Climbing Out Together – One Tile at a Time

November 1, 2012 by Neuse Tile Service 2 Comments

“Still Climbing Out” is the theme of the 7th annual blogfest, which brings together bloggers from around the globe to write about the importance of bathrooms in the customer experience. Their posts come from a wide range of perspectives that include sociology, marketing, research, psychology, environmental, customer experience, and design.

     We  have always been North Carolina folks – our parents are ‘from here’, we grew up here, we will probably always live here, and 98% of our business has been in the Tarheel State. In the past several years, however, we’ve been fortunate to be involved in the tile industry on a national level. We’ve attended national conferences, written for industry trade journals, and even worked on joint projects with tile contractors from other states. As we travel and talk with our peers the general consensus is that we are still climbing out of the debris that has been the construction industry for the past several years.

   However, from our vantage point, the best of the industry seems to be climbing out together- not scraping and clawing but building upon and encouraging. Many throughout our nation want to focus on what divides us, but, for the most part, quality tile contractors seem to be concentrating on what we can do as a group to help the industry collectively. Certainly we compete on projects from time-to-time and we often prefer our own way of doing things, but the general belief is that when individual companies are better trained, better equipped, better managed, and working toward common goals, then all of us succeed. Perhaps our nation can return to that ideal in coming days as well…

   In our industry we’ve seen unprecedented cooperation as trade and labor tile organizations have worked together to develop specifications that will help designers, architects, and consumers more carefully select tile installers; manufacturers have worked jointly to agree on common standards for the ‘green’ characteristics of their tile products; tile installers and distributors have begun having trade conferences jointly to offer even more learning opportunities; and tile contractors from all over the US now meet as one Five Star and Trowel of Excellence group to share ideas, promote excellence, and continue to drive the industry forward.

   As the fatigue factor lessens from the endurance test of the past few years, we are hopeful that this common spirit flourishes even more. Perhaps it’s been the desperation of our shared economic crisis that has pushed us to think collectively, but the result has been an encouraging lift to our spirits. Challenging climbs still await to be sure, but a moment of appreciation that we are still here to climb another day is in order.

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Name	Twitter Username	Blog Name	Blog URL
Susan Abbott	susanabbott	theIdeaStudio	http://www.theideastudio.ca
Laurence Borel	blogtillyoudrop	blog till you drop	http://www.laurenceborel.com
Bill Buyok	AventeTile	Avente Tile Talk	http://www.aventetiletalk.com/
Jeanne Byington	jmbyington	The Importance of Earnest Service	blog.jmbyington.com
Nora DePalma	steamtherapy	The Mr. Steam SteamTherapy Blog	http://blog.mrsteam.com/
Mr. Steam	noradepalma	OR-DP POV	http://www.oreilly-depalma.com/blog
Stacy Garcia	kbtribechat	kbtribe	http://kbtribe.wordpress.com
Diane Kazan	dkazan	Public Bathroom Blog	http://thekazan.blogspot.com
Arpi Nalbandian	Arpi_Nalb	Avente Tile Talk	http://www.aventetiletalk.com/
Victoria & Shelley Redshaw & Pond	scarletopus	Scarlet Opus Trends Blog	http://www.scarletopus.com
Sandy Renshaw	sandyrenshaw	Purple Wren	purplewren.com
Bruce D. Sanders	rimtailing	RIMtailing	http://rimtailing.blogspot.com/
Paige Smith	none	Tile tips from installation professionals	https://neusetile.wordpress.com/
Todd Vendituoli	TALV58	Thebuildingblox	http://www.thebuildingblox.com/
Shannon Vogel	cyswebsites	From the Floors Up	http://fromthefloorsup.com
CB Whittemore	cbwhittemore	Content Talks Business Blog	http://simplemarketingnow.com/content-talks-business-blog/
Irene Williams	crossvilleinc	Elevate Your Space	http://elevateyourspace.wordpress.com/
Linda Wright	skiptotheloo	Skip to the Loo!	http://lindaloo.com/