Fab Focus XTRA: B.C. Stone
It’s no accident that among the project managers is one who works specifically with Lowe’s outlets, and another whose main focus are Costco Wholesale Corp. stores.
B.C. Stone’s big-box and walk-in clients are the reason behind the company’s modest 25’ X 40’ showroom. Collins estimates the showroom averages about two big-box clients a day.
The company also stocks some slabs – working through a couple distributors who supply stone on consignment – as well as offering several brands of quartz surfaces and solid-surface materials. B.C. Stone also has a list of well-known distributors it works with in both locations.
“If the client can’t see something here in our warehouse, then we send them to the wholesalers,” says Collins. “And, if they don’t want to travel here, we have wholesalers in the areas we work in, and they then deliver slabs to us.”
However, the showroom isn’t really the thing the partners use to sell people on their brand of stone production. That’s the role of the historic Union Hotel, which Bair and Collins bought and renovated to showcase their work.
“The showroom can show that we can do the work and that we do nice work, but it’s really not a good representation of what we can do,” says Collins. “A lot of clients just don’t have that connection between seeing it on paper and then seeing it completed; they need something to visualize, and that’s what the dream was behind the hotel.”
Not every fabrication shop is going to go to the extreme of renovating a hotel, but while it’s been especially helpful in dealing with larger commercial accounts, Collins says they, too, look for many of the things any customer buying a countertop wants.
“I really think – from what we’ve seen – that they’re just looking for people who will do what they say they’ll do,” he says. “That’s how we’ve been able to take them from other companies; either they didn’t service the product or they had other issues.”
Still, he adds, handling the large accounts is not for every shop. He calls it “a completely different way of doing business,” although Collins is modest enough to add that, along with building good relationships, a little bit of luck and being in the right place at the right time hasn’t hurt, either.
Regardless of the client, though, customer service is really the key. For one thing, Collins cites turnaround.
“Quick turnaround is huge in today’s market,” he says. “If you’re taking more than two weeks to make a delivery, I’m not sure how you’re even getting work.”
However, he says it goes beyond that. After all, Bair and Collins started in the industry in the days before common diamond tooling and CNCs, and Collins says they’ve worked hard to create a production facility that’s still detail-oriented.