In a previous SURFACES│StonExpo/Marmomacc Americas Blog “You’re Really Good At Change, But What’s Next?” I reported some practical, inexpensive ideas on how you can use technology in your business. Here are a few more tools and ideas you and your staff can use right now:

-Search for your store on Google and consumer review sites (like angieslist.com, yelp.com and complaints.com); if you find compliments about your business when you do the searches, have them on a computer ready to show to customers in your store, and put links to them on your Web site;

-Get a small, inexpensive “shoot and share” video camera; ask your staff to each record themselves as if they were telling a customer about your business and why the customer should buy from you; when they have a version they like, ask them to show it to you and one another; they’ll be practicing – on one another instead of a customer – while training each other; you might even find videos good enough to use on your Web site or YouTube.com;

-Ask satisfied customers for video testimonials about their new floors and your business; these can be used (with permission) in your store, on your Web site, etc.; (yes, I know, you think customers won’t agree to do this, but as time passes Gen X’ers and Millennials are much less concerned about privacy issues than Boomers, so you may be pleasantly surprised at the results).

Yes, at some point, all new technology is scary. But if we take small steps we’ll learn and benefit from the technologies. After all, there’s a reason that DVD’s replaced VHS tapes, and Blu-ray is replacing DVD’s. When people see benefits from new technology, they adapt the new technology. These tips can help you benefit from new technologies today, simply.  Good luck!

Trust is becoming increasingly important as you try to serve your customers. It’s part of the reason why they

-check your Web site and your competitors’ Web sites, or Google you and review sites like angieslist.com before coming to your store;

-check with their friends on facebook.com and twitter.com for second, third and fourth opinions before buying from you; and

-bring friends to your store and want to check with their family before committing to buy new flooring.

How do you earn their trust, then? Certainly your reputation and brand are critical to ever getting them in your door. Once they walk in, what can you then do to earn their trust? Because they can’t trust someone they don’t know, it’s critical to build a relationship with your customers.

First, we need to listen to each customer, both online and when she comes into the store. Each customer has a unique situation and we need to be ready to provide unique solutions, not the same solution as we try to give everyone else based on go-to products.

We need to demonstrate by our actions – good eye contact, sincerity, and listening – that we genuinely have the customer’s best interests in mind. We are her partner in finding that unique solution. Nothing is more important than she is.

She needs to believe that the options you present serve her interests as well as your own. What do I mean by this? Just because you have three rolls of a beige texture in the back doesn’t mean that you should put it first on her list of carpet options! Make sure the products you show her deliver on her unique needs in a way she’ll understand. This is possible if we have listened well and demonstrated our partnership role.

And, your customer needs to understand the selection process, and that it truly is her selection. You’re not selling – you’re enabling her selection of the best product for her.

Trust based on this kind of a relationship with your customer will strengthen your reputation in your market. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “Glass, china and reputations are easily cracked and never well mended.” Protect your reputation by building trust with your customer.

In most cases, moisture problems can be avoided before they occur by practicing good installation procedures.  The first step in a successful installation is to make sure that the wood to be installed is acclimated to the job site properly.  This means that the job site needs to be as close to normal living conditions as possible before installation begins.  Once the wood is acclimated properly to the job site, it should be tested thoroughly, along with the subfloor, for moisture content.  To get accurate readings, several different pieces of wood from several different bundles should be tested. 

Often, anxious homeowners or builders will try to push wood flooring installers to skip this acclimation process because of scheduling problems.  Contractors need to be firm, and educate their customers about how wood reacts to environmental conditions.  It often is useful to keep pictures on hand that show the results of improper acclimation and moisture testing.  One look at a cupped or crowned floor, representing thousands of wasted dollars, and weeks of messy and costly repair, is often all that is needed to make the point loud and clear. 

Sometimes, despite all the installation precautions taken, moisture still can wreak havoc on a wood floor.  Faulty dishwashers, overflowing sinks, leaky pipes, malfunctioning ice makers, careless homeowners – all these problems can introduce moisture to wood floors, causing significant damage if ignored and untreated.

As a flooring professional, it’s important to know how to diagnose and repair these kinds of moisture-related issues.  This topic – Installation Failures: Tile and Hardwoods – will be discussed at length during SURFACES │StonExpo/Marmomacc Americas on Tuesday, January 24.  I look forward to seeing you there.

