PC CARPETS AND BEDS IN STORE AT
Each area is presented in different styles, with a modern brick-walled loft apartment style bedroom and more traditional dining rooms separated by stylised corridors. Ornaments and accessories are displayed as they would be in any room and this adds to the feeling that you’re in a home rather than a store allowing customers to easily visualise all of the items in their own living spaces.
Going Above and Beyond
Excellent customer service forms the basis of what makes PC Carpets stand out from the crowd, says John. “Before we opened we had a close look at our competitors in the area and did a mystery shop. We felt that the flooring industry was lacking in customer service and it was very much customers leading the sale. We changed that, so a typical transaction for us would be where we get a lead then we go to visit the customer in their home and get a feel for what they want. Sometimes this can mean a couple of home visits and we take the hassle out. We want the customer to have an enjoyment factor where they choose what they want and we deal with the technical side and any obstacles that might arise.”
And rather than being visited by different members of staff, customers can expect a one- on-one level of service. “When the client makes a point of contact in the store, it will be that sales person who takes them around identifying options for them then visiting them in the home in the evening. They would remain the point of contact from beginning to end. Our service is more personal, as an independent business we’re small enough to care but we’re big enough to cope.”
Customers are given the option to create their own bespoke floors, using border work with accent colours, which is a popular request at the moment.
However, PC has been to known to fulfil a variety of less common and quirky requests including fitting a glass panel into a living room floor, running different colour carpets together in waves without doorplates and even a full-house installation of rubber flooring.
“All of the 20 fitters used by PC are specialised and there are core teams for carpets, hard floors or contract. All fitters for Karndean products have completed advanced training with the manufacturers and everything is certified, from the plyboard that we use, to the adhesives and the screed. It’s all certified by Karndean, so there are no shortcuts.”
Making a name for themselves
Although PC was completely unknown to Preston city centre when it first opened, the company’s good reputation is spreading. “The shop itself is a head-turner and we attract a lot of footfall from the high street. We’ve completed some really huge jobs purely just because something in our shop window caught the eye of a client, who then came in store and made an order.
“We have two 8ft illuminated windows and we’ve got to put furniture in there to give people an impression of what’s upstairs, it’s a fine balance to get flooring in there and accessories. As it’s such a grand building it looks like an expensive shop so we put a range of differently priced ornaments on display to attract customers inside,” says John.
“We want it to be a place where people come to before going to a chain store, because they will find things that are unique rather than the run-of-the- mill, middle-range, mass-produced things generally found in those kinds of shops.”
www.pccarpetsandbeds.co.uk Tomorrow’s Retail Floors Summer 2015 | 21
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