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Digital design creates efficiency and transparency – and builds up trust.
As every craftsperson knows, starting your own business requires courage. But courage alone isn’t enough. If you ask young carpenter Dariusz Buchta, he’ll tell you that the key factor is ensuring your focus is always on your customers and what they need. And their number one priority in almost all cases is to have a craftsperson they can trust. The problem is, how do you build up trust when you don’t have decades of experience and dozens of customers to call on? That’s where Buchta really benefited from digital technology.
From a school for master craftspeople to running his own business
Buchta, 36, has been a master carpenter for six years and established his own side business as soon as he obtained his master’s certification. From a very early stage, he knew that he wanted to strike out on his own. But he didn’t want to jump straight in at the deep end – instead, he used his side business to gradually find his feet and develop the financial foundations for his own carpentry workshop. His strategy paid off, and Buchta’s business (“d.b.holzdesign”) has now been going for a year and a half. A few months ago he took the additional step of buying a CNC milling machine, and he now has two full-time employees plus one trainee to handle the steady flow of work. Buchta’s business has grown both in terms of the number and the scope of the projects he gets, but what pleases him the most is the level of trust he has built up with his customers in such a short time. He puts this success down to communication with his customers: “Customers aren’t really buying a product – they’re choosing the carpenter they like the most.”
Proactive communication – the reason for Buchta’s steady flow of work
I don’t want customers to ask me how their orders are going or about their current status. So I regularly send them production updates and alternative options – usually it’s quick and easy to do it by messaging them on their phone. Of course I ask beforehand whether they’re happy for me to do that, but so far all of my customers have really appreciated it.” Buchta realised early on that communication would have a huge role to play in his business. So from the start he decided he would need design software that didn’t just allow him to design quickly, but also meant he could create high-resolution images to show to his customers. He chose Palette CAD because he was (and still is) impressed and inspired by the high-end photo-realistic visualizations.
“A picture says a thousand words” – a principle for customer communication that sounds simple, but how does Buchta make it a reality?
He uses the example of the project that marked a year of his business – fitting out the reception area of a medical practice – to explain how he and his colleagues now handle standard customer orders. “When I first speak to a customer on the phone, I try to find out all the information I need to produce the initial digital drawings so that I can bring them to our first in-person meeting.” In this case, the customer wasn’t expecting that and the draft design immediately impressed them. The visualization then encouraged them to suggest alternative ideas for the design, guided by the master carpenter. This didn’t completely avoid the notorious agony of choice, though it helped focus the process and sped it up considerably.
“My customer found it particularly hard to choose the surface decor for the counters and cabinets. That’s when it’s a real blessing that I can show them various options on the screen in a matter of moments. But choosing the decor was still a lengthy process, because it was a long time before they decided on the floor and wall coverings for the new practice.”
After taking all the measurements for the reception area, Buchta visited the practice again to present a range of options as watercolour visualizations. There were two further meetings to consult on the decor and to make adjustments to the division of the individual cabinets. The customer had already decided that they wanted HPL panels for the decor, so he was able to bring suitable sample cards.
“Palette CAD gives you lots of flexibility throughout the design process, and a few clicks is all it takes to make whichever changes you like.”
Despite the time-consuming process of choosing the decor, in the end the manufacturing deadline was met. In these cases, regular communication with the customer is even more important, as is sending new options so that Buchta can respond to customer requests at any time. Once the manufacturing process begins, waste optimization and label printing become the key issues in order for everything to run smoothly and to save materials. Now that everything has been produced, Buchta is extremely proud of the reception area he designed at the medical practice – and of the level of trust he has built up with his customer.
“Palette CAD lets customers see the work I’m doing, and by visualizing my designs early on I can be sure they’ll be happy with the final result.”