Commitment to the customer has been the constant
We are customer obsessive. We are self disciplined. We are nice. We keep our branches clean. We are safe. For the past 40 years, these five statements have shaped the Redi Carpet DNA. They have become the cornerstones of the Redi Carpet culture. A distinctive culture shared by everyone in our organization from top to bottom—a culture that has endured four decades of economic, technological and environmental changes.
When my father, Bruce Caress, and his partners started Redi Carpet in a small building in Houston in 1981, he had a vision. Although small in size, he believed there was a viable opportunity in the local multi-family flooring market for next-day carpet installation. While that doesn’t seem like a novel concept in 2021, it was almost unheard of 40 years ago.
Since then, we have grown to become one of the largest multi-family flooring providers in the country, serving our customers coast-to-coast via 33 branches. We recently moved into our new, state-of-the-art corporate headquarters, which is 10 times the size of the original building we started in. We also offer a wide variety of flooring types and options, many of which didn’t exist back in 1981.
I started at Redi Carpet as a warehouse worker in 1988, eventually working my way into the supply room, customer service and sales. I then progressed into management, serving as a general manager, regional vice president, executive vice president and co-president before stepping into my current role as CEO in 2018. As I moved through the different positions within the company, there have been two constants: next-day installation and customer service. From day one, our company has strived to improve the customer experience through next-day installation all the while maintaining our focus on customer service. We aim to exceed each of our customer’s expectations on a daily basis. Of course, this is a never-ending challenge, which cannot be attained without having a world-class team that lives and breathes our mantra of being customer obsessive. While each member of our team has talents and skills that are uniquely their own, they must all share our company’s unrelenting commitment to our customers.
As we celebrate our 40th anniversary, I’d like to say thank you to our previous executive team for building the foundation for our success, and to our valued supply partners for their unwavering support. Thank you to the thousands of installation contractors who have shown up every day over the last 40 years—rain, snow or shine—to get the jobs installed. And finally, thank you to all of our past and present teammates for going the extra mile to take care of our valued customers.
We are not the same company we were 40 years ago, and I suspect we will not be the same company five or 10 years from now. We continue to grow into new markets, offer new products and lead the way as one of the nation’s largest multi-family flooring providers, all while staying true to our core values and focusing on our vision: to be recognized as the best multi-family flooring contractor in the country by our customers, our teammates and our vendors.
Here’s to the next 10 years and our Golden Anniversary!
Sincerely,
Brian Caress, CEO, Redi Carpet
For more on Redi Carpet and its 40 years of ongoing growth and success, as well as what’s next for the multi-family giant, see our Redi Carpet 40th Annivesary supplement.Â
