I contacted was a very small kitchen company I used several years ago for my 2br unit, which my brother recommended to me which was really cheap; polyurethane doors and laminate benchtops for around $3500 (from memory) and another $1000 for sink/mixer, oven and cooktop & slide-out rangehood. Unfortunately being a small company, he wasn't able to provide finance which was one of our requirements this time, but he still provided a quote of under $8000 for our new kitchen, which is about the price I was expecting considering it's about twice the size. One company didn't respond at all to two emails I sent them, and other larger and well-known/highly-advertised companies rang me to book in a measure and quote appointment. The first appointment was a couple of days away and I cancelled when they gave me a reminder call, informing me that it would be a 3 hour appointment (starting at 6:30pm, which was our chosen time, but we weren't expecting a 3-hour appointment!!!). Another companie's appointment was also cancelled as they had said to "have all your quotes ready so we can beat the price" but by then I had already discovered that the larger companies, while providing "interest-free" finance, are also considerably more expensive (by at least a few grand)! Early-on I looked at flat-pack options - one being Cabopac I think it was. I got all their prices from their website and worked out how much it would cost for me to do it myself. The cost of their flat-packs was more than the prices I'd already been quoted (which had also included benchtops and doors!). I then discovered Bunnings has flat-packsm but I'm not a fan of Bunnings so didn't even work out how much theirs would cost (although their junk-mail prices were considerably cheaper than Cabopac). Another poor experience we had was from a non-local (read: well over 100km away) company that went to the time and effort to do a site measure and quote, but took over two weeks to get the quote to us! I decided against them as I presume their delivery time and also any visits to rectify any problems would be just as slow! One thing I will agree with that has already been mentioned; "salespeople" pretending to be "kitchen designers". (will edit post later - no time to finish now). Re: What makes you select a kitchen company? 37May 13, 2009 11:21 am installation inspector One thing I will agree with that has already been mentioned; "salespeople" pretending to be "kitchen designers". Yes, totally agree. We had some supposed kitchen designers come in to look at doing our kitchen, our problem is I've graduated as a designer in another field so have some idea of design but not in this area. The people who rocked up from the larger kitchen companies were hopeless and I found they were more interested in seeing how many cabinets they could fit in (for maximum profit) rather than something that would take advantage of the space, be aesthetically pleasing and be a good work area. We ended up finding a smaller company that does a lot of work for the project builders and apart from them not being as slick at sales as the supposed larger companies they knew their stuff, were pleasant to deal with and cost lots less (and supplied better quality brand name fittings) - something I can't say about the fools that were selling for the larger companies. Like anything theres some good people out there and from a clients perspective its gaining some idea of the field your working with by educating yourself and then cutting through the retoric of those more interested in closing a sale as quickly as possible. If I had no idea on what was possible, I'd be employing someone qualified to draw up a design and then putting it out to tender myself. You'd find the cost of an architect/interior designer would be absorbed by the possible savings you could make afterwards. Re: What makes you select a kitchen company? 38May 18, 2009 7:53 pm Another difficulty in choosing a company was that most of them advertise some kind of special, whether it be free rangehood, granite benchtops for the price of laminate, 50% off cabinet prices, etc. I personally think alot of those advertising ploys are a gimmick - I didn't see a significant reduction in overall price from one advertising 50% off cabinets (their full prices must be severely over-inflated!) and there was no mention of granite benchtops in a quote from the company that advertised the "granite at laminate prices"... I think I already mentioned we have signed the contract and paid the deposit, yet we're still being chased by kitchen companies offering to match or beat the quote - which I don't really object to (especially if I can save even more!), however we're at the stage where we are about to sign-off on the final check-measurements to start production of the kitchen - the last thing I want is to be delayed even longer by another company, and having to go through half the process all over again... But putting myself in the shoes of the staff at the various kitchen companies - they must get sick of continually providing their services (measure & quote, along with the time spent on their long presentations) to customers that just run around with all their hard work, to get someone else to under-cut them! Next time I'll be using a company recommended by friends, to save having to do all the legwork myself! Re: What makes you select a kitchen company? 39Dec 10, 2009 9:13 am Kris000 Ok here is my honest opinion. * To be a successful kitchen company, PLEASE do not ask for a deposit straight after you give a quote A good company will give you time to think about it and ask a lot of question and view the 3d model again and again BEFORE any money is handed over. This takes at least 3-5 visits to the showroom with the designer. * Have your own ideas...nothing ****** me off more when the "designer" gave me no creative ideas but the ones I was suggesting We want to be blown off our feet with great space saving ideas and stunning design. * Have a large showcase of doors, benchtops and handles. Have a good range - from budget to expensive. Do not give the client limited options. If you do not have all the handles in the showroom show them the book you order them from. * Listen to what we want. Make our sometimes ordinary ideas into something great, dont settle for the easy option. * Make us feel like you have all the time in the world for us even when you dont. Anyway this is what I have experienced in the past month when choosing my kitchen company. Any company that asked for a 10% deposit after only 1 hour of their time got written off straight away All very good points. We got a designer from Direct Kitchens that was pretty uninspiring and just kept asking "what do YOU want" He was the design professional, we wanted to know what he thought we needed as we are not kitchen desiners, he is! Anyway we then got Impala to quote, very nice designer and the plans looked good. To cut a long story short Impala have been a nightmare. It is 6 weeks since since the cabinets went in and we still have no stainless steel counter top so no electrical or plumbing. Now we have been told that no benchtop till after xmas which is turning it into a 3 month project. Luckily we have another kitchen in the house but Impala are HOPELESS. We have made so many phone calls, they really seem like a company in complete disarray. Funnily enough our friends used Direct Kitchens and their kitchen was installed in 3 days with the benchtops taking another week, nothing like our never ending nightmare! Gunzel Re: What makes you select a kitchen company? 40Dec 10, 2009 7:48 pm The way they treat you and respect your ideas. We met with the builders supplied cabinet maker and he knocked back everything we suggested and said "thats not practical" for no good reason. He was very traditional and wanted to stick with cupboards all round instead of things like pot drawers (how arent pot drawers practical??) He didnt want to go down the modern path with things like pull out bins, handle-less cupboards etc He actual looked at us like we were nuts when we suggested them. He seemed like someone who just wanted to produce the same kitchen over and over instead of making something individual for the client. We looked around and came across a guy who listened to our ideas and how we wanted our kitchen to look. If he thought something wasnt going to work he would say something like "that would look good, but I'm not sure it will fit, how about this instead". Nothing was too much trouble for him. If we had a vague idea on part of the kitchen (maybe something I saw in a magazine that I would try to describe) he would offer more options, sometimes something better and draw us pictures on the spot. We never felt rushed. He was excited about his work and proudly invited us into his workshop to show us what he was building everytime we went there to help us get more ideas on how we wanted our kitchen to be. He was never pushy with money, he didnt charge through the roof if we made last minute changes and upgrades - he was very honest. We found out later on that he purposely charges less then his competitors as he ends up with all the clients while everyone else is begging for work. No. It's not original. Circa early to mid 90s would be my guess and maybe even as late as early 2000s 1 6636 Thanks mate. Yeah good points! Leaning towards Option 3 to get a bit extra space in the cabinets but not going too crazy high (and expensive). Would require a mini… 13 39753 Looking to start the journey of becoming an owner builder in SA. Feeling pretty (overly) confident on the building and construction details, but really struggling to find… 0 8423 |