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| Trends to Spot
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The more things change, the more they stay the same. We have all heard that expression at some point. It can have many meanings, depending on the circumstances being described. Some of those appear to involve the flooring industry,...more
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| Quality:
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QUALITY IN AUTOMOBILES usually invokes such words as Maserati, Ferrari or Mercedes-Benz. But how about a Volvo? Well, according to one definition of quality — as being perceived value — a Volvo has every...more
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| Teamwork and knowledge can ensure customer satisfaction
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Seams in floor coverings — whether carpet or resilient — cause more concern for customers and more potential complaints for installers than any other aspect of a floor covering installation....more
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| Installation: A career opportunity for the future
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PERHAPS NO BETTER example of this exists than Christopher Capobianco, Coverings columnist and floor-industry veteran. Capobianco started in the business working as an installer’s helper for his family’s floor shop and has never really looked back since....more
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| TRAINING: Can it modernize the flooring industry?
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There are two general attitudesa business can take toward training.
One approach, the more traditional,is to simply expect that training somehow gets done....more
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| Airborne particles carry health and financial hazards
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A British Columbia construction developer was fined $2,500 for having its workers handle asbestos during a demolition. A flooring company in Oregon was penalized for over $10,000 for ripping up a floor that had asbestos in it. A school district in B.C. was fined $75,000 for allowing asbestos to circulate in the air while removing the flooring....more
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| Selling by colour
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If we don’t go green, the world dies, or so we have heard for generations. As individuals, citizens, businesses and communities, we have been told to change our lifestyles or lose the planet. A big part of that change is political and economic. A scaling down of our “footprint” is necessary, they say, for long-term sustainability. We have to make sacrifices, we are told, and those involve money and rules....more
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| Keep your customers, grow your business
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Let’ say a customer walks into a store, buys some flooring, has it installed at home or work, and pays for it all. A job well done. Or is it? Not according to a school of thought in business marketing that places top priority on following-up with existing customers — even if it means spending less time trying to...more
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| Ensuring function in design:
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People in the flooring business have usually heard a project horror story or two in their careers. The wrong carpet was chosen for an office floor, not enough thought was put into the tile selection of a hotel lobby, or residential hardwood became scuffed and worn out too soon after installation....more
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| QUALITY
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In his book of 1974, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig maintains that Quality is not definable. It can only be known and that we all know it. In fact, in his opinion, it is the underlying creative force of the universe.
The word is often used that way, as if Quality should always be capitalized and spoken of with reverence. I have both appreciation and sympathy for that view,...more
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