February 10, 2012   1-877-631-2845

You are here: Home / Archives for flooring

Design guru Debbie Travis blogs about BuildDirect

April 29, 2010 By Jeff Booth Leave a Comment
Interior Design Expert Debbie Travis

I love this blog post from Debbie Travis in that it tells a story of how the building industry is changing. As customers see that they can get better value AND service, word spreads. By blowing away customers expectations, what starts as a drip, quickly becomes a stream. We started BuildDirect over 10 years ago so we have been working a long time on getting things right. It sure seems to be working. In Debbie's own words...."The times they are a changing" Thanks to Debbie for her kind comments. P.S. Watch … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Point of View Tagged With: , , , ,

Customer Service is a Core Competency

October 30, 2009 By Jeff Booth 2 Comments

Yesterday I was asked a question that I am often asked and I thought it deserved a blog post. The question I was asked is "Where is your call center?" I always answer the same..... WE DO NOT HAVE A CALL CENTER!!! We have product experts, and that function is handled in our head office. The expertise in our sales department is a core competency. I would put our product  experts up against anyone in the business in their deep knowledge of the respective products. They each have incredible … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Point of View, Transparency Tagged With: , , ,

How do you measure success?

April 28, 2009 By Jeff Booth Leave a Comment

I received the following letter last week. It made me feel really proud.  I thought I would share it because it reinforces much of what we are trying to do at BuildDirect.  Our business wins when we provide winning solutions to our customers.   I want to thank all of our people who helped create this win! Dear Jeff I'm writing to tell you about my amazing customer experience I had with BuildDirect. I was thoroughly impressed by the quality of your product and the expertise and professionalism … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Point of View Tagged With: , , ,

What ever happened to building trust, credibility, likeability, relevance?

March 25, 2009 By Jeff Booth 1 Comment

Do you really think you have to trick someone to get their business? Hmmm. What happened to building trust, credibility, likability, relevance? - Thomas Mangum, via Twitter (@thomasmangum). I found the sentence above  in a Twitter post that I think nailed it.  I think his short post goes to the heart of creating long term relationships with your customers. Customers today have almost infinite choices.  Don't believe this is true?  One of our product lines is flooring. Type  "flooring" … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Point of View Tagged With: , ,

BuildDirect Online Room Designer

February 11, 2009 By Jeff Booth Leave a Comment

Thanks to all involved the launch of our new room designer. This new version is a vast improvement on the last. Try it out by clicking anywhere on the inner panels below. I hope it helps customers choose floor colour and style ranges easily and lets them see how those choices will look with the rest of their home. There are many areas of improvement but my favourite feature of the room designer is the fact that the team designed it in a way that we could easily share it.  The room designer … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Point of View Tagged With: , , ,

Not all companies are created alike

December 9, 2008 By Jeff Booth 2 Comments

The market downturn is far more significant than most people projected and in turn is causing many people a fair amount of pain. Companies that loaded up on inventory or had high cost models of distribution to support never ending sales growth are seriously challenged when the remaining buyers are searching for real savings and value instead of gimmicks. Some of the old business models don’t work anymore and the same inventory that used to be their growth engine is like a noose around their necks. Real … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Point of View Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Every Abundance Creates a New Scarcity

May 20, 2008 By Jeff Booth Leave a Comment
google-index

Now that the Internet is revolutionizing the way we search for information, I want to pose a question: Do we have more or less time than before? I know from my perspective, even though the world's information is readily available, there is far less time in the day. Chris Anderson has an interesting post on this subject where he states: "Every abundance creates a new scarcity" An abundance of information can create a scarcity of context An abundance of choice can create a scarcity … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Point of View Tagged With: , ,

THE GOLD RUSH IN HOUSING -PERSPECTIVES FROM THE DOT COM BUBBLE

May 1, 2008 By Jeff Booth Leave a Comment

The "gold rush" in housing created unprecedented demand. From a products perspective, it created demand for building materials from flooring to decking to everything in between as new suppliers entered the market to fill the needs. It was not just manufacturers, suppliers, and home builders that wanted in. Everyone wanted a piece of the action. Decorating shows went prime time. It seemed like every time I turned on the TV, there was a new show like "flip this house" which explained how easy it was … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Point of View Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Interesting blog post

April 25, 2008 By Jeff Booth Leave a Comment

Matt Dickinson - The head of our Bamboo department posting an interesting article with respect to the declining US dollar and its effect on the price of Bamboo flooring.  The only thing I would note is that this is having an effect on much more than flooring. It applies to nearly everything that is imported into the United States. More on the Matt's post here.... blog.builddirect.com/bamboo/ … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Point of View Tagged With: , , ,

Where is the bottom of the housing market?

April 17, 2008 By Jeff Booth Leave a Comment

A good leading indicator of future activity in the new and resale housing markets is the volume of mortgage applications. As the number of mortgage applications moves higher, It means that more people are negotiating a purchase of a home. Therefore, a higher number over time, might signal a bottom of the housing market. Yesterday the weekly survey came out and the top line number showed growth in mortgage applications. From the report: ".....a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Housing & Real Estate Markets Tagged With: , , , , , ,