Colorado Real Estate Journal -
You have probably seen the TV commercials that feature the white-haired, professorial-looking James Dyson touting the features of the jet-age-looking vacuum cleaners he invented two decades ago. “Solve the obvious problems, whatever it takes,” Dyson says in one ad. Recently, Dyson solved one obvious problem in the old-fashioned way, with its first brick-and-mortar showroom and service center in the Denver area. The center also is the first of its kind in the Western U.S. The new center, at 9623 E. County Line Road, Unit D, in Centennial, has more than 1,400 square feet of space and is open from 10 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Dyson owners can bring in their machines for maintenance and quick fixes, often receiving same-day service. For bigger jobs, loaner machines are available while repairs are completed. Each full-sized Dyson vacuum cleaner comes with a five-year warranty. The center also showcases Dyson’s latest technology. In addition to vacuums, the company manufactures bladeless fans, hand dryers and heaters. The showroom includes a testing area that allows visitors to interact with Dyson vacuums on a variety of floor types to find the one to suit their needs. “Manufacturers can’t wash their hands of a product once it leaves a store,” said Ryan Stanard, vice president of customer experience for Dyson, which has its U.S. headquarters in Chicago, but was founded in the United Kingdom, where Dyson was born. “There’s nothing more frustrating than being stuck without a machine or on the end of a phone line,” Stanard said. “We’d like to change that. Our Denver service center brings us closer to our owners.” Dyson chose the Centennial site because it is “centrally located to our Denver area Dyson owners,” said Valerie Silvis, a spokeswoman for Dyson who is based in Chicago. “It’s a shopping hub and (provides) easy access throughout the Denver area,” she said. Dyson already has centers in the Chicago and Philadelphia areas and plans to open others in Dallas and Los Angeles next year. Although the Centennial store isn’t huge, there are about 100,000 Dyson owners in the Denver area, Silvis said. Nationwide, consumers own about 12 million Dyson vacuum cleaners. The new Centennial center could draw a lot of people. “Our recently opened Philadelphia location receives around 900 people each month and this is still very early on,” Silvis said. “We expect similar or better foot traffic in the new Denver location.” Dyson, who founded his namesake company in 1992, in a statement, noted that in the early days he sometimes manned phone lines when buyers had questions about his vacuums. “Although people didn’t believe it was me, the experience taught me why customer service is so important,” Dyson said. “It’s the same today. We build our machines to last. If there is a glitch, our people are trained to deal with it properly.”