Austins
Managing Director David Austin said “The improved customer flow has been absolutely amazing, and sales are significantly up. The new lighting has opened up the store enormously and the customer response has been beyond even our high expectations”.

Pearsons of Enfield
Director and buyer of menswear at Pearson's Stuart Henderson, reports that since the stores refurbishment which was completed in September last year the turnover in menswear has increased by 200 per cent.

If you like the above and would like to see how your business could be re-designed, one telephone call and an arranged appointment is all you need to start the change happening.

When JSA were asked to put forward proposals for re-planning and refurbishing the furnishing floor, the main recommendation centred around the consolidation of "textiles" (curtains, carpets and linens), a centralised service counter and the extension of the furniture department.

The furniture department, whilst being linked, is in an adjacent building with fire enclosures separating the two which were visual and psychological barriers. JSA called in the building control agency they deal with, and after discussion with the local fire brigade consent was given for the enclosure removal.

By itself this change made a huge impact on the space. The layout and walkways were changed to take full advantage of this opening up. Attractive coordinated room sets were created, windows were also opened up, new carpets laid on the trading areas, and new hard floor walkways introduced.

A strong yellow was used on the wall behind the central service counter, set off by a striking red on the rear wall of furniture. These colours take the eye through to the extremities of the space, and were selected from the main colours in the store guide. The department has strong branding, and co-ordinated displays throughout.

Chairman and Managing Director Bruce Sturrock says, " I took some convincing that the cost and disruption of removing the fire enclosures would be worthwhile, but now completely see the visual benefits are amazing, with customers moving easily throughout the floor. The colours, branding and layout really does work, thanks to JSA".

On the other side of the coin how often do any of us take the time and trouble to thank or praise someone, an organisation or a store for doing a great job? Would we even know who to thank or would we even take the time to find out anyway?

As our expectations become higher and higher we have less and less time to say thank you, and if things are not done immediately to our own personal standards we get irritated.

Recognising how important client care is and how detrimental a dissatisfied client can be to a company or an organisation we have recently appointed key staff member Heidi Hughes to the position of Client Development Manager. It will be Heidi's job to listen to our clients and make an assessment of how a project evolved ensuring that ultimately the client is completely satisfied. Heidi is fully qualified in design and sales care having been with the company for some eight years, and as a major team player will fill a vital role in 'after sales care' giving our clients a recognisible platform for any concerns.

Why is this position so important to us?
This new role will allow us to measure whether a client's expectations of the work and value of the service have been met. It will allow our clients to express any concerns in a formal but constructive way, thereby ensuring happy clients!

Finally we understand that a happy client is not only the best source of business from repeat commissions, but also an ambassador for our company. This information is vital to us if we are to continue to improve on both our value and service.