California Closets® – New England Franchise

The President's Blog

THE CALIFORNIA CLOSETS DESIGNER

THE APPROACH TO DESIGN

Our approach to designing storage solutions for your home is unique. We do not handle the process the same way as many do in the industry. Our designers look for a balance in whatever designs they create – the balance of aesthetics with functionality and style with price. It is an approach that every designer takes with every client. The designer’s goal is to understand the clients needs on all levels and work to create a design that meets those needs. It is imperative that the end design is made clear to the client so that on the installation day their expectations are met. This approach takes time and patience for all involved – our designers will sometimes take more than an hour to get all the information needed from the client and the project site. The designer will take the time to get to know you and all your needs and work to transform your home.

THE DESIGNERS

Our designers are professional people who take their work very seriously. They have varied backgrounds in areas such as architecture, interior design, store design, product development, and home services. We take the time to train and certify them in our methods of closet and spatial designs. They are also trained and indoctrinated in the importance of supreme customer service. They are tested and retested and measured on performance in client satisfaction and design excellence.

We have high expectations for our designers and consider their abilities as a key differentiator between California Closets and the competition. With all this said – the most important thing to us is that our designers are good people. We look for people that like to please others and who take an ethical approach to doing business with clients. Anyone that makes promises that we cannot keep, or does not deliver the quality service that our clients deserve is not our type of person. We have people covering all of New England and all of them are good designers – some are characters. ( What does that mean?) I thought that I would introduce some of them to you – others will get their “facetime” later on.

MONIQUE ST. LAURENT

Monique has been a designer with California Closets for over 7 years. She lives in central New Hampshire with her family that includes two Labrador Retrievers and some very active teenagers. In addition to her designer duties, she is also our Regional Design Manager who works with other designers that make their home base at our Danvers, Massachusetts showroom. Before she joined California Closets she worked as an Interior Designer in Cambridge and Boston. She does a lot of work in the lakes region of New Hampshire and still likes to come to the Boston area for the “challenging jobs.” She likes to be creative and will search far and wide for those elements that will make the end product unique.

ALAN (Uncle Al) SIMMONS

Alan has been a designer with California Closets for over 8 years. He works out of our Hyannis Showroom on Cape Cod and services Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket in addition to the Cape and north to the Boston area. He spends much of his time on those little planes (the ones I would never board except if my life depended on it) traveling to Nantucket to create some of the more interesting designs that fit with the needs of vacation residences.

He has also done extensive work with commercial establishments and works well with builders on new construction. He is known for his friendly low-key approach that has allowed him to install more closets than any other designer in the last two years. His key to success is his commitment to client service – clients come back to him time and again for every storage need in their home.

BETTY BYRNE

Betty has won the New England “Designer of the Year” award two years running. This is not just about selling product – she has an incredible record for client service and design excellence. She will spend an extraordinary amount of time with the client ensuring that all the details and desires are absolutely correct. Her specialty is the larger job where details become even more important.

She will work with interior designers, architects and decorators to make sure that the client gets exactly what they need. She loves her job and has been appointed to the National Design Consultant Committee where her primary function is to provide feedback and recommendations on design to California Closets corporate. She attended the national convention in July and is respected by California Closets designers across the country.

JOE MARENGI

Joe primarily does most of his design work in Maine and New Hampshire. However, Joe also is our specialist on large commercial projects and developments. He will go anywhere in New England to work with designers on condo projects, large commercial jobs and housing developments. He is an excellent designer with the capability to understand and manage large commercial projects that require special attention and logistics management. Joe had one of his jobs installed at the Manny Ramirez residence on the very day he was traded. I hope they enjoyed the closet – I don’t think we can ship it to L.A.

ERICA HEATH

Erica operates in Connecticut from our West Hartford showroom. Before she started as a designer she was in the real estate business. Northern Connecticut was added to our territory within the last three years and with Erica’s help has become one of our fastest growing regions. She has a fantastic flair for creative design with an incredible ability to translate the customers needs to an appropriate design. Her commitment to understanding the customer’s needs has made her one of our top people in our Net Promoter Surveys. She will make sure that your storage solution is exactly what you want.

TERRI TYGERT

Terri has been with California Closets for over 10 years. Her background is in architecture and she uses her skills in this area to provide excellent design work to all her customers. She is extremely skilled in CAD design and works with designers and architects to create the best renderings for effective storage solutions. She has done a lot of work with interior designers and has done much of her work in the Wellesley and Weston area. She works out of our new showroom in Natick on route 9 westbound. Even though she is originally from Pittsburgh she is an ardent Red Sox fan.

