There are some superb and educated blogs across the world which are a path for this design community to connect with new products, visit shows they may not be able to get to and read the opinions of other like minded individuals. One such publication is KBBReview based in the UK. They have some excellent commentary and we at TKBB are grateful to Editor Tim Wallace for allowing partial reproduction of this piece by Lancastrian retailer, Robert Lockwood, on a subject always close to the business heart of many!
“No, this isn’t about going into battle… or is it? The debate over whether to charge for design work seems as heated as ever and the issue was one that preoccupied me in my first year of trading, as I set out in business under the belief that it had to be free. But, no more!
The straw that broke the camel’s back for me was when I discovered that a potential client, for whom I had done a great deal of intricate design work, turned out to be a lifelong friend of a competitor who can’t design for toffee and who, at that point, had never done a handleless kitchen. And it was to them that she ran to place her order once all the detail was in place. How much more blatantly hypocritical can you get than that? They even rang after work had started (although I didn’t know at that point of course) to ask for the precise location of a patio door. The utter barefaced cheek of it!
Up to this point, I had also suffered from potential clients asking in good faith for an advance copy of the plan for the builder for the ‘first fix’, then to have their heads turned by the builder who would ask “how much are you paying for that then?” followed by “I’ll see if I can save you a bit by getting it on my account at the merchants”. And, all of a sudden, I’d never hear from them again. Which meant, of course, I never got to hear how they felt when they discovered that what they had received in the end was inferior and substandard compared with what they had seen in my showroom and – joining another debate – poorly fitted too, because builders in the main cannot install kitchens well.
So today, when I do a presentation of my design and the inevitable question is asked “so how much is all this going to cost us?” I tell them that, as part of the process, I have opened an account for them on my system and I show them a quotation done in the style of an account statement. It shows the total purchase price, then under that it shows a £350 (AUS $615) deductible fee “for the advance release of detailed plans and elevations”, and then it shows the new lower subtotal, which is the cost of the kitchen if they proceed followed, of course, by setting out the deposit-at-order stage and payments throughout the contract.
It’s never been questioned and I’ve never looked back. And as far as I am aware, no one’s ever lost their £350, so I commend this stance and urge you to be brave and stand true to your conviction that you’re worth that fee. Because, if you set out your stall correctly, you’ll get it, provided they like your design, of course.”
Now – who wants to go first?
To view any number of excellent articles visit www.kbbreview.com
