Showroom Showcase: Murrieta, California

Christina Wilkins, our Assistant Showroom Manager in Murrieta, California shared how the designs are trending in their area and how the staff at Arizona Tile Murrieta meets customers’ expectations every time.

Tell us a little bit about your Arizona Tile branch and what sets you apart from other tile stores in your area.   

The Arizona Tile in Murrieta is one of the few all-inclusive tile stores.  Not only is the showroom the most impressive display of tile designs and merchandise, the staff is the most knowledgeable and helpful personnel around.  The current products cater to clients looking for high-end materials as well as customers interested in simply removing an existing product to replace with an inexpensive material.  Our staff will not only listen to what the customer is trying to achieve, but will offer suggestions and put together products to help the customer visualize the concept.  Now, with the help of the “Just Imagine” program we can further help the customer visualize the idea.

Inside the Slab Warehouse at Arizona Tile, Murrieta, California

What type of product trends have you noticed lately within your area?

The Temecula / Murrieta market has been largely a Tuscan / Mediterranean style area. However, we are seeing an increase in more streamlined looks, such as Modern or Contemporary designs.  Granite kitchens are still desirable; however there has been a move from granite backsplashes to backsplashes with a design out of tumbled stone or glass. The wood-looking tiles are extremely popular due to their realistic glazes and because they have the low maintenance of a porcelain tile.  The Murrieta region is known for its hard water and calcium build up, which occurs inside and outside of the home.  Our realistic stone-looking porcelain have been a phenomenal option for customers looking for the natural stone look who like as little maintenance as possible.  Also, our increase in Travertine products at the porcelain prices has opened the door for customers who have not encountered stone in their homes.

What kind of special orders does your store see? 

The Murrieta store has helped to design special orders for custom fireplaces carved out of stone.  We have a multitude of customers interested in viewing our slab yard.  However, a majority of our customers are inspired and awed by our showroom.  We see a large part of our sales in porcelain tiles, followed by granite slabs and travertine tiles.

Has anyone in your store received an excellent customer service recommendation from any customers? 

We’ve received many compliments on the excellent service of the Murrieta staff.  Most recently our showroom consultant, Heather Brown received a glowing email from a customer originally working out of one of our other locations:

“8.04.12: When we went to Anaheim, they didn’t have any White Springs that we liked, so they referred us to Murrieta. Murrieta is a fabulous facility. Terrific slab and tile showrooms with a very helpful staff. At Murrieta, we met Heather Brown and Eric Cantu. Heather was very helpful showing us their granite slabs. They, too, had both Lava and White Springs. Again, we didn’t like the White Springs, but really liked the Lava. Eric pulled four slabs for us to look at and we put two of them on a 7-day hold. Heather helped us find a couple of backsplash tile configurations and some floor tiles choices that we really liked. And, she sent us home with lots of samples. That was a very good day for us.”

In June, we also received a letter from the Wilensky’s at Oceana Rentals praising our Assistant Showroom Manager, Christina Wilkins.

“…not only was she very knowledgeable, Christina also spent quality time with us helping with the design, stone choice and different colors. Could not have done this without her support.”

We are very proud of our team at Arizona Tile Murrieta, and we hope to help many, many more customers make their projects a success!