Running a small business means everybody in the team has to be prepared to get stuck in when required.  Whilst there is – and has to be – a decision-making hierarchy, nobody in the Nicholas Hythe Kitchen Design Studio world is allowed to think that any job needing doing is beneath them!

As a result one of the roles I’m responsible for is monitoring and responding to all customer enquiries that come in via our website.  Whether it’s a request for a brochure, to book a design visit or just contact us about anything to do with our kitchens, the company or anything else, I get the email first.

So when we received one from a customer – whose new kitchen we’ve just finished installing – saying “Just a few quick shots of our lovely kitchen; compare with CAD!” I was intrigued.

Was the real meaning ‘although we love our kitchen, it looks nothing like the computer-aided designs (CAD) we saw and agreed to’ or a genuine delight that it looked just as the CAD images we’d presented?

So I asked our sales and design manager, Laura, for her interpretation of it.  Having not only designed it with the customers, she had, as we do with all our clients, project-managed the installation to ensure it ran smoothly and the result was exactly as we’d designed and agreed with them (how many of our competitors would normally just hand the design over to an installation team?)

And, without missing a heartbeat, she whipped out the CAD drawings that had been presented and laid them out side by side with the photographs the customer had emailed us.  Not being too closely involved in the design process I was pleased with the likeness between the two – even down to the door style and under unit lighting effect.

So that was the answer to my puzzle.  The customer was saying that the images were a clear indication of what their new kitchen would look like – except that the final product was even better!

And it’s the same with each and every new kitchen we see a customer about.  Irrespective of size, budget or timescale all our projects start with a site survey to understand a customer’s requirements so that we can build a detailed presentation using the very latest ArtiCad technology to create a highly accurate 3D walk-through of their design proposal.

When you’re investing in a major purchase such as a new kitchen you want to be sure that what you’re going to get is what you envisaged.   And here’s the plug:  no doubt during your research we are sure you will have found that many of our competitors CHARGE for home visits and designing your kitchen.  We think it’s a sneaky way of trying to pressure you into accepting their designs and suppliers or lose your design fee. We are proud to say that our designs are always free of charge irrespective of how many amendments you make, and at no time will you be under any obligation or pressure to proceed until you are truly happy with the design and ourplans for your project.

So please, please, please – when you’re ready to begin your kitchen refit make sure you know exactly what it’s going to look like before you pay a penny to anyone!  It could save you so much disappointment after the installation is complete!

For more information about Nicholas Hythe Kitchen Design Studio please go to www.nicholashythe.co.uk or telephone 01480 468598 or email us at info@nicholashythe.co.uk

For hundreds of pictures of kitchens we’ve installed for delighted clients please go to www.facebook.com/NicholasHytheKitchenDesignStudio