This song was playing at a recent party “This is how we do it” – Montell Jordan and it got me thinking…
Over the years of building our family business, we have discovered the ways of how we wanted to do things. These “core values” have come from decades of servicing our customers the right way.
We have seen some monumental issues caused by shoddy fitters, fixed other peoples mistakes, seen terrible, badly finished Blinds and seen some products that have been poorly made. Having witnessed what should not happen in our industry, we want to make sure our employees, do things our way.
Manufacturing – We manufacture a fair few products in-house and we are lucky to be working with @Louvolite, who are our component supplier for all the products built by us. Our staff are trained at Louvolite, by the people who designed them, the tech guys. For each new product that we make at our Wickford HQ, our staff have been trained to build that product to Louvolite’s high standards, with our Managing Director going with them to get trained up himself. Then, when back at base, they teach each other about how to build the products they oversee. This way, our way, all our manufacturing staff are cross-trained on all the products we manufacture, helping the business through holidays or periods of illness.
Surveying and Installation – Our MD worked with John Margrain (the John of John’s Blinds & Curtains) for years before taking over the reins of the business, fitting and surveying himself for over a decade. His exacting standards are part of our “Core Values” with him telling employees “Treat every home as if it was your own”. Our team who go into customers homes to survey are honest, helpful and polite. If something will not work, or will not look right, we tell the customer why we believe so and then advise on what products could work, if possible. We have walked away from a survey, as we will not say we can do something, when it cannot be. All our surveyors started off by learning to be installers first, just as our MD did. We believe this helps them understand the products better and develop their understanding of what products work best for unique styles of windows.
Office & Showroom – Our extremely dedicated Office and Showroom people are educated in all our products right from the start. They will spend hours with our surveyors and installers learning what they do as well. Then they get their hands-on training, taught by John’s daughter and Owner of the business, Sue. They get educated in everything, what the symbols mean on the back of each fabric, what products we sell, what we manufacture, how the diary system works etc, etc.
Promote from within – We are a small family run business, but where possible we promote from within. Our employees build a massive understanding of what we do, how we do it, as well as a vast knowledge and understanding of all our products over their time with us, so why would we not encourage and support them in their growth. But we have lost a few great people over the years, but unfortunately that does happen in any business.
“This is how we do it” at Johns’ Blinds & Curtains