UL Profile: Wayne Lyons. Soaks Bathrooms

by Ulster Life • June 1, 2017 • Featured, Homes Gardens & Interiors • Comments (0) • 2221

Soaks Bathrooms opened in 2004 and has grown from strength to strength. In 1999 I had bought my first house, the builder gave me a list of 4 bathroom showrooms where I had the options of choosing my bathrooms through the builders ‘PC Sum.’ I visited each and was extremely disappointed with the choice. The seed was planted…

What makes Soaks Bathrooms different?

Mainly Customer Service, due to having concentrated on great customer service a lot over the years, now over 7 out of 10 of our customers arrive at Soaks through recommendations from friends or family. The customer always comes first at Soaks and we have a great team to ensure this. The sales, delivery and office staff regularly receive thank-you cards, gifts, flowers etc from customers. We always love it when this happens as it shows the customer appreciation of the service they have received at Soaks. Our Facebook reviews say it all.

At Soaks Bathrooms, we believe the customer is always number one, we strive to make the customer experience the best in the industry. We have spent over £100,000 per year, each year for the past 4 years on our Belfast Showroom and will continue to do so. This brings our showroom to a level of choice, design and quality beyond any of our competitors and gives customers a choice of bathrooms not available anywhere else in Ireland.

How do you get your ideas for a new project / What inspires you?

I travel to bathroom and interior exhibitions all around the world, at least once a month. This gives me the vision of where the market is moving, current and future trends and designs and the inspiration of what direction to bring Soaks in the future. I also take ideas from hotels around the world as hotels put a lot of effort into their bathroom layouts and designs as they are usually replicating it many hundred times throughout the rooms. Bathroom trends are continuously changing, at Soaks we have always been ahead of the market and have no intentions of changing that.

What impact has technology had How in bathroom design?

At Soaks we have always embraced technology in the industry and have been the first in the industry in using different types of technology. At Soaks we have used advanced 3d bathroom design software for many years so when a customer brings their room sizes into us, we create a 3d model of their bathroom. Most recently we were the first in Ireland to introduce a 4d bathroom design service to the industry. With 4d we are able to design your bathroom, then you put on the latest Oculus Rift headset and you can look around your room. It is very realistic and every customer loves it.

Where will technology have a future impact in the Bathroom?

This is a very interesting subject, at present we have digital showers and bath controls available with the capability of filling your bath from your mobile phone. Toilets that have sensors to test your urine will be available in the future, I can’t say too much but I know some manufacturers are trailing this type of product. It will be a game changer. Imagine a toilet that will automatically test your urine each day and send the information to an app on your smart phone? This information can then be analysed to provide you and your doctor with accurate information on your health. Excellent for someone with diabetes that need to check their blood sugars regularly. There will be the possibility of knowing about an illness early and being able to prevent it from getting worse. You can be assured Soaks will be the first to have this technology available.

How have toilets progressed in the Bathroom

Washlet toilets are becoming the must have in a bathroom. Washlets are kind of like a toilet and bidet combined so when you approach it the lid will lift automatically and the seat is heated. When sat down there is automatic odour extraction to remove unpleasant odours. When you are finished, there is a wash dry function; there is a wand with a gentle warm spray and a dryer. All settings including water/dryer temperature, water intensity and water spray location are totally customisable to each user. Over 70% of toilets in Japan are Washlets and they are selling extremely well in Ireland, I believe within 10 years most of us will have at least one installed in our homes. Toto are the main manufactures of Washlets, having sold over 40million worldwide, we just have been a bit slow to catch on in the western world!