American Made

This week I had the opportunity to sit in on a presentation from one of our wood vendors, Lyndon Furniture. They make the solid wood tops that go with our Parsons and Portica tables, as well as the Andover and Chilton tables, among others.

The fact that Room & Board works with primarily small US companies to make our furniture is a point of pride for me and my coworkers. Lyndon employs 80 people in their small Vermont town, and sources wood within 500 miles of its factory to lessen the environmental impact of their work. Great respect and attention is paid to how trees are harvested and cared for. The owner, Mr. Allard, even occasionally harvests trees from his own property to make our furniture.

I’ve never met people who care so passionately about wood. They talked enthusiastically about the strategy for harvesting trees (“one down, four up”) and the care that goes into laying out grain patterns, hand sanding, and finish details. Their passion is infectious and makes me want to tell every customer about the beauty and quality they’ll find in this handcrafted furniture. If you’re curious to know more about Lyndon (and our other vendors for that matter), we have a great page on our site  where you can read more: http://www.roomandboard.com/rnb/ideas_advice/artisans_designers/artisans_designers.ftl

I also learned in this meeting that Mr. Allard taps his own maple trees for syrup, just like his father and grandfather did before him. And that they do a Room & Board employee order each year! I’ll be getting on that list…

The Perks

When people ask me about my job at Shop From Home in our Minneapolis central office, I find myself ending whatever description I launch into with, “It’s a great company to work for.” Someone recently asked me why I felt that way, and I think it’s twofold. First of all, I enjoy working in the world of beautiful home furnishings and talking to customers from all over the country. But there are a few places around town selling beautiful furniture nationally, and I choose to work here. Why? The perks! Allow me to count the ways…

1)     Working in a gorgeous office everyday with wonderful, supportive, and collaborative coworkers.

2)     Enjoying the onsite fitness center, complete with group classes and one-on-one training if you want it.

3)     Onsite massage therapist at a reasonable cost. She’s a miracle worker.

4)       A “healthy lunch club.” I’ve been doing this for a few months, and my veggie consumption has never been so good.

5)     3-4 weeks of vacation a year depending on your tenure, plus paid holidays. I actually have a life outside of my job, and that’s encouraged.

6)     401(k) matching.

7)     Excellent health/dental/life insurance.

8)     Financial advisor consultations, at no cost to me.

9)     And last but not least, discounts on Room & Board furniture!

Our Shop From Home office is unique because we are located on our Central Campus. All of our locations have some way to compensate for the the things they may not have a part of on our Central Campus, like free fruit in all locations (don’t always have to raid the candy machine!) and a reimbursement for a fitness membership.

We have the same job, right? SFH and Store DAs

Room & Board is very focused on creating a seamless shopping experience for our customers. Whether people choose to shop online, visit a store, or call us on the phone our goal is to provide consistently great interactions. Sometimes callers ask me if they need to be transferred to our stores to receive design help, and I explain that all of us here at the 800 number are design associates too and that we do what the store DAs do—just over the phone instead.

When I was in Chicago a few weeks ago working at our downtown store, I realized that I may have been oversimplifying this a bit. While I share the same title with my store colleagues, our roles are actually quite different because of the environments in which we do our work. At Shop From Home, I have a controlled environment. I sit in an office taking calls and responding to emails, and I’m able to be reasonably in charge of my workflow. I can’t control what calls I get or what situations I’ll need to work through, but I can pace myself and manage my day accordingly.

While I was in the store, I witnessed in amazement how the DAs were able to manage not only the phone ringing, but also making sure we have people covering all three levels of the 46,000 square foot store, helping customers (and sometimes more than one at a time), and keeping the showroom pristine. Oh, and then finding time to email customers about delays and recent deliveries, and stay on top of product knowledge. It’s a lot.  

And this is not to say that my job is easy. We all have a full plate, but I do have a new appreciation for the balance my coworkers have to strike each day at the store. And they have to look pleasant doing it because our customers see their faces all day! The differences in our roles have been on my mind lately, but so have the similarities. Most of what we do IS the same, and we are united around knowing our products inside and out and finding great solutions for our customers.

