A Sound-Off on Customer Service

Customer Service is something I have been practicing and learning about since my first working days in the world of retail.  It's been on my mind lately and many of us in business  find ourselves both on the giving and receiving ends of it.  Whatever your occupation, I don't have to tell you there is a lot of competition out there.It may surprise you to know how often a potential client will thank me profusely for showing up or even simply returning a phone call.  The first lesson in surpassing your competitors is just be present and responsive, it's not rocket science peeps!  I understand we get busy at times or there are snafus that we dread confronting clients about but believe me, a little communication goes a long way.  It's being in the dark and not knowing that makes people more nervous.Another thought is perhaps we can see ourselves on the "same team".   Our goal is for a positive transaction, otherwise known as a "win-win". Don't let  a loop hole of corporate policy make your customer a victim causing you to lose all potential future business in the process.  In my experience banks, insurance companies and cell phone providers have a lot to learn in this area.  For example, let's say you awake at eleven o'clock remembering that your mortgage payment must be in before the witching hour, you scurry over to the lap top, do the deed and fall promptly back to sleep, $35 dollar late fee averted...But it wasn't. So there you are on "phone hell" trying to talk to a human so you can explain the situation and that you really did pay on time, like each and every month.  It doesn't work with Ocwen financial corporation, by the way.  Sometimes peeps just need to feel like they got a break and that the companies they choose to do business with have their back.On the flip side I had a great experience recently as well.  I made a purchase from an advertisement on line.  The item was delivered quickly and although it was pretty inexpensive, I was dismayed to discover it wasn't at all what I ordered.  I was ready to write it off but thought I would give it the old college try anyway.  To my surprise and delight they were very responsive and apologetic, not the least bit defensive.  I thought they would tell me that each item was different and, for the price, wouldn't necessarily match what was pictured.  But no, they sent me a new one, express delivery and insisted I keep the incorrect version for my trouble.  Now that is customer service and you can bet I will always say good things about Ashley Bridget.  They have won my loyalty.Speaking of the internet, social media gives us a great opportunity to show who we are in terms of customer service not only through positive mentions on FaceBook and Twitter but with negative ones as well.  I want to see how a company responds to criticism and if they take it as an opportunity to hone their customer service skills.  Thanks for reading my "sound off".  Sometimes I must vent!  How about you?  Do you agree?   I'd love to hear your views and experiences.  Is the customer always right?

An Off-The-Cuff Art Table

I think all of you know I'm a nut about art.  Some of you may know that my particular passion of late is encaustic art.  This particular type of painting is hot, literally.  It's painting with beeswax, resin and pigments and you can get the full scoop here.  Last year I had the pleasure of attending the 7th International Encaustic Conference in Provincetown Mass.  You will find pics from that trip here scroll down to "Encaustic Boy".  Anyway, I digress.  What I really wanted to show you is this cool table that Pat in the shop at Brendan Donovan Furniture & Cabinet Co. made for me.  I gave him the exact height I needed to work standing up.  It has a shelf below for storage and casters so I can move it where I want it.  He made it out of leftover bamboo and I didn't even finish it as I figured it would just end up covered in paint anyway.   I realize not every one has "a Pat" so let me tell you about a website I just discovered through the tech whiz Eric Schimelpfenig of SketchThis.net .  It's called Open Desk and it allows you to create your own furniture or have someone make it for you.  Apparently there are lots of Pats all over the world who can make you your own art table, or whatever.  You could even take a stab at it yourself!  Pretty cool, huh? Oh and this is what the encaustic set up looks like.  Soon it will get too hot to work in my garage.  Can't leave without a "shout out" to Baby Girl who has successfully concluded her high school career.  Onward and upward.  I'm so proud.  Next post we will get back to business, after my long weekend birthday celebration in the Keys where I will be doing this. 

