Who are we?
Thank you for taking the time to learn more about The Learning Center at BTOD.com. Our blog was created to provide an honest and transparent resource for those looking to learn more about office furniture. Most of our content is created by myself (Greg Knighton) and my business partner, Ryan Bald. I am the President of BTOD.com and Ryan is our Vice President. The Learning Center also features content from others within our organization and a few guest contributors.
A Quick Update on BTOD.com
Our Original Why We’re Different Video
Brands That We Sell
Why BTOD.com and The Learning Center is Different
Approaching our 11th year in business, we decided to make a brand change from Beyond The Office Door to BTOD.com. In late 2016, our company was struggling, losing a lot of the brand equity we had built up over the first 10 years in business in search engines like Google.
We realized we needed a way to stand out from the crowd. With all of our experience, we knew that we weren’t like everyone else. How could we stand out from the crowd? What could we do differently than our competitors?
Instead of waiting for customers to call to learn that we were experts, we needed to show them through our blog. To do this, we had to take a completely different approach than anyone else in our industry. We needed to create a real resource where users could learn about all the products in the office furniture category.
To do this, we needed to be honest about all products, including our own. Our focus had to be on educating consumers first. Showing them the good and bad of all products; even if this meant we’d be recommending a competitor’s products.
I can tell you with great confidence there is no one else like us in our industry. You can search all ends and will not find another company that is willing to point out flaws in their own products. Truth is, I’ve never seen another company recommend a competitor until we started doing it.
While some of our competitors wonder what we are doing, it’s not really a secret. Building your trust is paramount to what we do everyday. Keeping it is even more important. If we knowingly recommended a product that wouldn’t work for your needs, you would be upset and we’d lose the trust we’ve worked to build. At the end of the day, we would prefer you’re happy with the new product you’ve purchased and we’ve maintained our relationship.
Our Process with Reviews, Comparisons and Best of Lists.
One of the first things that we decided was that we needed to pick a category and run with it. I chose the electric standing desks and Ryan went with standing desk converters. By doing this, we would each have a better understanding of all products in our category when comparing them.
We bring in every product we review. We have never written a product review based on information we find online. I can tell you there have been plenty of instances we thought a product might be great and once it arrived we had a much difference experience. Since we have started this review process, we have brought in over $40,000 worth of competitors furniture. While this is a big investment, we feel it is necessary to accurately review a product.
With seven people in our 2,400 square foot office, our space has slowly shrunk and become a sea of competitor’s office furniture. To free up space, we brought in a twenty foot high cube shipping container. This sits behind our building, housing a majority of the products we have already reviewed.
Any time we want to compare a new product, we take a walk to the shipping container. We’ve done our best at keeping everything organized. When you see all of the products in the container, you get a pretty good idea that we are serious about what we do.
Working Together To Learn More About Each Category
While we stick to our own categories, we are always checking out the different products that each of us bring in for review.
Whenever Ryan has a new converter on his desk, I’ll pop into his office and see how the review process is going. Sometimes it’s good to get a fresh pair of eyes on a product. Because we are a different height, I’ll run the desk up to stand height to see how it fits me. I like to get an idea of how the competing brands stack up to ours.
The same thing applies for the electric standing desks. Ryan will usually stop in the studio while I’m building a new standing desk. Once it’s together he will help me with the speed and load testing. One of our favorite parts of the electric standing desk reviews is tearing them apart. Finding out what makes them tick and how many secrets are hidden behind the steel columns.
Questions or concerns?
If you have any questions about products we have or have not tested please feel free to send them. We are happy to help guide you through the process. We can be reached at info@btod.com.
