Good Neighbor Podcast: Davie
Good Neighbor Podcast: Davie
Good Neighbor Podcast: Davie
Eps #4 Elevating Your Home: A Conversation with Blooming Blinds
When Rob White refers to window coverings as "the jewelry to your home," you immediately understand his passion for transforming spaces through thoughtful design choices. After nine years of military service, graduate school, and corporate experience with Whirlpool, Rob found his true calling when he purchased his Blooming Blinds franchise serving Winston-Salem and Davie County.
What distinguishes this veteran-owned business isn't just Rob's meticulous attention to detail or his iconic pink service van filled with samples from 14 manufacturers. It's his fundamental understanding that home improvement should be frictionless and personal. While most window covering businesses leave customers waiting days for quotes, Rob provides comprehensive pricing before leaving your home. His cutting-edge CRM system enables real-time scheduling and communication, while his hands-on approach ensures consistency from consultation to installation.
Blooming Blinds' origin story mirrors Rob's own values - beginning as a family business where a mother and her three sons built a 20+ year legacy now expanded to over 75 franchises nationwide maintaining an extraordinary 4.9-star average rating. Rob carries this tradition forward, occasionally bringing his own wife and sons on installations while planning thoughtful growth that won't compromise his commitment to exceptional service. For homeowners looking to elevate their spaces with blinds, shades, shutters, or custom drapery, Rob delivers both the product expertise and the personal touch that turns house projects into home transformations.
Ready to update your windows with service that prioritizes your experience from start to finish? Connect with Blooming Blinds of Winston-Salem through their website or by calling Rob directly at 336-446-9092.
Rob White
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Karen Wood.
Speaker 2:Well, welcome. Welcome to episode number four. Today we have Rob White with Blooming Blinds. How are you, rob?
Speaker 3:I'm doing well, Karen. Thank you so much for having me on.
Speaker 2:Thank you for being here. I'm so excited to share you and your business with the Advance community and, more importantly, davie County. This is all about sharing businesses and allowing our community to get to know our business owners just a little bit better outside of what they do in their business. So thank you for being here. Tell us a little bit about yourself, who you are, where you come from and how you ended up here with Blumen and Blinds.
Speaker 3:Sure, I would love to. So it's a very, very long story but I'll try to make it short. So my name is Rob White, I'm married to wonderful wife Stacy and we have two boys, davis and Dylan. They're eight and 10. They're enrolled at Louisville Elementary. We have been in the North Carolina area for five years.
Speaker 3:I spent nine years in the Army, went to grad school and then went to work for Whirlpool in the appliance manufacturer in Southwest Michigan, met my wife there. My last role at Whirlpool I was handling the shopper marketing team for independent retail businesses and the builder business from an appliance standpoint, and that brought me and relocated me to Winston-Salem with a new company located in downtown Winston. I was doing that for five years and in that capacity I was supporting independently run businesses that sell appliances you know throughout the country and really gave me a taste, for you know the business owners that are every day kind of putting in their chips and building these legacies for their families and you know the entrepreneurship that went along with it. And I kind of got the itch and so had an opportunity to buy into this franchise and start it and it's really been a blessing for me and the family.
Speaker 3:I mean between my military career and then Whirlpool, and then, you know, supporting the independent channel. I have a real passion for small communities, growing up in a small town in Illinois, and a real passion for small business, and so it's been great to be able to be on the other side of that own the business. And then, you know, try to help the people in our community with problems that they have, and you know, the problems aren't like like I had in the military. But you know, everybody you know wants to elevate their space and make their home something they can be proud of, and window coverings is a big piece of that.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, they're such a personality thing. I refer to them as, like the jewelry to an outfit. You know your window coverings are the jewelry to your home right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a good analogy. I like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's that final piece that really shows your personality, I think, Awesome. So Bloomin' Blinds. How long has this company been in business?
Speaker 3:So the company itself started in Texas and the mother she started a blinds cleaning business, did some repairs and then her three sons eventually started working for her and did more of the sales side. And so Blooming Blinds as an entity has been around for 20 plus years. As a franchise. It's still relatively young, you know in the 10 years old, you know in that range, and you know part of the appeal for me was it is family owned and operated and you know there's a lot of franchises that are private equity owned and you know it's not necessarily bad. But you know, what I was looking for was that family touch, which is, you know, part of who I am and what I want my franchise to be like in this community.
Speaker 2:Right, and you know, lots of times with family owned businesses you still get that personal support or you know the closer, just a lot of support that you may not get as things get filtered and, once removed, once more layers get added into it. I guess yeah absolutely.
Speaker 3:I mean I still I have the autonomy to run the business in my local market kind of as I see fit. Now, obviously, as a you know a brand person myself, you know I want to stay true to who Bloom and Blinds is and how it shows up, but if you look nationally of our you know 75 plus franchises, the average rating and review on Google is 4.9 stars, and so you know that's something to be proud of from a franchise and that's something that I really take pride in is delivering a best in class experience, and I want to continue to do that, not just for my local community but for the franchise in total.
Speaker 2:Right, right, that's awesome. So kind of what sets Bloom and Blinds apart for maybe some of the other competitors, what's significantly different that you can share with us. You know, I think it's, you know, twofold.
Speaker 3:Like you know, all of the individually owned window covering companies, you know are extension of their owners or extension of their sales force. And so you know there can be a lot of difference in how that, you know, shows up to the customer. And I think you know bloom and blind is like for me it's I'm the owner and the operator, no-transcript and blinds corporate standpoint, you know, I think it's an extension of that. Like they are so focused on driving a customer experience. Everything they do from a backend support system is dedicated to, you know, solving customer pain points and making the process, you know, more frictionless. And that's from you know we have a dedicated call center in Texas and so when you call, you know my number, it gets routed to them. All they do is answer calls for window coverings. They handle no other business except blooming blinds and window coverings.
