Going from Good to Great

What does it take for a kitchen and bath showroom to go from good to great? You may believe that you need the best designers, a great marketing strategy, best-in-class production and exclusive product offerings. To be successful, those qualities are necessary, but they are not exclusive to one showroom versus another. Many showrooms have similar qualities and traits. The difference between a good showroom and a great showroom is how your team feels about working there. How many businesses do you know that their team members are only there to collect a paycheck versus making a difference?

Creating a mission driven culture is essential to go from good to great and that requires focusing on the team member experience. How can you get your team to think like owners? Start by creating a culture that demonstrates what your team does every day makes a positive difference and that their contributions are essential to the success of the entire operation. Does your team believe that you simply sell cabinets and countertops or do they realize that they make a positive difference in the lives of their clients and are creating more positive and fulfilling life experiences?

Believing that a team member makes a positive difference is especially valued by recent graduates in their first or second jobs. A LinkedIn survey found that companies rated highly on having a purposeful mission experienced attrition rates 49% lower than companies that were not viewed as mission driven by their teams.

Creating a mission driven culture involves providing employees with the safety to speak their minds and having constant interaction with other team members to help them better understand their challenges and contributions to showroom success. Designers are affected by those in production who are affected by those in customer service who are affected by those responsible for installation. To create a culture that is greater than the sum of its parts, team members must allow themselves to be influenced by others and other parts of the showroom.

Creating comfort levels and trust among the entire team is not something that is easy or happens overnight. Creating an environment that enables team members to influence one another requires an atmosphere that is trustworthy, constant communication between teams and a desire to exceed client expectations on all projects. This also involves allowing your team to make decisions for themselves without having to seek approval from ownership or supervisors.

The goal is to create a culture where the team’s success is more important than an individual’s success and when that occurs you put your showroom in a position to outperform the market consistently, attract and retain best-in-class talent and stand apart from the competition.