So, when is the best time to order my shade sail blinds and why does it make a difference?
First off, thank you for taking the time to read this blog. To us at Shade Sail Blinds, its important that our customers and potential customers are provided with as much information as possible about Shade Sail Blinds, what they are, what benefits they provide, why we are different and of course when’s the best time to order!
We at Shade Sail Blinds have been at the forefront of Modern Shading since we launch our first roof glazing and conservatory shade sail blinds almost 8-years ago; installing interior shade sails for the UK’s National Archives and solving overheating issues for Pizza Express in their London based restaurant conservatory extensions. Since then we have continued to develop our fabrics knowledge, design capabilities and production expertise. We even patented our unique No-Drill fixings and have strived to improve our products quality and offerings ever since. “Look out for our New and Improved No-Drill Fixings being launch this February!”
And with last year being our best and busiest year ever, we learnt a lot about our customers ordering patterns and how to help maintain delivery expectations. With this in mind, we thought it best to pass on some tips and practical guidance, to help ensure orders are supplied in a timely fashion, and what circumstance to avoid, to improve delivery of your shade sail blinds.
Important & Useful Information
Since our inception, we at Shade Sail Blinds have always taken an ecological and green approach to our products and services. Minimizing our carbon footprint where possible and reducing plastic pollutants are key attributes which our company vigorously embraces!
Therefore, all our interior stretch shade sail blinds fabrics are manufactured from Recycled Plastic Bottles and clients are also given options on Recycled PVC for their exterior canopies and shade sails were possible. We have even removed plastics from our shipping, replacing them with cardboard boxes and recycled packing paper. Being recycled doesn’t lessen our quality, but it does increase our costs over and above non-recycled materials. However, we feel it is important that we all try our best to improve the world around us. We do this and still manage to keep our costs in line with competitor products and solutions.
Being recycled does though mean our fabric ordering can sometimes take longer than anticipated, as our fabrics often have to be manufactured specifically for our customer orders.
So, When’s the Best Time to Order?
As with all of us, we tend to only want something when we recognise, we have an issue to solve. And the same goes for Shade sails, Sail Canopies and Shade sail Blinds. The summer months are when we want to use our conservatories the most, when we notice that the sun comes in at a certain angle through a glazed roofing or roof light, and when we start to get burnt in the garden or playground. Its at these times, when we get inundated with calls and enquires. The problem is everyone wants their products immediately and doesn’t understand that they need to be manufactured to specific measurements and designs which are unique to each customer. So, to be honest the summer months aren’t really the best time for last minute purchases.
Whilst we ramp up our design and fabrication capabilities during the months May – August, we still find it a struggle sometimes to keep up with our delivery schedules of 3-4 weeks during this time. On top of this, the summer months are when most of us take holidays, meaning our suppliers can often be slower to react than normal. Whilst we always endeavour to deliver as quickly as possible during the summer months, the best time to actually place orders is at least a month or two before summer starts. And believe it or not, actually in August itself, as this is the time most of us go on holiday and order placements are reduced. The next best months are January / February and November / December when the average order placements are lower.
To further help speed up delivery we also need the customer to assist where possible.
Order Process – How Customers can help?
Our order process follows 4 distinct steps:
Step 1 – Customer enquiry followed by quote estimate.
Step 2 – Measuring information followed by initial design concept.
Step 3 – Design and colour confirmation followed by order placement
Step 4 – Fabrication followed by customer delivery.
The above 4 steps typically takes 3-4weeks and this is the timeline we strive to achieve. However, the client also plays a vital role in helping us meeting these delivery targets.
Measuring
With most clients carrying out their own measuring and quotations being issued based upon initial basic measurements, it becomes extremely helpful if the customer is able to take initial measurements before requesting a quotation. Here is a link to our Measuring Guide, which shows what to measure and how. This will help us provide you with a quick and highly accurate quote estimate.
Design and Colour Options
When discussing your requirements with our customer service team we try to get an understanding of what type of design your like, what colours you find of interest and how much coverage you ideally like. This helps us better formulate a cost estimate and often helps speed up the design process. The flowing links to our online gallery and colour chart should help with this.
Should you wish to have fabric colour samples sent to you, to help you decide which colours would best suite your interior, we find it often helps speed up the ordering process if the client reviews the colours online first and requests samples as early as possible. Remember…..we don’t charge any extra for colour!
Confirming design and placing order
Our aim is to provide customers with a bespoke design, specifically designed to meet their exacting standards and overall shading requirement. This typically takes us on average 3 working days. However, we don’t always get it perfect first time, which is why we keep designing until your design meets your own personal tastes and requirements. Each design is emailed back to you in a 3D model format. The more precise you can be with your requirements the speedier we are able to be with design updates. When you are completely happy with your design and ready to proceed to order stage, we make a request that 50% of your order is paid at this time. We then book your shade sails in with our fabrication, and place orders for your fabrics, which can sometimes need to be manufactured specifically for you and your order.
Understanding our processes and circumstances which may affect delivery times, we believe ensures our customers are better informed and should hopefully help speed up deliveries where possible.
We hope you found this blog of interest and we look forward to providing you with your own professional bespoke shade sails and shade sail blinds.
For more information, please feel free to call us on +44(0)1249 848649.
