The Importance of Floor Installers
Quality Floor Installation
The quality of the people who will be installing your floor is even more important than the quality of the flooring product you select.
After all, these people will be in your home. And the final appearance of your new floor is dependent on how well the installers do their job. The most expensive flooring, poorly installed, is worthless.
There was recently an interesting article in our local newspaper about a man who had been working as an installer/contractor for one of the big-box stores. Turned out, his front porch and yard sported a variety of allegedly stolen household goods. When the police arrived to investigate, he jumped on one of several presumably stolen scooters and fled. (He was caught anyway. I mean, how fast can a scooter go?)
We recently started a project with a local business owner who was replacing the floors in several of his stores. The last time he replaced floors, he found that the installer simply wouldn’t respond when problems arose due to the quality of the installation. This highlights another problem, what we in the flooring industry call the “headlight warranty,” so-called because it is only good for as long as you can see the contractor’s headlights in the driveway.
Great installers are a must-have for excellent customer service. That’s why we put so much effort into finding good ones. At present, we use two installation companies and two individuals for our installations. Fortunately, the president of our company spent seven years in Human Resources (HR) with a Fortune 100 company, so she is very skilled at picking good talent.
It’s mainly because of the quality of our installers that we are winners of three customer-service awards in two years.
And having great people as installers provides many unexpected benefits. For example, during recent snowy weather, an elderly man for whom we were installing floors fell in his driveway and suffered a concussion. The installer stopped what he was doing, shoveled off the man’s driveway and salted it. We only found out about this good deed because the elderly man called, asking for the installer’s name and address so he could send him a gratuity. And the installer wasn’t paid by the hour; he was paid by the foot of product installed, so the time to do this good deed came out of his pocket.
In another instance, one of our carpet installers told the homeowner that there was enough left-over carpet for some nearby stairs. As he had some extra time that day and with the homeowner’s permission, he installed the carpet on the stairs at no extra charge.
Floor Coverings International requires from each contractor proof of insurance and proof that all required state requirements have been fulfilled. The franchise also requires each contractor to sign a binding contract related to work quality. And the franchise stands behind its work. Go to our Web site and find a store near you.
Good luck on your flooring project!
Floor Coverings International, Cincinnati East
Cincinnati, Ohio
+Katie Fitzgerald, president