DESIGN RETAINERS

Design Retainers and Why They Benefit You

Kitchens by Clay has reached its 20th year as a corporation and we are quite proud of that. In fact, I’ve been designing kitchens in Naples Florida for all of 27 years now.

Over the years I have learned a lot. Mistakes have been made and lessons learned but most of it has been very good.

If I were to single out the one thing that I have learned that benefits my staff and clients alike it would be the advent of design retainers.

When working with a new client we are happy to go by their home and spend an hour in their kitchen discussing the wants and needs of their project. Add to that a follow up meeting at our showroom which will include a renovation plan, cabinet drawings and as much pricing as we can muster from the information we have on hand.

These meetings aredesigned to give our prospective clients a sense of security in our company. We want the client to leave with a confidence that will ultimately bring them to hire us and we can only do that by being professional.

That brings us to the retainer since a professional does not work for free. Think about that for a second. A lawyer will happily give you a courtesy hour discussing your case and an architect will visit with you at their offices to discuss your project. Both occupations will then ask for a retainer before they start the actual detail work that makes everything gel.

We too have what it takes to bring it all together for our clients and design retainers are an important part of making that happen. It enables us to detail your work properly and give the project careful, honest and true pricing because, after all, we are being paid to do so. And to me, working for anyone for free has no value and who wants to invest in something with no value.

I’m not writing this to put a scare into anyone about our business practices. We will, after all, come to your home at no cost. Meet with on another day to discuss our plan, design and pricing. Again, at no cost to you. At this point we believe we will have your confidence and you will want to move forward with a design retainer.

The best part is we are so sure you will be satisfied we will apply your design retainer to your purchase price. That makes your choosing us that much sweeter don’t you think?

Enjoy your home!

Clay CoxPlease

E-mail Clay with your questions or comments atsales@kitchensbyclay.com