DA Exchange Program: Visiting Chicago for Floor Change

January is a great time to start fresh, and we do just that in our stores. We swap out the old for the new, and restyle the showrooms (for questions on how that process all works, read Rei and Cheryl’s recent posts!). It’s a busy and exciting time for everyone at R&B, and this year I was fortunate enough to be able to experience it with my colleagues in the downtown Chicago store. They were shorted handed, and I was willing to go. So it was settled. Some would say I’m crazy to volunteer to go to Chicago in January, but I live in Minneapolis so I considered this a trip to the tropical south.  

I spent the week helping customers (face to face!), which allowed the folks who manage floor change to do their amazing work.  And let me tell you, it was a totally different experience than working with folks over the phone here at Central. First of all, my feet were killing me all week–I have a new appreciation for my fellow DA’s exceptionally well-adjusted arches. Second, it was such a joy to be able to see and touch all of the furniture, and walk with customers while they discovered room after room of beautiful new pieces. It was incredible to come to work on Sunday, and then return on Monday morning to a totally revamped space. Thankfully, floor change also helped disguise my lack of knowledge about where everything is located in the showroom…

Another bonus of this trip was meeting a fellow blogger, Cheryl. Reader, she is a wonderful person. Not only was she helping with floor change and accessorizing all of the new room settings, she was selling furniture, answering my silly questions, and looking stylish while hanging frames and placing vases. Everyone at the store was so welcoming and wonderful to work with. More on these fine folks in a future post!

Finalizing Floor Change

Well, it’s all here.  Almost.  Last Tuesday we finally came to the night of floor change after the store closed.  All of the discontinued product and pieces that just weren’t going to fit into the plan for 2012 left the showroom in order to make way for the inbound product.  The distribution center team did an amazing job of moving everything out, in and around, ensuring that everything went smoothly.

The following morning (before the sun came up) a group of design associates and myself came in to then ensure that rooms were centered, accessories were implemented and that the rooms looked their best.  We walked through the showroom as well to see where more product could be filtered in, where some items needed to change and to make small adjustments to the finishes in rooms.  Due to the walk-through, this week we’ll be receiving a small follow-up transfer to help make the showroom look even better.

Preparing for Floor Change

Last week the floodgates were opened to a throng of customers that had been anxiously anticipating our annual clearance event.  The entire week was filled with loads of questions, a lot of perusing and ultimately a heap of sales.  The entire staff helpes pitch in to ensure that the showroom still maintained its integrity while being shopped harder than in a normal week.

While all of this foot traffic was going on, I had to ensure that I was able to take care of a few more things to prepare for next week’s floor change.  I had to balance answering customer questions with hanging pendant lamps, entering sales with rolling up rugs and moving them from one room to another (or to a customer if they were being floor sampled).  It made for a busy week, but one that flew by.

This week, things have slowed down a little and I’m able to take care of some of the final touches throughout the showroom; a few more frames and pendants to hang.  The majority of our morning meetings this week will also be focused on next weeks events and how to best plan for them – because it’s right around the corner.

Clearance!

December 26th is a big day for Room & Board. Our new assortment for 2012 launches online, discontinued items are put on clearance on the website, and the stores have a floor sample sale for the discontinued pieces too. For a company that doesn’t hold regular sales, this annual clearance event creates quite a buzz. There’s a great energy on clearance day from customers who are excited to be getting a rare “deal” and also enthusiasm about our new furniture pieces. It’s a fun and crazy day. The stores and Shop From Home are fully staffed to handle the traffic, and Shop From home takes over the store’s phone calls to help with the volume. A normal day for Shop From Home brings in about 400 phone calls, but on 12/26 this year, we took almost 900 phone calls. That’s a lot of happy customers! Even though this is a very busy time for us, the clearance sale is an energizing way to wrap-up the year, and then the new assortment feels like a fresh start for 2012. Cheers!