Likewise, the floor covering industry is an important and fascinating business that attracts young talent. It’s part design, part engineering, part environmental, part manufacturing, part marketing and sales. It’s a relatively small industry but has enormous impact on the quality of life for all of us, wherever we live, work or play. Just as with the ad industry, the floor covering industry’s most important resource is the people who call it their career home, whether they work for retailers, manufacturers, architects and designers or distributors.

Several months ago, Kemp Harr, publisher of Floor Focus magazine, and I met and decided to launch the Future Focus Awards, along with the generous support of a leading brand in the business, 3M Scotchgard, thanks to Jim Stevens, National Sales Manager. You won’t find a stronger advocate for the industry than Kemp and his wife Anne, the art director for Floor Focus. Together, we developed the Award over the course of many meetings and long hours. The judges for the Future Focus Awards are Jim Stevens, Buddy Jones of E. Jones & Associates, a sales and leadership training company; and Frank Hurd of the Carpet and Rug Institute.

Nominees (must be under age 35 with at least 3 years experience) and their nominators can get more information about the Award and entry forms by visiting http://www.floordaily.net/futurefocusawards/

Deadline for entries is December 23 and the winners will be announced at SURFACES│StonExpo/Marmomacc Americas in Las Vegas, January 24. More information about SURFACES│StonExpo/Marmomacc Americas is at http://www.surfaces.com/attendee/show-information.aspx

At a time in this industry and country when sales and growth are in a slump, we believe it’s time to celebrate the young, talented, ambitious and dedicated individuals in sales, marketing, R&D/product design, manufacturing, employee development/human development, and sustainability, on an industry-wide platform. In spite of current economic circumstances, these individuals are the future of floor covering and the hope of all of us. Let’s look to the future, together.

Message from SURFACES│StonExpo/Marmomacc Americas Show Management:

Paul will share more of his wisdom with you when he and Brian Gracon, PhD present the following session: Making Marketing and Sales Work Together (MO15A) on January 23, 2012 at 1:00pm.  To register, visit: https://registration3.experient-inc.com/showSUR121/Default.aspx.  We look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas!

The beauty of natural stone – rock as old as time, harvested from some of the most delicate and unforgiving lands on our planet, trucked, floated, or flown to any imaginable destination, and customized to the most exacting specifications of your unique project – and all yours for the low price of $27.00 per square foot installed.

Where did we go wrong? When did one of the oldest, richest, and most storied crafts known to man become a commoditized industry replete with bargain pricing, blinking neon signs, free undermount sinks included with purchase, incompetent workers, and unprincipled business practices? When did we pervert the art and beauty of natural stone by categorizing these inimitable natural resources into groups and colors that we sell at prices that severely undermine the value of our product and integrity of our industry?

Ladies and Gentlemen: we have done this to ourselves. Fortunately, current economic forces are providing us the ideal opportunity to repair our broken industry.

The business of stone fabrication is expensive and labor-intensive – cumbersome at best. The downfall of our industry began when uneducated individuals dove headfirst into the business convinced that the limitless profits of fabricating natural stone would greatly outweigh the paltry cost of operating a fabrication facility. All you need is slabs, laborers to fabricate those slabs, and some overeager customers who are willing to part with their hard-earned cash for a poorly crafted countertop… right?

Wrong. An intelligent and experienced fabricator will quickly inform you that these basic costs do not begin to scratch the surface of the burdensome expense of the stone business. A truly responsible stone fabricator will have a significant overhead, which will include myriad tangible costs: facilities, machinery and equipment, product, personnel, vehicles, safety equipment, liability and workers’ compensation insurances, and federal and state taxes- just to name a few. There will also be a multitude of intangible costs: knowledge, skill, experience, and ethics.

The intelligent and experienced fabricator cannot compete with the parasite whose sole purpose is to pocket as much cash as possible before vanishing without a trace, leaving the stone industry in disrepair with street prices that are irresponsible, unsustainable, and degrading to our craft.

The effects of industry reticence to combat and discourage these destructive practices are immeasurable. We are fractured, discouraged, and fatigued. Coincidentally, the economic forces currently threatening each of our businesses have created a unique opportunity for intelligent and experienced fabricators to finally take a stand against this industry perversion. There is no better time for candid discussion and discovery than now.  Through education, awareness, accountability, and principle, intelligent and experienced fabricators throughout our country and around the world can save our broken industry. I hope you will join me.

