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A Buyer’s Checklist: Questions to Ask Your Furniture Vendor

by Jaclyn Reid•June 28, 2024•0 Comments

Selecting the perfect furniture for your commercial space, office area or home is a critical decision that requires careful consideration. The furniture you choose must strike a balance between style, comfort, durability, and cost-effectiveness.

Given the plethora of commercial furniture vendors in the market, navigating through options can be overwhelming. The key? Making an informed decision by asking the right questions ensures that every aspect of your purchase meets your expectations and needs.

To provide an initial guideline and to support you in this process, we’ve complied list of essential questions to pose to your furniture vendor and fully discuss before finalizing your purchase:

Procurement Process

What is the process for ordering any new, or customized furniture?
Understanding the ordering process ensures accuracy and meets specific requirements.

What is the total cost, including taxes and delivery fees?
Clear pricing breakdown avoids surprises.

Are there any financing options available?
Payment plans and financing options can facilitate purchasing.

What deposit is required to place an order? What are the payment terms and accepted methods of payment?
Inquire about payment timeframes and expectations.

Evaluation and Testing

Can we arrange to try out or test the furniture before making a purchase?
Testing ensures compatibility with our needs and comfort standards.

Do you provide samples of materials or finishes for evaluation?
Samples help assess quality and suitability in our environment.

Is the furniture comfortable? Can I try it out or sit on it? Does it have any additional features, such as storage compartments or adjustable parts?
Comfort and functionality are crucial considerations.

What options do I have for ergonomic options?
Especially important for office furniture, ergonomic features promote health and comfort during use.

Mock-ups and Customization

Can we order a mock-up or prototype of the furniture piece before committing to a larger order?
Mock-ups allow visualization of how the furniture will fit and function in our space.

Can you customize the size or dimensions of the product if needed?
Customizable options cater to unique requirements.

Do you offer layout or space planning services?
Layout services help visualize furniture placement and optimize space utilization.

Do you have a showroom where I can see and try out the furniture?
Visiting a showroom allows assessment of furniture quality and comfort.

Logistics and Delivery

How are logistics managed for receiving and inspecting furniture deliveries?
Clear procedures ensure smooth receipt and inspection of delivered items.

What is the delivery process? How long will it take to receive the furniture after an order is placed?
Understanding delivery timelines helps with planning.

Will you manage the delivery and assembly the furniture, or do I need to do this myself? Are there any additional charges I should be aware of?
Clarify assembly and delivery costs to plan accordingly. Ask for a quote!

Communication and Responsiveness

How responsive are you to inquiries and requests for information during the procurement process?
Quick response times demonstrate the vendor’s commitment to customer service.

What communication methods or systems are you using for project tracking and management?
Streamlined communication using software and systems makes it easier for everyone!

Customer Satisfaction

What measures do you have in place to ensure customer satisfaction throughout the project lifecycle?
Initiatives indicate dedication to providing a positive experience from inquiry to installation.

Installation Expertise

What experience and knowledge do your installation teams possess?
Trained teams ensure correct and safe installation, minimizing potential issues.

What cross-functional training does your team experience consistently?
Training matters and cross-trained teams deliver overall better service to clients.

Support and After-Sales Service

What support do you offer after delivery, particularly if adjustments are needed?
Post-delivery support ensures satisfaction and resolves any issues promptly.

What after-sales support do you provide? Do you offer maintenance services?
Post-purchase and maintenance services contribute to long-term satisfaction.

Service and Customer Support

How do you handle service requests or issues post-purchase?
Understanding the vendor’s process ensures timely resolution of any post-installation issues.

Can you provide references or case studies of similar projects you’ve completed?
References and case studies demonstrate the vendor’s track record and customer satisfaction levels.

Project Management and Coordination

What is your process for project management and coordination during the installation process?
Clear communication and efficient project management are crucial for smooth installations.

What are your policies regarding delivery delays or changes in project timelines?
Knowing how the vendor addresses unforeseen circumstances helps manage expectations.

Maintenance and Support

Do you offer ongoing maintenance or support services for the furniture after installation?
Maintenance services can prolong the lifespan of your furniture and ensure optimal performance.

Sustainability Practices

How do you handle sustainability practices, particularly concerning furniture disposal and recycling?
Commitment to sustainability aligns with our environmental values and corporate responsibility.

Additional Services

What other additional services does your company provide?
A comprehensive service company offers much more than furniture procurement and installation.

Flexibility and Options

Are there options for leasing or renting furniture for temporary needs?
Flexibility in rental options accommodates short-term requirements effectively.

Warranty and Returns

What warranty options are available, and what do they cover?
Clear warranty terms protect investments and provide assurance of quality.

What is your policy if I’m not fully satisfied with the purchase?
A flexible policy offers peace of mind to clients.