Kitchen Love, Italian Style at Acheo and Poggenpohl

Ok so you got me, Poggenpohl is not Italian.  They are German, except when they're in Milan, then they're Italian.  Good enough? I can hardly believe I’ve been home for over a week!  Images and impressions are still swirling around in my head from the wonderful time I spent with Blanco and some fellow members of the Blanco Design Council in Milan.  Design Week was not limited to the extensive exhibition at the Rho Fairgrounds but also included events all over town.  We visited two memorable and cutting edge showrooms on our visit.   The first was Acheo (pronounced AH-kee-oh), located in the Brera district.  Brera is also known today as the design district.  It is also one of the few really old areas of Milan which saw 80% destruction during WWII.  Acheo opened it’s showroom there in 2010.  Today they are a showcase of quintessential contemporary Italian design for the kitchen.They put on an impressive pre-dinner spread for us and the peeps from Modenus Blogtour Milan.All through our trip we saw many products not available here in the US.  Some will become available, perhaps in other versions.  One such item is this Durinox work top and sink (below) which is a part of the Blanco Steel Art collection.  Think stainless steel on steroids!!  Seriously, it is made with a finishing process used in the auto and aerospace industries so it is super scratch resistant and more than twice as hard as stainless steel.  It is available, as shown, in Europe from Blanco in Germany.  The sinks only will be available for undermount installation here in the US.We found that in Milan you could miss half the experience if you failed to look up!  Look at these cool light fixtures at Acheo!The other showroom we had the pleasure of visiting during our visit was Poggenpohl.  I think you could argue that they set the bar when it comes to innovation in contemporary cabinet design.  As I mentioned, Poggenpohl is a German company and they claim to be the oldest kitchen brand in the world!  Some years ago Poggenpohl  teamed up with the Porsche Design Studio to develop the P'7340 line of cabinets. Both companies focus their concentration on the overall line as well as  providing unsurpassed quality of product. Above is a Porsche Design Kitchen P'7340 by Poggenpohl.  It's hallmark is the aluminum frame which surrounds each box. Originally designed with men in mind, it has evolved into a brand appealing to discerning contemporary design devotees of either sex.  Chief Poggenpohl designer Manfred Junker was on hand to explain the intricacies of design detail that go into the product including their trademark, no handle, fronts.  In fact, he claims, they are the first to offer touch control on the refrigerator and dishwasher.  Here's what they have to say about that on their website: "Handleless fronts emphasize the clean, uncompromised lines of the kitchen furniture."Poggenpohl took care of our tummies too.   After all, design spotting can work up one hell of an appetite!     This newest version of P'7340 (see below) features a contrasting counter top inset made of solid New Zealand pine with a wire brushed finish.Next up:  FTK (Technology for the Kitchen)  This was the section of iSaloni featuring the latest trends and products in kitchen appliances.Click here for a peek at all my Milan photos!own and automatically completes the closing cycle

Euro Cucina 2014

I'm home and just about recovered from my jet lag.  All pics are up for your perusal.  It was a fabulous trip and my heartfelt gratitude goes out to the golden peeps at Blanco, including travel mate Christy Emens as well as Lori Dolnick of Frank Advertising.  I was honored to be included with fellow bloggers Marilyn Russell (DesignMagnifique), Kelly Morisseau (KellyMorisseau.com) and Grace & Ken Kelly of (kitchendesigns.com).  Having been to many trade shows in the US over the years, I've always wanted to experience the bigger, global picture.  Now I have and it was amazing. I arrived on Monday morning ready to explore.  Lori and I took a stroll and stumbled upon a delicious lunch and a very cool design museum but first things first.  I'm dying to tell you about all the products and trends I saw at the big show.  Euro Cucina only comes along every two years as a part of the Salone del Mobile. Milano.  There is also a whole section devoted to the bath called Salone Internazionale del Bagno. Kitchen gadgets and appliances are shown in the FTK section.  I did a pretty good job of covering those but I estimate that was only about 20% of the entire show, the rest being furniture and other aspects of design.  Here's what caught my eye.

Counter tops were either very thin or chunky, like 1/2"  for the thin and 3" for the chunky.   I saw a lot of mixing of materials, in fact, that was probably the one biggest trend I saw for both counter tops and cabinets.  It is also one that can easily be adapted to our US market.  Counter top materials are much more adventurous than the usual granite or quartz that we are used to here. I saw wood, Corian, recycled composite material and more.  The overlapping installation here was also quite common.The kitchen sink saw some new innovations including lots of accessories and different methods of installation.  The inset style above, by Blanco, is factory installed by Leicht for a perfect fit.  This particular one is not available to us in the US but we can get the Precision model with the distinctive square corner interior for undermount applications.  Cabinets featured lots of defined graining in woods such as white oak, rosewood and walnut in both horizontal and vertical directions, sometimes on the same door.  I also saw some interesting variations on the popular slab and Shaker silhouettes.

LED lights illuminated the interior of all cabinets including drawers.  Just open the drawer and contents are illuminated.  Cabinetry, for the most part was sleek on the outside, party on the inside!  By that I mean that interiors were tricked out to the max to ensure convenient and efficient storage. Oh and yes, that 's a truck load of chocolate on the top, almost as intriguing as the drawer.  If you think that's eye candy, just wait till you get to the end of the post!