You can also join John Kilfoyle for the Countertop Installers Forum: Solutions to the Most Common Problems (WE23T) on Wednesday, January 25, 2012, 4:00pm – 5:30pm at StonExpo/Marmomacc Americas.  Click here to register for StonExpo/Marmomacc Americas.

Most articles about concrete countertops extol the versatility and design potential of the material. After all, when you start with raw materials the possibilities of what you can do with them are vast and seemingly limitless. However, instead of delving into design, I want to discuss something a bit more concrete (pardon the pun): the material itself.

Stone fabricators work with a variety of stone and are familiar with the differences in these materials. Hardness, porosity, brittleness, etc. are all individual characteristics that make one stone different from another (appearances notwithstanding).

Concrete too has characteristics that set it apart from other countertop materials. Some of these physical characteristics are very similar to stone while others are very different. Understanding the similarities and differences between concrete and granite can be a significant factor that results in profits vs. unforeseen costs.

Granite Composition

Let’s start with granite. Differences in mineralogy, grain, origin and other subtleties give each granite a unique personality stone fabricators have learned to recognize. Three characteristics distinguish granite from other rock types.

1. First, granite is an igneous rock.
2. Second, it has large mineral grains.
3. And third, it always has quartz and feldspar as primary mineral components.

Not all of the stone used for granite countertops is geologically classified as granite; black “granite” is really gabbro, which has no quartz in it. However the more relaxed definition of “granite” by the stone industry often includes any stone with large grains and hard minerals. Broadly speaking, most “granites” share similar physical characteristics such as hardness, durability, acid, heat and scratch-resistance.

The hard nature of the mineral grains makes granite difficult to scratch and easy to polish to a very high sheen. Granite is considered strong, but the brittle nature of stone, coupled with natural joints, fissures and veins can make it fragile and vulnerable to unexpected breakage.

Concrete Composition

The basic makeup of most concrete is simple: Hard aggregates of various sizes are mixed with a cementitious binder to create a strong, stone-like composite.

Nearly all concrete uses Portland cement as a binder, but some ultra-high performance concretes use other mineral-based binders that are superior to (and more expensive than) Portland cement.

Photo by Dave Banko, Counterpart, LLC

Concrete can use aggregates with a variety of mineralogies. Crushed granite, quartz, limestone and marble are common coarse aggregates, and silica sand is often the fine aggregate. Concrete can also use recycled materials like crushed glass bottles as aggregate.

Etching Bare Concrete

Acid vulnerability is concrete’s Achilles heel. Bare concrete will etch from acid, but high performance coatings like urethanes solve this issue.

Polishing Ability

Because it is a heterogeneous matrix of various aggregates in a cement binder, concrete polishes differently from most stone. Generally the harder aggregates polish well, which is to be expected from natural stones. Recycled glass aggregates polish well too.

Polished concrete’s sheen generally can’t compete with polished granite, but with the right combination of technique, concrete mix and aging it is possible to get a suitably high shine, if that is what the client wants. Most clients want concrete to have a matte look because the very reason they are choosing concrete is that it is different from granite.

Keep in mind that polished concrete does shed water nicely, but its bare surface is still vulnerable to acid. To prevent acid etching, high performance coatings must be applied.

Strength

Granite like most stones is strong, hard and brittle. Natural fissures, fractures and veins weaken a stone slab, often leading to unexpected breakage. But what does this really mean? When stone is described as being brittle, that means that it cannot tolerate much flexing before it breaks unexpectedly. A seemingly solid slab that’s lifted improperly can shatter in an instant without warning.

The opposite of brittle is flexible. Think of rubber. It doesn’t shatter. Rather it takes considerable stretching and elongation before it breaks. Even though it can break, there’s a clear indication that something is happening to the material long before failure occurs.

Concrete, when it’s properly reinforced and well designed, can be made flexible and strong. True, unreinforced concrete is a brittle material, but adding reinforcement makes concrete a tough, flexible composite. Rodding granite with steel or fiberglass provides a similar benefit, although without nearly the same capacity that reinforced concrete has.

The ability to engineer concrete to be flexible and strong, combined with the fact that slabs are made to order, allow for very long, thin slabs without breakage or even cracking.

GFRC Desk Flexing

Conclusion

Finally, the biggest difference between concrete and granite is that you can tailor concrete to suit your client’s needs and tastes. Aesthetics, durability and structural performance can all be customized to create unique pieces (often seamless and three dimensional) that are prohibitively expensive, difficult or impossible to do with stone. Knowing this, and understanding the material itself, will allow you to be more successful with adding concrete to your repertoire of offerings to satisfy any client’s taste.

