Elevating Kitchens Nationwide with Nikki Robbins' 3 Sons Cabinet Solutions

Discover the remarkable journey of Nikki Robbins, the visionary owner of Three Sons Cabinets in Birmingham, who transitioned from a 23-year career in pharmacy to spearheading a custom cabinetry business. Inspired by her father’s craftsmanship and driven by the desire for a fresh challenge, Nikki has crafted a unique niche in the market with her high-quality, ready-to-assemble cabinets. With features like solid wood construction, dovetail joints, and soft-close mechanisms, her cabinets are not only stunning but also stand out for their functionality. Nikki opens up about the heartfelt origin of her company's name, a tribute to her three beloved sons, and how her pharmaceutical background enhances her meticulous approach to customer service and project execution.

Gain insights into how Three Sons Cabinets offers a personalized and health-conscious cabinetry solution nationwide. Our conversation reveals how Nikki’s commitment to customer satisfaction and quality is reflected in their Green Guard Gold certified cabinets, specially designed for clients with chemical sensitivities. This approach has attracted customers from across the country seeking healthier home environments. Learn how you can connect with Three Sons Cabinets and embark on a seamless kitchen transformation experience, tailored to meet your unique needs.

#GNPBirmingham #ThreeSonsCabinets #CustomCabinetry #BirminghamBusiness #WomenInBusiness #FemaleEntrepreneur #PharmacistToEntrepreneur #SmallBusinessSuccess #HomeImprovement #KitchenRemodel #CabinetryDesign #HealthConsciousLiving #GreenGuardGold #HealthyHome #MadeInBirmingham #Craftsmanship #QualityCabinets #ReadyToAssemble #CustomerSatisfaction #AmericanMade

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Chapters

• 0:00 Custom Cabinet Business Interview
• 11:30 Personalized Cabinet Options Available Nationwide

Transcript

Voice over: 0:00

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Patricia Blondheim.

Patricia: 0:14

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. I'm your host, Patricia Blondheim, and today we have Good Neighbor Nikki Robinson. Nikki is the owner of Three Sons Cabinets here in Birmingham. Nikki, how are you today.

Nikki: 0:28

Doing great, Patricia. How are you? I'm doing great, thank you.

Patricia: 0:32

Let's start by talking about Three Sons Cabinets. Just give us a little idea about your business.

Nikki: 0:38

Sure. So, as the name implies, I do have three sons. I gave birth to three boys in three years, three months and three days, so naturally, three Sons. Cabinets is the name that we all decided upon for this business. So what we do? We sell ready to assemble cabinets, known in the industry as RTA, and for local customers I go out to their homes or job sites and I measure, take pictures and then discuss with the client. You know what their needs are and then I go back and create a design based on their needs and you know it's a situation where I communicate with them back and forth a lot. Once we agree upon that final design, I'll send them the final layout CADs, elevations, all that so they can see exactly what their space is going to look like, and then I'll send them a quote. Once they purchase the cabinets, they get drop shipped directly to their home or, if it's a contractor, directly to the job site. So it's a pretty easy process.

Patricia: 1:49

So you do the heavy lifting. But starting a custom cabinet business, that's a unique venture. Can you tell us how you developed a passion for cabinetry and decided to turn it into a full-fledged business?

Nikki: 2:04

Certainly so. I have kind of a strange journey to cabinets. I'm a pharmacist and I worked in pharmacy for 23 years. I loved my patients, I loved my coworkers. It was a very fulfilling job. But in 2019, I came to the point where I was just ready to do something different, and so I started researching dropship jobs to see if there was anything that you know I could do differently, because I knew nothing outside of pharmacy. That's all I'd done my entire life. So my dad has been in the cabinet business for years and he said Nikki, why don't you go ahead and just sell cabinets? I mean, that's a dropship business. And I thought you know what? I didn't even think about it. So my dad has taught me everything I know about cabinets and just kind of doing that shift midlife and that scary leap has been such a blessing for me, and so I've really enjoyed learning about the construction industry and learning about design.

Patricia: 3:10

So your work clearly reflects a high level of craftsmanship. So I think to a lot of people, rta cabinets mean, I guess, like Ikea. I think it will bring Ikea to a lot of people's minds, right, right? So I would like to differentiate what you do, right?

Nikki: 3:32

Yes.

Patricia: 3:33

What do you think sets your custom, your OTA, nearly custom cabinets, apart from the competition?

Nikki: 3:42

So we do not have any particle board in our cabinets whatsoever, and that's important. Especially, goodness, after Hurricane Helene has come through with all the water damage. It's been tragic. Water will completely disintegrate particle board. So all of our cabinets are solid wood. They are finished on the inside to match the exterior, so they have paint or stain on the inside. They have all soft close doors and drawers in the hinges and then all the drawers have dovetail construction. They have full extension drawers where when you pull them out, the back comes flush, you know, with the front of the cabinet. So they're premium RTAs really is how I would describe them.

Patricia: 4:28

And even though you can't call your cabinets custom, the whole experience is a custom experience. Your ability is, through this cabinet company is to create a more custom experience than you could get just by buying from any box store.

Nikki: 4:49

That's right, that's right, so yeah.

Patricia: 4:53

How do you approach customer service in your cabinet business? Does your experience in a people-centered profession like pharmacy influence how you interact with your clients, and what skills do you bring from pharmacy that have contributed unexpectedly maybe to your cabinet business?