Conclusion

Asking these questions gives you valuable insights into the vendor and their products, empowering you to make an informed decision and avoid buyer’s remorse. Remember, your furniture investment impacts productivity and well-being.

Choose wisely!

About CSS Office Solutions

At CSS, we’re your commercial furniture white-glove concierge!

Specializing in corporate services, office moves, installations, and facilities management and support for 40+ years, we partner with over 20+ manufacturers to offer a wide range of furniture solutions—both new and new-to-you.

Our commitment to quality and customer satisfaction ensures a seamless transition for all your furniture space needs.

Let us help you create the perfect space and environment for your team or business!

No Nightmare Office Moves Here!

by Jaclyn Reid•April 11, 2022•0 Comments

You found out your office is moving, exciting news!

At least those were your initial thoughts until your agenda and checklists keep filling up and you haven’t even hired a mover yet! Never fear! Not only because I’m here to help you look like the professional, but because using these introductory straightforward tips when orchestrating an office move will aid in making your office move as smooth and efficient as possible!

My suggestion is simple: find a moving company that offers comprehensive move management services! You’ll be laughing with joy throughout the entire move process, and well beyond move-in day!

Moving forward using these tips as a starting point will help alleviate undue stress and potential wasted energy when hunting for a competent mover.

Let’s Talk Insurance – Your mover should be able to meet, if not exceed, your building(s)’s minimum requirements; make sure of this even before asking for an estimate! RUN, far and fast, if your mover cannot produce a current Certificate of Insurance listing required coverage amounts. Also make sure your moving company has the ability to add, not only your company, but the building ownership entities as additional insured on the certificate.
Safety #1 – Obtaining a Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) Clearance Letter from your mover will identify if the company (a) has a valid WCB account, (b) whether it is in good standing with the WCB, which includes (c) having their premiums paid to-date.

WOWZER FACT: did you know that if you hire a company, moving or otherwise operating within your workplace, and their premiums are not paid up-to-date, the possibility exists to hold YOUR company liable for not only the owed premiums, but also the associated claim costs should an injury occur on your site! The WCB even suggests requesting another Clearance Letter prior to releasing final payment!

Thoroughly check your vendors’ references and credentials.

Full-service moving company or just the movers? Hiring a company that performs more than just the physical moving of your office furnishings is crucial! For instance, levelling the file cabinets, bookcases and desks when moved, more often than not is completely overlooked by “just movers”. Any uneven furnishing can be a safety hazard! And omitting this step can actually cause permanent damage to your furnishings! It will also lead to reduced drawer functionality over time, lock mechanism wear, etc.

Also consider this, does the moving company provide after-move services, such as hanging artwork, adjusting keyboard trays and work surface heights to each worker’s preference? Do they move file rooms including the shelving too?

Furnished? Move with Furniture? Do you move with your office furniture, get new furniture, or are you moving into a space already furnished? Your moving company should be able to provide you with pricing options for all scenarios to help give you a realistic perspective on the decision at hand.
Got supplies? Plastic moving bins/lids with security ties, labels, computer or map bags, packing materials, bubble wrap covers for monitors, various sized cardboard boxes, Masonite to protect the flooring, walls and door trim – your moving company should be able to supply all of these materials and so much more! What about the moving company’s equipment they’re going to be using – are they stocked well enough for your move and is it maintained in a respectable, safe condition? Are their trucks up to date with the annual inspections as part of Alberta’s CVIP (Commercial Vehicle Inspection Program)?

Plan ahead whenever and wherever possible! For instance, booking of the elevators and loading docks can get very sparse depending on what else is happening in your office building. As soon as you know anticipated dates, lock of the elevators and book the
loading dock at all required buildings (or if you have an awesome full-service moving company like CSS, we’ll take care of this entirely for you).

Bottom line is this: ensure you’re hiring a full-service moving company offering comprehensive move services, a company that know what they’re doing with your office furniture, files and assets. These are important to you and your company and should be even more of a priority when being relocated by your movers!

These tips are merely tiny specks of sand out of the entire desert on guidelines to coordinate a streamlined office move. I could write a book on tips on how to properly choose an office mover, so please feel free to contact CSS Office Solutions by phone or email to speak with one of our Account Managers directly if you have any questions regarding your office move.

The CSS People that Make it Happen – Jennifer

by Jen Harding•October 1, 2021•0 Comments

Meet Jennifer, our awesome HR and Safety Manager!

Today I am thrilled to be able to introduce you to our HR and Safety Manager, Jennifer Eriksson. Jennifer has been with CSS for almost one and a half years. She came to us with decades of experience in the field of safety with an HR background and is incredibly talented! She’s been an appreciated resource and guiding force in ensuring compliance for our in-house and industry safety requirements; plus, her tremendous support through our huge transformation from paper to digital systems and processes!

Jennifer’s favorite part of working at CSS is the camaraderie and laughter that inevitably occurs during the workday while we’re all getting the job done. Not having much of a background in office furniture she found it very interesting to see how large pieces of furniture are moved easily with the right tools and equipment.

