Joanne Bull of Königstone talks busy times, customer relationships, staffing and looking forward!

Königstone, one of the UK’s leading kitchen worktop specialists, provides quartz and natural stone products for beautiful surfaces in kitchens and bathrooms.  The pandemic has created challenges; closed showrooms and sites, and supply issues, are among the most common along with ensuring top quality customer service with furloughed staff.  There is not a business in the land which has not experienced similar issues but we have emerged stronger as have many of our good, professional contemporaries.

Today, in mid-2021, we have never been busier as the UK’s homeowners do up their precious homes and housebuilding booms again.

We are at full capacity, staff and order book-wise, and our systems, showroom, training and sales functions are operating in a more refined, clever fashion; we see this with our customers and suppliers too.

Now, we see customer service and honesty as absolutely crucial. Most companies in our industry sit on both sides – as both suppliers and customers – and we must, as an industry, make sure we look after our “friends” who have long memories. If there is a supply issue, for example, which is out of our hands (think Suez Canal, Brexit or Covid), then be honest about timescales.  Customer focus and communication are at the core of the lessons we have all learnt; and being kind!

We have invested in new staff too and, interestingly, some of these key people hail from the troubled hospitality industry – and you get really well-trained customer service specialists from a pedigree in restaurant and bars!

The KönigQuartz range recently won Best Surface at the Ideal Home Kitchen Awards 2021.

For further information on Königstone, please email info(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)konigstone.co.uk or visit www.konigstone.co.uk