Nikki: 5:19

people. That's why I went into pharmacy and why I continued to work with people with the cabinets Troubleshooting is another and problem solving I guess those would be two skills that I also brought with me from pharmacy, because anytime in the construction industry, anybody who's ever tried to build a house or remodel something understands that there are going to be a lot of bumps along the way. You know, maybe something isn't going to arrive on time, Maybe something arrives damaged, but customer service is our priority. You know I'm very intentional about staying in constant communication with my customers. If any of the cabinets arrive damaged, I file for a warranty and get them replaced immediately. So customer service is extremely important to me. I want everyone to have a personal experience where they feel they're being taken care of and their hands being held throughout the entire process.

Patricia: 6:14

And you and I were talking before we came into the studio about how you as a pharmacist and then I have some experience also in some kitchen design that the detail that has to go into planning any sort of layout for that is very, very detail oriented, right. So you as a pharmacist, you lived a life before of being having attention to detail. I mean people's lives depended on it, do you? This must be a skill that you bring over to cabinets. I mean this you must be amazing at what you do.

Nikki: 6:55

Well, I'm definitely a detail-oriented person. You know how people say you can't see the forest for the trees. I oftentimes am unable to look at a big picture initially because my eyes immediately go to detail. So it's a blessing and a curse at the same time. But yes, that attention to detail is necessary, especially as you mentioned, in design, because everything has to be quite precise and I'm a math geek. I was worried I wouldn't scratch that itch when I left pharmacy, but that has not been an issue. We get some weird angles sometimes in homes and you know I may have to figure out the hypotenuse to try to figure out where to put a cabinet in that angle. So yes, attention to detail is very important.

Patricia: 7:44

Oh my gosh, you have to break out the Pythagorean theorem Exactly. I would never use that outside of high school, but I was wrong.

Nikki: 7:56

Yeah, you know people say, oh, I'm never going to use algebra outside of you know school and I've used algebra my entire life and I continue to do so and I love it.

Patricia: 8:07

I mean, I really am a geek what's about any misconceptions people might have about your product, about ready to assemble-assemble cabinets.

Nikki: 8:20

Yeah, so we kind of touched on this earlier. I think the greatest misconception I run into is that RTAs are somehow inferior to other kinds of cabinets or that custom cabinets are always better than RTA cabinets, and that's not always necessarily the case. People will see the low prices on our website and they'll ask well, you know why are your prices so low? And they get a little suspicious and I would too, honestly. But I work out of my house. I don't have a brick and mortar store, so I'm able to keep my prices low and I sell my products over 60% below retail price. So you still get the quality that you would expect with a premium cabinet. You just get a lower price and you know because it is ready to assemble. They come with the doors already pre-hung. The doors are already pre-hung, the holes are pre-drilled for the shelving, but you do have to assemble them and we can have them assembled and shipped to you. But that does end up costing a good bit just because freight is more when you're shipping an assembled cabinet versus a flat pack.

Patricia: 9:33

Also ready-to-assemble cabinets as opposed to custom cabinetry. Shipping and delivering custom cabinetry is its own art and it opens that whole cabinet up to all kinds of damage and a skilled cabinet maker is not going to make these rookie mistakes. But it's actually protective to the cabinet to arrive to you ready to assemble.

Nikki: 9:57

Right, exactly.

Patricia: 9:59

So that's a lot of detail and a lot of work and this is a very consuming business for you and for your clients. But you must have. Do you have anything that you do that sort of fills your cup and you do for fun?

Nikki: 10:14

Oh, absolutely so. I love hanging out with my family. We are an adventurous bunch. We love to travel, love to watch movies. We also love to serve at our church. The kids are even involved there. My husband and I are greeters. We love doing that. I am a sucker for Hallmark movies, you know. Yes, I'm just going to go ahead and say it. It's a shameful thing. My boys are always making fun of me when I watch them, but the truth is they will often sneak in and sit next to me and just say oh mama, I just want to spend time with you. But I really think they're actually trying to watch the Hallmark movie and just don't want to say it. So that's, that's fun. And then one hobby that I'm about to start actually tomorrow, and I'm really looking forward to this my husband bought me a Glowforge craft laser and it's arriving tomorrow, and so I cannot wait to learn how to make things, especially before Christmas. I am so excited about this.

Patricia: 11:15

Oh my gosh, Just out of nowhere. It's going to be so much fun. I'll be over in like it's going to take me about 40 minutes, but I'll be there for the unboxing.

Nikki: 11:27

Come on over, Patricia.

Patricia: 11:30

I feel like our listeners to take away about three sons cabinets Nikki.

Nikki: 11:36

The main thing I want them to take away is, if you ever work with me, you'll know that this really is a very personalized experience tailored to you. And one thing folks don't know about us we can ship all over the US, not just to the local area, and we also have Green Guard Gold certified cabinets for those customers that have health issues or that have chemical sensitivities. You know, this is a great way for them to have a cabinet that doesn't have all the fumes and everything in their home. So that's another thing we offer and that we often get folks from out of state that are looking for those.

Patricia: 12:17

And how can our listeners out there offer and that we often get folks from out of state that are looking for those, and how can our listeners out there who need a brand new kitchen? Don't we all contact you at Three Sons Cabinetry? I'm sorry, let me. Let me say, because you're not Three Sons Cabinetry, I don't want that to go out. Hold on Call 59. Call 59 how can our listeners who need new cabinets or think new cabinets might be in their future, how can they get a hold of you at three sons cabinets?

Nikki: 12:48

so they can email me at nikki n I k k I at three sons, cabinets dot com, and that's the number three, and cabinets is plural G-N-P-B-R-M-I-N-G- gnpbirminghamcom or call 205-952-0148.