For many businesses, the prospect of nailing down a budget for office furniture and selecting the ideal solutions for a workspace are daunting tasks. Whether you’re just starting out, expanding your workforce, or redesigning an office space, there are a variety of hurdles to get through. Luckily, office furniture dealers help businesses navigate this terrain, but the process of choosing one of these companies can be a headache all on its own.
Especially in metropolitan areas like Pittsburgh, decision makers have numerous office furniture dealers and office design firms at their disposal. So when tasked with choosing one of these companies, it’s important for decision makers to look for the right qualities to ensure the needs of the project and everyone involved are satisfied.
Below, we’ve listed seven ‘must-have’ characteristics that your next Pittsburgh office furniture dealer should possess in order to adequately handle your project.
‘Must-Have’ Traits of a Pittsburgh Office Furniture Dealer
1. Full-Service Offering Handled Entirely In-House
This is perhaps the most important quality to look for when selecting an office furniture dealer in Pittsburgh or elsewhere. A full-service office furniture dealer can manage the entire process involved with a project, from design and space planning to installation. However, it’s incredibly important for the dealership to be handling everything via in-house staff and not be contracting elements of their services to 3rd parties.
If any one of sales, design, procurement, delivery, installation, or repairs are contracted out by a dealership, it complicates communication channels and increases the risk of something going wrong. Make sure your next office furniture project is handled by a dealership who handles everything in-house to ensure quality control and deliver a high level of customer satisfaction.
2. Act as a Single Point-of-Contact
When discussing your project, your office furniture dealer should be clear that they’ll be acting as the single point of contact for your company. Even if a customer is purchasing new office furniture from several different vendors, they should be able to rely on the dealer to fully manage the procurement and delivery process for them. At Office Furniture Warehouse, we continue to act as the single point of contact for any concerns well after installation, including repairs, to ensure a high quality experience for our customers.
3. Product Flexibility
Also, make sure the dealership you choose offers a wide range of new and used office furniture. Offering all three types of office furniture allows for a wider range of products to choose from, but also makes it possible to work with any size budget.
In situations where a business is working with a tighter budget, this type of product flexibility allows the office design team to mix pieces of different quality levels together and save money in certain areas. For example, an office reception area may utilize brand new products due to its customer-facing nature, but a file storage area that is only visited by a few employees could leverage used file cabinets as a cost-savings measure.
4. Buy Back Program
If you’re getting new office furniture, what happens with the current furniture? It’s a question all businesses must eventually deal with, and it can be time-consuming and potentially expensive. In fact, liquidation can cost businesses tens of thousands of dollars if not planned properly, and these costs are usually not accounted for in a company’s budget.
The next office furniture dealer that you work with should have some sort of buy back program in place to help you take care of any liquidation issues you may encounter. In some cases, the money made from the buy back program can be put directly towards a business’ new office furniture.
5. Experience & Response Time
Experience and speed can never be overstated. Any office furniture dealer in Pittsburgh worth its salt has decades of experience handling every possible type of furniture and design scenario. Look for a dealer with decades of experience as they have stood the tests of time and are able to handle any and all requests from the customer’s end.
And as important as experience is, speed and response time might be even more important. Whether it’s a simple email or the turnaround time on an office design, you should never need to question where any aspect of your project stands. Read reviews online and ask for referrals to make sure you’re partnering with a dealership that cares as much about your project as you do.
6. A Showroom to Visit
With so much shopping being done online, a showroom might not seem like a big deal. However, your office furniture purchase is an important one, and the products you choose will be used for many years to come. A showroom allows you to test out numerous products from various manufacturers to ensure you’re going to be happy with the pieces that will eventually outfit your space. Additionally, an office furniture showroom makes it easy to see customization options that might be of interest.
7. Ability to Plan and Adapt to Future Growth
If an office relocation is a possibility or you expect to experience rapid growth in the near future, settling on office furniture can be difficult. An experienced office furniture dealer in Pittsburgh will be able to handle any uncertainty surrounding future changes at your business. Things like office furniture leasing options and buy back programs provide decision makers with much needed flexibility and peace of mind amidst potential change.
At OFW, we pride ourselves on having all of the qualities and characteristics discussed above, and would love to hear about your next project. So if you’re in search of an office furniture dealer in Pittsburgh, reach out to us to speak with one of our qualified sales or design team members. For over 20 years, we’ve been helping business in the region create beautiful offices that meet the needs of their budget and their employees.