Her absolute most favorite type of food is chocolate cake, and to wash it down she reaches for a latte from Rosso Coffee. Sounds like a winning combination to me too!

If Jennifer won the lottery, there’s no way she would pay off debt! Instead, she would spend it all on guinea pigs! They are her most favorite animal and would have no trouble renovating a room in her house to be a guinea pig room. She would have one of every color, short haired, long haired and everything in between! Maybe an obstacle course? Jennifer would probably need a veggie garden in the back yard too! One thing is for sure, she would be in “piggie heaven”!

Jennifer finally figured out how to get to Scotsman’s Hill and that’s officially her favorite local destination to visit. She also loves the old feel and grandeur of the Hudson Bay Building in downtown Calgary.

She has been lucky enough to get out of the office once or twice to shadow the crews on job sites, getting a firsthand look at everything that goes on behind the scene of a move and install project and says, “we are the unseen people of the office world”.

The CSS People that Make it Happen – Jen!

by Jaclyn Reid•August 27, 2021•0 Comments

Meet Jen, our amazing Operations Manager!

It is my wonderful pleasure to introduce you to the wonderful person who handles all things operationally happening at CSS. If you’ve had any contact with our office in the last 20 years, then chances are quite high that Jen has part in your contact/service/billing, etc. She currently occupies the role of Operations Manager and has fulfilled many roles while working for CSS!

When Jen was asked the question what’s the best part of being a member of the CSS work family – her response made perfect sense! She feels that the solid relationships that are built over time and get stronger with each year that passes are pretty incredible parts of her daily work! She also appreciates knowing how valuable she is to others – and we supremely appreciate how valuable she is to us!

Even in Jen’s twenty years of being a part of the CSS work family, she knows that there is still so much to learn from our business operations and the industry in general! We’re always learning new things as the industry and economy evolve and Jen is a person that has learned so much during her employment – add to that all that she has contributed that’s resulted in so much positive change at our company, we’re pretty happy to have her at CSS.

If Jen won the lottery, without a shadow of a doubt, she would move to an acreage with too many horses and a collection of chickens, cats and dogs. Fun random fact about Jen: her post-secondary education is in equine studies, so no surprise where her animal love started and has stayed!

Jen’s most-loved type of food is Caribbean, especially doubles – what she tells us is the most amazing street food in Trinidad and Tobago. Not too sure how this would pair with her favourite beverage which happens to be whiskey, but I’m sure she manages to enjoy each of these favourites when the opportunity arises.

At CSS we encounter so many buildings and offices in and around Calgary given the nature of what we do, so its really enjoyable for us to ask our staff what building is their favorite, as there are so many to choose from! We’re always astonished by some favourites shared by our staff, and it brings us joy to discover the buildings that are exciting to them for various reasons! The Doll Block Building, being beautiful and haunted ranks as Jen’s favorite building in Calgary.

Not exactly a local Calgary destination, but Jen loves spending time in the Peter Lougheed Provincial Park. Being so close to nature in Calgary, why wouldn’t someone want to enjoy actually being right within the mountains whenever possible!

Jen is such a valued member of our work team and office environment, not a day goes by that there isn’t some form of laughter or comradery that helps define us a wonderful workplace, with an even better work family.

If you’re ever near our office location, don’t hesitate to stop by and say hi to Jen – guaranteed you’ll leave with a bright smile on your face!

Welcome to The (CSS) Green Side!

by Jen Harding•July 7, 2021•0 Comments

We’re happy to introduce you to us, CSS Office Solutions Inc.

It’s official, we have a blog and we’re learning how to use it!

Hello, and welcome to our first post.

We are so excited to share more of who we are and what we have to offer! We’re proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish over the years and can’t wait to bring a deeper level of who we are and what makes us tick through this blog.

So, who are we?

CSS Office Solutions Inc. is a long-standing family-owned office solutions company operating out of beautiful Calgary, Alberta. Over the last 38 years we have established ourselves as leaders in the industry when it comes to catering to the different needs of our clients.

What do we do?

At CSS Office Solutions, we strive to provide superior products with unmatched customer service to ensure our clients receive the utmost satisfaction at every level – from hanging a simple picture, repairing a lock, refinishing your favorite table to relocating over 1,000 offices – CSS is the company to call. Our talented Account Managers are here to help you every step of the way AT NO CHARGE by helping you design your space, source new or used furniture, and project manage your entire move.

Okay, but wait – what is the green side?

Many of you will recognize the CSS crew out and about in our green shirts…hence “The Green Side”. Over time we will showcase some of the amazingly talented crew members that make up the CSS Office Solutions family and their take on being “green”.

Contact us today and find out for yourself why we truly are Calgary’s ‘ONE STOP SHOP’ for all your office needs!