Pain is part of running a business. We incur pain when our employees don’t follow procedures, representatives don’t support their lines and manufacturers fail to understand showroom operations.

Unfortunately, most of the pain in the decorative plumbing and hardware industry is self-inflicted. It results from not understanding and managing customer expectations, wants, needs and desires at all levels in the supply chain. It’s a byproduct of inadequate communication. It occurs when our working environment focuses only on the negative and not the positive, and it recurs because we don’t take the time to be proactive. Simply looking at what’s wrong and making fixes does not eliminate the pain.

Showroom owners know the leading causes of pain, yet few of us take or can create the time to do anything to alleviate or prevent pain from recurring. In many instances, we are the enemy. We continue to promote bad behavior by accepting practices that cause pain.

Installation and Delivery Issues

Our showroom personnel and my peers from around the country constantly complain about installation errors, yet few of us make the effort to establish relationships with competent trade personnel. We don’t go out of our way to provide training. It’s easy to say that installers are not interested, however, what are we doing to generate interest?

Dealers need to reach out to installers, establish a rapport with them and convince them that it is in their best interests to partner with independent showrooms. The Decorative Plumbing & Hardware Association (DPHA) has produced materials to assist in that area. DPHA’s new installer message brochure, published in both English and Spanish, provides the reasons that should attract installer interest.

Customers come to our showrooms expecting perfection. They want a flawless experience and are willing to pay a premium to have their expectations met.

Expectations fall short if products are not delivered on time or as specified. Showrooms reinforce unacceptable behavior by not mandating that manufacturers issue confirmation orders or require that the confirmation include information that is necessary to quality control a project. Dealers need to check acknowledgements against purchase orders to ensure that pricing is accurate, to verify that the correct product is ordered and to confirm that the delivery time is consistent with the information provided to the customer.

Company Assets

Pain is avoided when a line is easy to sell. The industry is constantly changing, and we need to change with it. Showrooms have to represent the latest and greatest because that is what our customers expect.

Pain is created when we take on a new line that does not perform or underperforms, but it is avoided when we take on a new line that complements our merchandise mix, that fills a void and contributes to our profitability.

We need to ask difficult questions when assessing a new line. We must involve our employees, and know what their concerns are. We want to know how the line will be distributed, represented in the field and supported in the home office.