Shade sail blinds work best when you know exactly what kind of window you want them for.

Having a thorough understanding of our current and future customers is extremely important to us at Shade Sail Blinds. This includes understanding what we are and the benefits we provide as well as how we differ from the competition and when to place an order.

When Shade Sail Blinds installed conservatory sails for the UK National Archives over 8 years ago, we were already at the forefront of modern shading technology. We also helped Pizza Express with their conservatory extensions in London solve their overheating issues. Since then, we’ve been hard at work expanding our fabric understanding, design skills, and manufacturing capabilities. We’ve even patented our No-Drill solutions, and since then, we’ve worked tirelessly to keep our products and services at the top of their game.

Being so busy in 2017 taught us a lot about the ordering behaviours of our clients and how we might help them achieve delivery expectations in the years to come. This is why we decided to provide you some tips and advice on how to make sure orders are delivered on time and what conditions to avoid so that your shade sail blinds will be delivered better.

Important and practical information

Green business practises are ingrained in the way Shade Sail Blinds does business. The mission of our organisation is to use as little plastic as possible, and to reduce our carbon footprint to that extent.

We use Recycled Plastic Bottles for our interior stretch conservatory shade sails and Recycled PVC for our customers’ outdoor canopies and shade sails when it is feasible. Rather than using plastic bags for shipping, we now use cardboard boxes and recycled packaging paper. Because we are recycled, our quality does not decrease. However, because we are recycled, our costs increase. In order to make the world a better place, we must all do our part. At the same time, we’re able to compete on pricing with identical goods and services offered by our competitors.

For this reason, the turnaround time for fabric orders may be longer than usual. This is due to the fact that our textiles are created to order, and this can add time to the process.

Which Begins The Question: When Should You Order Sail Blinds?

The only time we want anything is when there is an issue that has to be addressed. When it comes to shadesails and canopies, they’re all the same. During the summer, when the sun is beaming at an angle via a glazed roof or roof light, we may want to spend more time in our conservatories rather than the garden or playground. During certain times, the volume of phone calls and questions is extremely high. Because everyone wants their products immediately, it’s a problem when customers don’t realise that they need to be manufactured specifically for them based on their dimensions and personal preferences. It’s not a good idea to buy things at the last minute during the summer.

Even if we raise our design and fabrication capacity from May to August, we still have trouble meeting our 3-4 week delivery deadlines. Summer is a popular time for vacation, therefore our suppliers may be less responsive than usual. Even though we’ll do our best to deliver as quickly as possible, the optimum time to place orders is at least a month or two before summer officially starts. Order placements are also lower in August, when most of us are on vacation, which is understandable. December and January are best for placing an order because the typical number of orders is smaller.

To help with delivery time, we also ask for the customer’s assistance wherever possible.

What role may customers have in the ordering process?

When you place an order with us, you’ll go through four distinct steps:

Step one is a customer inquiry followed by a quote estimate.

Step 2: The next step is to gather information and generate a preliminary design concept.

After you’ve decided on the design and colour scheme, it’s time to place your order.

Creating and delivering the final product to the customer is the last step.

Our goal is to finish the four steps listed above in three to four weeks. Our delivery targets, on the other hand, cannot be met without the help of our customers.

Measuring

Consumers benefit greatly from being able to take first measurements before requesting quotations, as the majority of customers perform their own measurements and costs are set based on these initial, basic measurements. Click on the link below to view our Measuring Guide for more details. These details will help us to provide you with an accurate quote quickly. 

Design and colour options are available.

When you talk to our customer service team about your requirements, they will do their best to understand what kind of design, colours, and coverage you are looking for. The design process proceeds forward faster because we have a better idea of costs this way. The links to our online gallery and colour chart should make this process go more smoothly.

We’ve found that looking at the colours online first and requesting samples as early as possible speeds up the buying process if you’d like fabric colour swatches mailed to you to help you decide which colours look best in your house. Please bear in mind that adding colour is completely free!

placing the order and checking the design

It’s our mission to provide each customer with a unique design that meets their exacting standards and addresses all of their shading demands. To complete this, it normally takes us three days of working time. Although we want to get it perfect the first time, this doesn’t always happen, which is why we work on your design until it meets your requirements. Each design will be sent to you as a 3D model through email. Our ability to make design adjustments will increase in direct proportion to the level of specificity you provide. When you are happy with your design and ready to go on to the ordering step, we ask for half of your order to be paid. After that, we’ll arrange for the manufacturing of your shade sails and place orders for your fabrics, some of which may need to be specially tailored to meet your particular order specifications.

Our clients will be better informed and assist speed up deliveries if possible if they understand our processes and conditions that may affect delivery timings.