“… some might have learned to adjust. But then it never was a matter of trust.”
-Billy Joel
In a world of increasing commoditization, where many business transactions take place with no personal contact between company and customer, it can be hard to place trust in what and from whom you’re buying. Is the product you just bought right for you? Will it last? Will it perform as specified? If something goes wrong, can you get a new one or a refund?
In other words, can you trust that you’re more than just a number on the bottom line?
We have been hearing this question being asked of us and our competitors in all our major markets over the past couple of years. Here are just a few reasons that we can answer, “Yes, you are more than a number on the bottom line.”
We listen.
Communication is a two-way street. We encourage our dealers to communicate their needs so we can provide the right solutions. This is how award-winning products, such as the StageScreen and several of our TecVision viewing surface formulations, came into being. It’s also how we design and built best-in-class custom solar control and AV solutions for unique applications.
A recent example is product delivery time. We heard from our dealers that the market is demanding products even more quickly. In response, we have honed our processes. Our lead times for window shades, AV products, and gymnasium equipment are among the industry leaders.
We tell it like it
is.
When a company is providing a projection solution and not just a commodity,
it’s more important than ever that the products involved perform as advertised.
We want to make sure every viewing surface we send out performs like we say it
will. That’s why truth in test reporting is of the utmost importance to us.
Every window shade we make is tested before it leaves our facility. If it isn’t up to standard, we re-do it.
We have two labs specifically for testing projection screen viewing surfaces. Our quality engineers put every screen lot through a battery of tests and make the results available.
Just as important as the actual testing is what a company does with those numbers. For TecVision premium projection surfaces, for example, there is no tolerance allowed. If a TecVision surface tests outside of the published spec at all, it is rejected. We continue testing TecVision formulations weeks and even months after they were produced to make sure nothing changes over time.
We are family.
While the AV and window covering industries have more than their fair share of mergers and acquisitions by non-industry investment companies, Draper has continued to be family-owned and -managed. While some might see that as a disadvantage, we disagree. The deep commitment from company ownership and management to remain family-owned and stay located in east-central Indiana provides stability, a loyal workforce dedicated to quality, and better control over product development, quality, and delivery than our competitors.
Since 1902, Draper has been combining innovation with a customer relationship strategy that brings our dealers and us together in partnership.
But our relationship with our customers isn’t just a strategy.
It has always been a matter of trust.