Setting up your page is the easy part. Getting ‘Likes’ and keeping your customers entertained is the hard part. To help you out, I’ve put together a list of 20 ways to promote your Facebook page:

Showroom Signage
-Type ‘like {page name}’ and send to FBOOK (32665)
-QR codes
-Bathroom Stall Door

Business Essentials
-Business Cards
-Outgoing Envelopes

Marketing Collateral
-Company Brochures
-Trade-show Giveaways (pens, balloons, etc.)
-Print Ads

Website
-Like Button
-Comment Box

Other
-Incoming Answering Service

Email
-Signature
-E-Newsletter

Company Property
-Vehicle Bumper Stickers
-Employee Apparel
-Store Front Marquee

Within Facebook
-Tag Your Customers In Pictures
-Ask Your Employees to LIKE You
-LIKE Other Local Businesses/Causes/Personalities/Organizations

The BEST Way
-WORD OF MOUTH!

If you need more direction in the best practices of social media for your flooring or stone business, I invite you to join us during Surfaces │StonExpo/Marmomacc Americas 2012 for the following how-to workshop.

Social Media: How To For Business
January 23, 2012, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Presented by: Sarah B Johnson, MKG Department (www.mkgdept.net) and Christine B Whittemore, Simple Marketing Now, LLC (www.simplemarketingnow.com)

For more information about the session, visit:
http://connect.surfaces.com/connect/public/SessionDetails.aspx?SessionID=7236&maxSessions=91&aeid=257,258

Some of you may have taglines that work well for your business. But, many of you probably don’t have a tagline, because your name itself is a strong brand in your markets. I’m not suggesting that you must have a tagline – it’s got to be right for your business and add value – but I am suggesting that you and your staff think about what it could be. By doing so, you’ll develop a clearer view of who you are, why you are special in your market, and why people should buy from you.  Maybe you should hold a staff contest to develop and explain potential taglines as a way of engaging your staff and improving their ability to concisely explain your business to customers.

Mark Twain is credited as saying “If I had more time, I would have written you a shorter letter.” It’s hard to capture your business essence in a 2-4 word tagline, right? Would it be easier if you could use up to, say, 20 words? In Hollywood, loglines are used to briefly describe the essence of a movie. For example, if I said “A betrayed Roman general seeks vengeance in the arena” you might think of the movie “Gladiator”. If I said “Lovers from different social classes on an ill-fated voyage” you’d probably think of “Titanic”.

So, what would your logline be? What’s your unique story, in 20 words or less? Again, you can ask your staff to develop potential loglines for your business. Then, you can use a good logline when greeting your customers (in ads, online, or in the store) to give them a brief summary of what your business is all about, and why they should buy from you.

I’ll have more about taglines and loglines in my SURFACES│StonExpo/Marmomacc Americas 2012 Seminar “Why And How To Sharpen Your Selling Skills”: http://connect.surfaces.com/connect/public/SessionDetails.aspx?SessionID=7362&maxSessions=85&aeid=257,258

But, change hasn’t stopped. The economy’s weak again and you’re asking yourself “Do I need to do something about another round of communications technologies – social media?” What should you do, and how do you get started?

Here are a few “technology tools and techniques” you and your staff can use right now as you figure out the rest of your social media strategy:

-Ask your staff to spend time looking through your Web site. Then have them each take you on a tour of your Web site. This way you’ll be certain they know what’s on your Web site! (Your customers know what’s there, and your staff should know as much or more than your customers do.) You might even ask them to present at least part of their tour to each other in a staff meeting, including how they would use that information or that part of the Web site with customers.

-Search for your store on Google and consumer review sites (like angieslist.com, yelp.com and complaints.com). Act on the complaints you find and fix what customers are complaining about.

-Ask your measurers to make narrated videos of the planned installations. Show the videos to the installers before they go to the job. Ask installers to send pictures or videos of issues they encounter on the job to the salesman or measurer – this will increase the speed and quality of resolving the issues and increase customer satisfaction. And, your business will show customers that it’s a market leader through its use of technology.

Good luck with these technology tools and techniques. I’ll have more in the SURFACES │StonExpo/Marmomacc Americas 2012 seminar that Paul Friederichsen and I are presenting titled “Making Marketing and Sales Work Together”: http://connect.surfaces.com/connect/public/SessionDetails.aspx?SessionID=7264&maxSessions=89&aeid=257,258