By Lorianna Kastrop, Vice President, The Kastrop Group, Inc. Architects
We are excited to announce that The Kastrop Group has been selected by the Better Business Bureau of the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern Coastal California as their first-ever recipient of the Torch Award for Ethics in the small business category (1-10 employees)! This is a wonderful validation of our continuing commitment to honesty, integrity and fairness in our work and in our pricing. We are also dedicated to community service and improving the business standards of the architectural profession. We know that our clients, employees, professional consultants and engineers, general contractors, planning and building departments, and vendors are our partners in making The Kastrop Group successful, and we thank them for helping us to achieve this recognition.
We would love to hear from past clients or people we have worked with as part of our celebration. If you are so inclined, please post a note on our company Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/KastropGroup/ or Twitter feed @KastropGroup.
The award announcement page is http://www.bbb.org/greater-san-francisco/torch-awards-for-ethics/. It states “The Torch Awards for Ethics honors companies whose leaders demonstrate a high level of personal character and ensure that the organization’s practices meet the highest standards of ethics, and consequently generate trust. These companies generate a high level of trust among their employees, customers’ and their communities. The award embodies the Better Business Bureau mission of advancing marketplace trust.”
We have maintained membership in the Better Business Bureau since we were eligible to join and we have maintained the A+ rating ever since. We agree with their mission of promoting “trust” in business by recognizing those businesses that are trustworthy and encouraging the public to patronize them. Architecture is a profession that relies on trust. When our clients come to us they must trust that we are competent, reliable, creative and skillful in our work on their project. They might pay a lot of money before they ever have a document or building permit in their hands. It’s not a one-time transaction, like the purchase of a product. And it doesn’t end when we give them their construction documents. We must be available to answer questions, interact with contractors, engineers, permitting agencies, and others to make sure that the project moves forward successfully. You are not just buying a service, but you are investing in a relationship, one that will have a big impact on your home or business.
We want to give special thanks to our employees. They have been responsible for maintaining our “brand” and our reputation in the community. We rely upon their honesty, integrity, and capabilities every day. We are very lucky to have a staff that believes in the same goals that the founders believe in.
Having won at the local level, The Kastrop Group will be submitted by the BBB to the international level of competition for the Torch Award. We are pleased to represent the Bay Area and we are grateful to the Golden Gate Better Business Bureau for giving us this wonderful recognition!