I thought I was buying a kitchen splashback ...

A little while ago we finished off the tail-end of our home kitchen renovation. The cupboards and benchtop and appliances etc had been in place for ages but the missing thing to bring it all together was glass.

Now it wasn't as simple as a splashback behind the stove, it was that and much more - feature glass on the exposed cabinets facing the external deck, pretty little glass shelves to hold kick knacks and mobile phones, a floor to ceiling mirror at the end of a hallway, a shower screen, new bathroom mirrors - not an inconsequential job but all just commodity stuff, right?

Using a shortlist of glass suppliers gleaned from magazine articles and friends' recomendations we started the "measure and quote" cycle. we had the naieve thought that this was a cost based decision and for the first 3 companies it was. The guy would arrive and ask what was going where, do his measurements, hem and haw about an exposed corner where two sheets of glass were to join, fill in his form and hand over the quote. You couldn't pick any one of them from the pile.

Then Ray arrived. He sat down and asked us what we were doing and what the overall goal of the renovation had been. What did we like about the kitchen now that we had been using it for some months - was our experience different to our expectation? He walked around the room pointing out things from different angles. He sat on the deck and looked back in to where the feature glass was to go. We discussed the mix and match of colours and textures and surfaces and the natural elements outside (sky and plants) that would be reflected within at different times of the day. He made good considered suggestions about what would work where and why. He showed us pictures of other jobs he had done and told us about the satisfied customers. He talked about our feelings for the project. What? Our feelings?

By the time he got around to taking the measurements we were like putty in his hands. We thought we were buying glass. His glass was no different to anybody else's and all the quotes were within 10% of eachother but Ray knew it was about more than that, Ray sold us lifestyle, and he got the business.

In a nutshell - he added value.