Speaker 3:And then the organization spent a lot of money, you know, on the technology side to help book appointments. Look at my calendar, the customer's calendar. You know, make things seamless. And then, from you know, like a CRM technology standpoint, I'm able to, you know, talk directly to the customer via text, via email, via phone, whatever they kind of opt into real time and you know that's rescheduling appointments, moving them up, moving them back. You know, and. And then, from a quoting standpoint, once I get in the house, you know we have some software that we use, that I come in, I take measurements, we pick out stuff and, before I leave you will have a quote in your hand and, you know, ready to make a decision. Not that you have to make a decision at that point, but it's just so much better experience than okay, I got everything. I'm going to go run some numbers at home and I'll get back to you.
Speaker 2:I got you. That's awesome. So when someone like does call, say, for example, your number and information, they're talking to you directly, whether it's text or by the phone, even though the CRM system has been set up for you. But they're talking to you, not an AI, julie or something like that, right?
Speaker 3:Yeah, as of right now. The way it's set up is they're talking to real time people Now, from a franchise when I was talking about, they're trying to make the process more frictionless and make it a better. You know we're there. The franchise is investing in technology and to try to.
Speaker 3:You know, right now, one of the biggest you know and I won't say biggest because it sounds like a negative one of the pain points is, you know, because you're talking to people, there's only a finite amount of people that can answer the phone and there's 75 bloom and blinds franchises across the country and sometimes the hold time, you know, can be a couple minutes, right, and we want to get that down to instantaneously Right. So the franchise is looking at the usage of AI and we're really piloting it in the backend right now to be able to pick up the phone, answer it immediately, get all the facts, coordinate your schedule and my schedule and make it to where. Yes, you know you're talking to an AI, but the AI is so smart that it answers all your questions and gets you exactly where you need to be as quick as possible. And so turn what's today, I think, kind of a turn off talking to AI to be a oh my gosh. This was so seamless and frictionless that it's actually nice using technology for good.
Speaker 3:Right and you didn't feel disconnected still from you, the franchise owner in the end, yeah, and then ultimately, once you know they're booking an appointment, they have my direct contact and my direct line and so I'm all the time, you know, texting the customer. Hey, you know we have a 8.30 AM. I'm actually running ahead of schedule. Do you mind if I get there at 8.15? And I have that back and forth with them once the kind of appointment is set.
Speaker 2:Gotcha, gotcha. Well, I have seen your large pink blooming van in the community. Tell me what's inside that van.
Speaker 3:So the van has, you know, product samples from about 14 different manufacturers that I can choose from, and those those manufacturers carry products that span the gambit for window covering, so anything. We have multiple different options for blinds and shades and shutters and drapery and drapery hardware and rods, drapery and drapery hardware and rods, and you know, carrying multiple manufacturers that all sell the same product, you know is great for the customer. So if we don't have that right fabric or that right material, I can go to the van and grab something else. Or if somebody's running a you know a promotion or a special for one brand, I can lead with that to try to get my customer the best bang for their buck. And then on the other side of that it's got a bunch of tools and a bunch of hardware. And so you know, because I'm doing both the sales and installation, you know anything that I need to. Either you know service, install, repair or you know do. The initial consultation and sales is in the van.
Speaker 2:Awesome, Awesome. So you are the installer and the salesperson, the CEO. You're wearing all the different hats. What's your vision for your company with Blooming Blinds?
Speaker 3:You know, right now it's been great Like my wife has been on a couple of installs with me. My kids have been on some installs with me. I love the fact that I can be there 100% of the time and you know, going back to. You know, if you're dedicated to an amazing customer experience, the best way to do that is, you know you have consistency on who shows up, but right now that's me. I know that's not sustainable as I grow, but you know, for the, for the customers out there in this community, you know I don't.
Speaker 3:There's not a lot of overhead for me. I have the van and that's really it right now, so I'm able to drive an amazing experience, you know, at a super competitive cost. You know at a super competitive cost, and so I'd love to continue that by. You know the next kind of best thing is to hire an installer as we grow, and then I can still do sales, I can still do repairs, I can. I can still do some installs, but you know it's more of a of a two person show and I think we can. You know I can scale up the business a little bit that way and just having my time freed up to go, do more of the consultations. While I have a vetted person that also is dedicated to customer experience, do some of the installs for me.
Speaker 2:That makes sense. That makes sense. Well, that is awesome. Tell people how they can find you, get in touch with you if they want to book an appointment, and just learn more about you and Blooming Blinds.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So the best way is to reach out, to go on the Internet, reach out to Blooming Blinds of Winston-Salem from the website you can. You can, you know, schedule a consultation there. Consultation there. You can also reach out at 336-864-2971, which will get you over to the customer care center in Dallas. Or, if you really want to reach me directly, my direct line is 336-446-9092. Any of those three ways, you will get in touch with myself or Blooming Blinds, where we're dedicated to a exceptional customer experience.
Speaker 2:Awesome, awesome, rob. Well, thank you for joining us today. I'm so excited to share your business with the community, and if anyone's looking to give their home a facelift, get some new jewelry for their home and update their own personality, I would highly recommend Blooming Blinds. They do have some beautiful products and their customer service, again, is awesome too. So, rob, thanks so much and look forward to having you back on here.
Speaker 3:Awesome. Thanks, Karen. Anytime I had a blast.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNP Davey calm. That's GNP Davey calm. Or call three, three, six, five, five, nine three zero, four, four.