THE BEST IN THE INDUSTRY

We have 30 designers covering the New England area – all living and working locally. I cannot possibly give highlights on all of them in one blog entry and will have future entries that will feature designers and other people that make California Closets great. As the owner of the New England region it is important to me that my clients get to know who we are -this is one of the reasons that I am publishing this blog.

I am so very proud of all the people that we have working here. I will say that we do not have everything go smoothly all the time – we are human beings – but I have never experienced a more dedicated group at being committed to getting it right. Our designers are the best in the industry – they work hard to be the best and will try very hard to make your California Closets Experience one by which all others will be judged.

Ken Cleary – President – California Closets, New England

Filed under: California Closets - New England Franchise, Company info, Design Consultants, Uncategorized , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

California Closets – Embraces New Technology

At California Closets, we lead. We lead in technology innovation. We have made great strides in technology so that our clients get the best service. In the last year we have made major changes to make the customer experience state of the art.

Closet Design Technology – NEW

Our designers will be getting the best design program in the industry – developed exclusively for California Closets. This new computer aided design program will allow our clients to see exactly what they will be getting while insuring that the design will go directly to our factory for accurate manufacture of the closet system.

This program eliminates any design sizing issues and gives a very accurate depiction in a 3-D rendering. The client will be able to see the color and size of the product relative to their space. All information is transmitted to the head office and factory electronically which eliminates paper and the mails. This must be a “green” program – we are using far less paper and saving some trees!

Customer Service Program

Another technological advance is our customer service program. With this program we can accurately track all customer activity. This program also allows us to schedule our designers and installers and eliminates any possible scheduling conflicts. All client needs are tracked and mapping options allow for our people to find client locations easily for on time appointments.

This new program also allows for the storage of all the design files for future reference and storage solution enhancements. Our customer service program allows for better client communication and service -just another demonstration of our commitment to making the clients experience the best.

National Website (Californiaclosets.com)

This website immediately communicates to the client what we are all about. It shows off exactly what we can elegantly do in your home. This website offers inspiration on creative storage solutions for the home and allows the client to develop an understanding of when we talk about “space to be.” We want our clients to see the possibilities.

I like this website for one very important reason – it demonstrates our approach as a company - our commitment to detail, functionality, and elegance. When researching online, the client can easily compare us to our competition and know what our approach will be. Check out this site – you will see the difference.

Web Enhancements

Sometimes you luck out. Last year a close friend’s daughter worked for us in our showrooms and did some extra work for us in photographing and cataloging displays. She is an Economics major at UMass Amherst and she took a special interest in our marketing approach and put together an innovative marketing plan during her spring semester. She did an excellent job and wanted to come back and try out some of her ideas.

She has me blogging, we now have all our showroom locations on Facebook (see Facebook Business Pages), and she is now collaborating on a designer website that will allow our designers to individually customize a site with their own design portfolios. These web enhancements will allow our clients to know who they are working with and help us communicate why we are the best. Sometimes you just luck out.

In Other News…

Every once in a while I will talk about one of my other passions – coaching hockey. As with my business I enjoy associating with committed and skilled individuals in my coaching. I am a Midgets U-18 coach for the Valley Junior Warriors and have been with that organization for over 15 years. I really enjoy working with the young men who have dreams and hopes for our team and their future.

This week I found out that one of my players just committed to play for the National Champion Boston College hockey team. This is in addition to another who recently accepted an offer from Yale. We start hockey camp in one week and have our first tournament on Labor Day Weekend – we are quietly optimistic. My team is the same as California Closets – committed to being the best.

That’s the story for today. Look for my introduction of our new product – Virtuosso in my next entry. This stuff will stun you with it’s contemporary beauty and utility. It’s coming and I will tell you all about it next time.

Ken Cleary – President, California Closets – New England

Filed under: California Closets, California Closets - New England Franchise, Closet Organizers, Custom Storage Solutions, Functionality, Hockey Coach, Links, Marketing Tools, Organization, President's Message, Showrooms, Stylish and Functional, Technology, Virtuosso, ken cleary , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

NEW Promo: Winter White Event!

Blog Stats

  • 13,303 hits

Email Subscription

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Archives

Home

Home

Request a Consultation

Request a Consultation

Contact Us

Contact Us

Facebook Us

California Closets on Facebook

Follow Us on Twitter

Follow Us on Twitter

View Us on Youtube

California Closets' channel on Youtube
Add to Technorati Favorites

Categories

Follow Us on Twitter

 

January 2010
M T W T F S S
« Dec    
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031