Page 48 - Lighting Magazine October 2018

MEREDITH HERON (continued)
the look I want is achieved,” she notes. “If I am the person specifying it, I should be the one buying it. This gives my clients reassurance. Some of the manufacturers will even do custom pieces or let me work o a catalog piece and make modi cations to make it my own. If there are problems, I’m going to have to x them anyway.”
It’s a ma er of pride for Heron. “My name is on this project. If a xture is installed and doesn’t work out, that a ects my reputation and client relation- ships,” she a rms. “By having those one-on-one relationships with manufacturers, they will o en go all out to help me resolve any issues. One of my contacts literally looked through their entire warehouse for some lights I really wanted that no one could nd — but I was determined, and I got my lights!”
Not that gaining the trust of manufacturers was easy or fast. “I needed to prove that they should take me seriously,” she recounts. “One thing that helped was the following I’ve built on social media. Manufacturers took a look at my number of follow- ers and decided it’s worthwhile to work with me.”
priCe & serviCe
Margin is another reason Heron chooses to work direct with manufacturers. “Maintaining that margin is what allows me to be pro table,” she explains. “If I only charged design fees, I wouldn’t make any money. In Canada, all the clients know that we’ll get 20-percent o at lighting showrooms — but you’re assigned someone to work with, and we may or may not click. Plus, they work retail hours, and that doesn’t meet what I need. Some of our multi-million-dollar projects have been going on for several years,” she asserts. “I’ve got so many moving parts that I need to constantly know what is going on, and my manufacturers keep me up to date with weekly updates. I’ve also got someone in my o ce who tracks shipments and arrivals of all of our prod- ucts and con rms when everything is here for each particular job. That is so much more cost-e ective because then we can arrange to have all the lighting delivered to the site in one load. If I’m working with a retailer, it’s not been my experience that I get that call.”
Service is highly important in this business, and Heron has found the showroom experience lacking. “They aren’t o ering the same type of service that we o er to our clients,” she remarks. “A showroom
“Having my own accounts [with manu- facturers or importers] allows me way more control over how the look I want is achieved.”
salesperson just isn’t available when I need them and doesn’t have the answers...which means they have to contact the manufacturer. It o en takes too long to get information, and if I don’t have it at my ngertips for my clients, I sound incompetent.”
For Heron’s design team, “At end of the day, we’d rather have fewer clients that give us great projects so we can truly be excited about what we’re do- ing and make an impact.” Instead of searching for new clients, most of Heron’s marketing e orts are targeted toward those she’s worked with before. “Some clients have been with us for 3 to 12 years. They’re just wonderful people and have become like family.”
Known for her love
of color and pa ern, Heron designed this dining room with such diverse touches as a luxuriously pa erned ceiling, uniquely upholstered chairs, Chinoiserie acces- sories, plus statement lighting pieces.
44 enLIGHTenment Magazine | OctOber 2018
www.enlightenmentmag.com
the Designer-showroom BonD