GRANITE WORKTOP INSTALLERS: LOCAL WORKTOP FIRM OR STICK WITH THE BIG SHED? III
In our second article on different kinds of granite or quartz worktop supplier we looked at the advantages of being local and small over being national and big. This article looks at the advantages of talking to specialist worktop people from the start.
The big shed kitchen companies are all about the kitchen units – and rightly so. The vast majority of us buy our kitchens from them and they are often very good at what they do. Somewhere towards the tail end of the kitchen-buying process the question of worktops will come up. It may seem like a natural progression to include the worktops at that point, but do bear in mind that the kitchen showroom person is very unlikely to be a stone specialist, and may well not be a direct representative of the company who will actually do your installation.
What are the advantages of going to a specialist granite worktop fabricator?
QUARTZ WORKTOP INSTALLERS: WHY GO TO A SPECIALIST?
Most of the big kitchen retailers subcontract any worktop fabrication to smaller companies. Smaller is a relative term here – some of those companies are very big indeed, with large teams of subcontracted templators and fitters – but they are far smaller than the kitchen firm that employs them.
The point is, when ordering worktops through a kitchen company you are unlikely to be able to speak directly with the solid stone worktop specialists. Kitchen sales staff may know little or nothing about granite worktops, and will tend to sell you whatever has a good margin without much reference to or openness about the pros and cons of different materials. You can’t beat talking directly to a granite and quartz worktop specialist!
GRANITE WORKTOP INSTALLERS: • SALESPEOPLE WHO DON'T KNOW STONE V EXPERIENCED AND MOTIVATED STAFF
Rough pricing versus a clear, professional quotation
Kitchen companies rarely have sales staff who are conscious of the sizes of slabs that will be cut for worktops. Prices are often quite rough estimates, rather than fully worked out and formal quotations. As a result, things often change dramatically on templating.
We are also often asked for extra pieces of quartz, as in today’s case study (below). Kitchen company salespeople don’t allow enough slabs, and often want extra money for a further slab to cover. A specialist granite and quartz worktop company such as Affordable Granite will give you a comprehensive quotation showing options for extras. How much would windowsills be? What about a splashback? Could we have a shelf for the larder? We are here to help with these questions and many more!
Good honest advice
At Affordable Granite we tell it how it is. Despite our remarkably youthful looks, our sales team has coming up for 50 years combined experience in the stone industry anmd we are n’t planning on going anywhere else. We know that good selling is not about fobbing people off with a bit of patter and getting them to sign up to whatever worktop gives us the biggest margin. We know that the best salesman is actually woprd of mouth from a really happy customer, so listening to people’s needs and giving honest advice is the way we roll. Does a much-hyped material break catastrophically if you hit it hard? We will tell you! We will fact-find to make sure that you get the right worktop for your application and scheme. We won’t sell you something just to get the deal!
When you are spending several thousand pounds on what will be the most obvious – and most heavily used – part of your new kitchen, you want to deal with honest and knowledgable people. Look no further than Affordabkle Granite!
An offset corner join in a Cimstone Oasis quartz worktop run – reducing the number of joins in a kitchen
Best design/ minimum number of joins within regulations.
Some kitchen company designers are great on kitchen units but don’t fully understand the nature of the stones that they are selling and the design parameters within which they should work. Here at AG our experience means that we can help design for best aesthetics as well as structural strength.
The big shed companies often also have a relatively limited range of stone-masonry offerings to keep their costs down. Some won’t give you curves, internal corners to make dog-legged L-shapes, even large islands. Working with a company for which these techniques are second nature guarantees the best possible fit and look. The same applies to vein-matching – many of the kitchen companies make a point of saying that they won’t go out of their way to achieve this, while we won’t take a job on if we can’t!
At Affordable Granite, if a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well. It isn’t just customer satisfaction that we are after – we want to fit to our own satisfaction, and our standards are high!
Customer care and aftersales service
At AG we care deeply about providing a high quality product with exceptional communication and customer service. Our staff are motivated to sell the right product for each customer, not just to win business. Being a small team, you can know that the person you spoke to initially will be around and available right through the process. (We can all pick up each other’s work on days off etc, but try to maintain continuity of customer service wherever we can.) And the same people will be around if you have any further needs or problems further down the line.
That is one reason why you can be sure we give honest advice. If there has been a problem with a material, and the same sales person has picked up the phone call from the unhappy customer, you can bet your life that that that customer’s bad experience will feed into our sales advice. It is only when you divorce selling from customer service that you get the empty patter of the hard sell.
For us at Affordable Granite, caring for the customer from beginning to end of the installation, and ownwards, is the goal. We do not want to wash our hands of you once we have your money!Â
KITCHEN WORKTOP INSTALLERS: A STONE SPECIALIST CASE-STUDY
It just happened that while I was working on this blog I had a call from a customer who had bought their kitchen and worktops from Howdens.
The worktops were in Miami Vena – a Silestone quartz which we used to stock. Because Howdens buy their quartz worktops in standard sizes, there were some aspects of the installation which the kitchen company was unable to fulfil. At that point the customer came to us, for the “extras” – which is a bit galling. However, I quoted – for a larder shelf and a couple of other bits. I couldn’t guarantee a perfect batch match, of course, not least (as I understand it at the time of writing) because Howdens actually buy “seconds” from Silestone so the consistency is certainly not going to be perfect.
Howdens can’t offer all the more technical stone masonry that we can, either. The customer’s comment to me on the phone: “I really wish we had come to you in the first place!”
This story is not unusual. To get all the stone you need – windowsills, splashbacks, shelves – at the thickness you want – and with the curves and fancy edge you want – you need to go to people who love stone – a granite and quartz worktop specialist.
We are Affordable Granite, the leading granite installer in Surrey, Sussex and across the South East. We are THE specialists for quality quartz and granite worktops for our area. To deal with a family firm where small really is beautiful, to find attention to detail and a customer service experience second to none, contact us today. For questions, queries and quotes connected with any aspect of worktop installation or kitchen design, please don’t hesitate to contact us on 01293 863992 or by email on sales@affordablegranite.co.uk/ .