CleverStorageUS by Kessebohmer showed this blind corner pull out (below) which I specify all the time.  I think it's really the best way to take advantage of an awkward space.

Traditional styling was represented but examples were relatively few.  Some very opulent looks, traditional with high tech functionality

Visual Texture was abundant on cabinet fronts with laminates that look like the real deal.  But don't let looks deceive, these laminate fronts behind us (below) are by Leicht and are smooth as the proverbial baby's bottom!

Italian men were also on display and I would be remiss if I didn't cover that aspect of the show.  So there I was minding my own business, when a fashion show erupted (it was actually in the Bath section of the show).

 This is just the first in a series of posts about Milan and Salone Internazionale del Mobile.  Upcoming posts will include our visits to Acheo and Poggenpohl showrooms and much more.  So what do you think of these kitchen trends so far? I think some will make it over the pond but you can always know that whatever we do, we'll do it with an Americano twist. More later :)Click here for a peek at all my Milan photos!

A New View into Kitchen Design

This year marks my twentieth anniversary in this industry.  I was originally a fashion major but when I fled the retail life for this industry I came to it totally green.  I still clearly remember my first day looking at a floor plan.  I couldn't tell a door apart from a bathtub. My, have we come along way!  Around 5 years ago I converted from hand drafting to computer, yes I was a hold out.  I taught myself Chief Architect and never looked back (although I still look forward to learning it much more in depth). Today there is a wealth of real photos at your disposal on websites like houzz.com or modenus.com available to help with design ideas and options.  We live the adage that "a picture is worth a thousand words"!  One company is taking it a step further, meet VDS (Virtual Design Studio) This tool was developed for Austrian Laminate Maker EGGER.  Choosing an exact finish for your new cabinetry can be daunting.  This tool allows you through HD video projectors, to see wooden textures on real objects.   This touch screen interface allows you to choose out of Egger's 700 options.  For the first time the viewer has the option of making a choice  in  full scale mode and with a truly realistic impression.The days of color sample chips are quickly coming to a close.What could be next?   Follow me April 6-11 as I cover iSalone, a part of Design Week in Milan. As a member of BLANCO’s Design Council, I’ll be traveling with a small group of my fellow members Marilyn Russell of Design Magnifique, Kelly Morriseau , and Ken and Grace Kelly of Kitchen Designs,  I'm thrilled to be included with with such talent and will  be Instagram-ing, FaceBooking, blogging and Tweeting up a storm! I hope you join me. 

Cabinet Doors + Art=Maple Craft Doors

One of the benefits of working for a custom cabinet shop like Brendan Donovan Furniture & Cabinet Co. is OPTIONS!  Many of the projects I work on are combinations of both manufactured and custom cabinets.  We can order it.  We can make it all (including doors) or we can make the cabinet boxes and order the doors.  Speaking of doors, how about these doors?!If you know me you know I’m drawn to anything different, quirky, off the beaten path.  I think these cabinet fronts by  Maple Craft  Doors fit the bill.  They’re definitely at the higher end of the price spectrum but consider this:  you don’t have to use them for the whole kitchen.  In fact because they’re so striking less is actually more.Frank Dyck, Administrator/Sales at Maple Craft had this to say about these uber cool doors (MY COMMENTS INSERTED IN CAPS):

"We have the ability of creating a custom wood pattern that runs from door to door through the entire kitchen. (OK SO I LIED,  IT CAN ALSO BE COOL TO GO ALL THE WAY) There are some limitations to how detailed we can go as far as sharp corners and such but the possibilities are endless.

All the customer has to do is send a front view of the cabinet with door/drawer sizes and a rough sketch of their artwork. (JUST THINK, YOUR ART ON YOUR CABINETS!!)

We do the final drawing,  send back for confirmation and as soon as we have confirmation, production is about 14 working days.

This is also something that the general public has for the most part not seen." (YOU'VE GOT THAT RIGHT.  I WAS HARD PRESSED TO FIND OTHER EXAMPLES)

I did find this leaf-pattern rosewood inlay side board from One King's Lane.  I love it and it's perfect if you're going for a Mid-Century vibe.  (In fact, I also discovered this treasure trove of cabinet curiosity on Pinterest.)

Another original fun door I spied at Maple Craft Door is the Hilton.  Each door and drawer panel is custom programmed. By doing this, they create a random pattern over the whole kitchen.

So what do you think?  How crazy are you willing to go in the kitchen?  It's beautiful and unique but will you love it in 20 years? I believe this creativity could be timeless.