By Len Gould, CEO, QEP/Roberts
Innovate or die. At QEP and Roberts we live this motto every day. We believe professional installers deserve better tools and products. However, in the years leading up to the Covid shutdown, everything became about price. Much of the flooring industry (and frankly many industries) focused on taking the material cost out of products to hit ever-lowering price points. This proliferation of cheap products and subsequent race to the bottom was not good for anyone.
We saw this trend for cheaper and cheaper products as unsustainable—at least for us. We did not want our goals to be driven solely by how inexpensive we could make a tool. In the flooring tools and adhesives segments, professionals were ending up with unsatisfying products that didn’t last long. They were unhappy with the performance or comfort, or both. And it wasn’t just installers complaining; distributors and retailers were just as unhappy with the status quo.
Our mandate to be the product authority meant we needed to change. Products still needed to be innovative, but so did the entire experience. Shipping needed to be 100% complete and on-time, as often as possible. Customer service representatives needed to know how to speak to end-users in technical terms, and in their preferred language. Field professionals needed to be available coast to coast, backed by award-winning technical services personnel. And we needed to connect directly to the pro, getting our products in the hands of today’s established installation flooring professionals as well as the emerging next generation of talent.
Finally, we needed to overhaul the product assortment itself. How could we update our line with meaningful changes? It is not an easy task, when many of the items we sell today are close to the tools used to build ancient Rome. How can those items be innovated?
Many of our new tools and latest patents are the result of listening to the people who use our products the most: professional flooring installers. Take the simple Margin Trowel. This same basic tool has been used by flooring installers for years. In the past, tool suppliers addressed handle comfort and/or blade quality and called that innovation. However, we do not consider that innovative; it is simply a product update. To truly innovate, you need to measurably improve the end-user’s experience.
When we listened, what we learned was stunning—virtually nobody brought up the handle or the blade. However, we must have heard a thousand stories of margin trowels sinking into thin set! That’s why our innovation team invented our bucket hook design that allows a margin trowel to rest on the lip of the bucket. A simple change that makes the installers’ job that much easier.
Roberts adhesives has also benefited from this forward thinking. Today’s marketplace is loaded with fantastic adhesive manufacturers. Assuming specifications and performance are relative to one another, we asked how we could differentiate ourselves from the competition. Our goal: to offer products with better shelf life, better warranties and better protection for both the installer and end-user.
So we partnered with Microban to become the sole North American flooring adhesive manufacturer utilizing Microban antimicrobial technology. This technology offers all sorts of unique advantages. Not only is the finished installation safer long term for the homeowner, but the actual shelf life of the product has doubled from one year to two!
We listen
Passionate people are the key to QEP and Roberts. Whether that’s on the frontlines of sales and customer service, or behind the scenes ensuring we ship complete and on-time—we want to be the best at what we do. It is not easy, and we admittedly make our fair share of mistakes. But we lean into this desire to improve. None of this just “happens.” Like flooring installation itself, improvement is hard work and needs to be proven daily.
P.S.—Have the next great idea for flooring installation accessories? Email me directly at lengould@qep.com. Let’s talk.
Len is the CEO of QEP and a long-time advocate for certified flooring installation training.
