Buying office furniture is not normally one of those things you would think of putting on your “scary things” list, but when you consider how important your business is—and how much your business depends upon its use and function—certain realities can really upset your apple cart.
Imagine having a super-important meeting scheduled. Customers are flying in to meet with you. You want to make a great impression, but you find out that the modern conference table you ordered, custom-made, is not going to arrive in time.
What happens when your new receptionist is starting tomorrow, and the modern reception desk you planned to have for your grand opening is nowhere to be seen?
I don’t know about you, but when the things I depend upon for crucial business outcomes fall through, it’s going to piss me off! Here are a few laments I have heard repeatedly from custom office furniture buyers that have upset their apple cart…
Lead-Time Hiccups
Resellers claiming to offer custom-made office furniture can be found in many places. One glaring problem is lead time. Many offerings for custom office furniture have their production supplier offshore. With that, delivery times are projected months from the date of order
. In this age of speed, who wants to wait that long to receive their furniture? Many small to mid-size companies don’t have that kind of lead time programmed into their schedule. Separately, what happens when the offshore manufacturer misses the production date or shipping window? If you have a high dependency on that furniture, the answer is two words: “you’re screwed.”
Furniture Damage
There is tremendous potential for damaged goods when shipping by boat. I am familiar with damage possibilities in the marine industry, because for many years of my life, I bought and sold marine salvage. There is the possibility of leaky containers, flooded containers, and dropped, overboard, or overturned items. In either case, when you ship by water, risk versus reward is much higher.
Damage Replacement
In the event that your custom-made office furniture gets damaged in freight, will you wait another four months for replacement? If you are depending on an overseas producer of office furniture to provide your furniture, you have absolutely no way to speed up that process—except, possibly, air freight.
Unqualified Builders
Would you take your brand-new Mercedes to a truck mechanic for repair? They both do vehicle repair. Would you let your local podiatrist do surgery on your heart? My best guess is hell no! Perhaps these analogies are extreme, but they are accurate nonetheless.
Just because a builder of custom furniture builds furniture doesn’t mean they have expertise in building office furniture. From years of experience, I can tell you that any carpenter can build a box. The art, however, is not in the box-building. The art of building quality custom office furniture is in the details: size ratios, the right types of materials to use (and where), material applications, and a solid understanding of functional applications. Imagine receiving your brand-new modern office furniture and finding that it emulates someone’s kitchen or bath.
Quality Designs
My experience has taught me that people who design furniture rarely have the expertise to build furniture—and people who build office furniture rarely have the expertise to design. Without both—the eye and the skill—your modern office furniture will be deficient in visual design, functionality, and quality construction.
Shipping and Freight Nightmares
If you are lucky enough to get through all of the above without losing sleep or your family fortune, you have one more hurdle; getting it safely into your office and assembled. The question to ask next is, “How will I get my furniture from point A to my office without issue?”
Well, I will tell you this: if your furniture is being made overseas, it’s coming to you in a cardboard box in many small pieces. That alone presents a plethora of potential trust issues: that the office furniture producer included every part to assemble the furniture, that none of the parts are damaged or broken, on top of wondering who is going to be responsible for assembling all of those pieces. If you do have damaged or broken parts, how long will it take to get those parts replaced?
90 Degree Office Concepts maintains a list of 22 details that must be in place before taking an order and shipping custom-made modern office furniture to a client. Here’s an example. If a client wants a 10' modern conference table, will they want one piece, or two? If they want one piece, and their elevator is too small, how will it be possible to receive it? If they do have the facilities, would a one-piece conference table be nicer than two?
How to Buy Custom-made Office Furniture without the Scary Results
The answer to your question can be stated in a few words: 90 Degree Office Concepts. Here’s why… 90 Degree Office Concepts is a company that designs and builds only office furniture. We have devoted our lives to understanding and building furniture that suits how people work, the styles people enjoy, and the materials that work for designated use. We know how to build furniture that lasts—furniture that will withstand the wear and tear of a commercial environment. We know how to make it cool and modern to fit in with today’s office lifestyles.
Because we only build our furniture in America, and because our process is designed as such, most of our office furniture lead times are cut to two to four weeks…and we are always on time.
Our furniture is built strictly with you in mind: your style, size, color, and materials.
We offer you the coaching you need to get your modern office just right.
Most of our furniture is shipped fully assembled, so you don’t have to waste hours of your time with assembly. All of our furniture is shipped in custom wooden crates to ensure safe arrival at your office. And should you require a replacement piece, our customer service department will handle getting your replacement part out right away.
For a complete and enjoyable experience without fear, trust 90 Degree Office Concepts.
