AI & Search Transformation · Onboarding
Roman Blinds Direct
Onboarding call run sheet + everything we already know
Tue 8 Sep 2026 · Bernie + Arlen Dalzell (dev: Matthew) · term starts today · 6 months
Where things stand, 30 seconds
- Signed: full 6-month AI & Search Transformation. $25,000 up front, $6,000 credited from the Nov 2025 sprint, and the $19,000 (+GST) invoice is PAID in full (settled 31 Aug). Open with a thank-you, not a chase.
- Already delivered: keyword + AI-prompt strategy (490 approved keywords), page-by-page on-page plan, 33-question master FAQ, content roadmap, 3 calibrated articles signed off in April and held for the new site.
- Onboarding form: completed in Nov 2025, no need to redo it.
- Product range: confirmed, Arlen (18 Aug): everything on staging carries to live, more products added after launch, nothing deleted.
- Slack: sorted, the shared #roman-blinds-direct-collab channel is live and Arlen's in it (4 Sep).
Arlen answered the big two in writing on 4 Sep, confirm, don't re-ask.
- Content: "Our product and collection pages already have real copy... they've never undergone any on-page or SEO optimization, so that's exactly where I want your work focused: sharpening what's already there."
- Access: the old live site is being retired. All work happens on staging, which becomes the new live site. We should already have staging admin, and he'd rather we didn't touch the old live site at all.
If you only get 10 minutes, the three must-asks
1. The audience. "Paint me a picture of your ideal customer, who are they, what stage of life, what do they ask before they buy?"
The one thing never captured in Nov 2025, and the biggest genuine unknown left. Fill it today.
2. Staging + cutover. "We'll do everything on staging as you asked. Can we confirm our staging admin still works, that we can pop a couple of plugins on the WooCommerce there to deploy our on-page work, and the go-live date + who owns the redirect map at cutover?"
Work on staging only, per Arlen's 4 Sep instruction. Don't ask for the old live site, he explicitly doesn't want anyone in it.
3. Content priorities. "You said the product and collection copy is in and converting, and you want it sharpened. Which pages matter most to you commercially, so we sequence those first?"
Sharpening existing copy is exactly what the on-page work does. Agree the first wave.
What we already know, don't re-ask, confirm
The numbers
| Average lifetime value | ~$4,000, many repeat customers across a 20-year history (their estimate, Nov 2025) |
| Online revenue | ~$12,500/month (Nov 2025), with peaks like $28,000 in Oct 2025 |
| The goal | $500K-750K/yr online (~$62.5K/mo at the top end), a 3-5x on today, plus "get my domain authority back up where it used to be" (Bernie) |
| The backstory | The previous site did $15-20K/week before an earlier agency's $30K rebuild tanked the rankings, SEO never migrated (Bernie's account, via the Dec 2025 dev-agency call). Recovery is the real benchmark. |
| Ad spend | ~$4,000/month average across Facebook, Mailchimp and Google Ads (4-year average, media only) |
| Tracking | Sales recorded in the shop platform only, no lead/enquiry tracking, reviews requested ad hoc by email |
Closest competitors (their top 5, Nov 2025)
- Bargain Blinds & Curtains, bargainblinds.co.nz
- Blinds by Tuiss, blindsbytuiss.co.nz
- Curtain Studio, curtainstudio.co.nz
- Rods & Blinds, rodsandblinds.co.nz (actively running Google Ads)
- Budget Blinds, budgetblinds.co.nz
Brand facts (verified across the strategy + FAQ work)
| Who they are | NZ-owned made-to-measure manufacturer, 40+ years, private sewing workroom at 47 King Street Hamilton (no showroom, free samples instead). NZ-wide + international delivery. |
| Products | Custom roman blinds, curtains (sheer/thermal/blackout), roller blinds (blockout/sunfilter/thermal), true + faux wood slat blinds, motorisation. Not sold: aluminium venetians, honeycomb/cellular, readymade curtains, eyelet/grommet curtains, wave tracks. |
| USPs | Supply your own fabric · affordable motorisation (from $220, 5-yr motor warranty) · low-cost nationwide delivery · up to 6 free samples · DIY & save (~30% vs retail) · measuring/install video guides · 2-year guarantee · 50+ five-star Google reviews |
| Delivery | Flat fee by island: $35 North / $50 South. "4 to 6 weeks depending on workload." International on request. |
| Voice | Friendly industry expert, "professional without being overly technical" (Arlen's words). Proof-backed: a stat, table or expert insight per section. Terminology: curtain tape, single/double pleat, inverted pleat. |
| Comms | Slack was their stated preference in Nov 2025 (then email, WhatsApp), offer them the shared channel. |
Strategy headlines (already agreed research)
- Biggest win: build a /blinds/ hub. "Blinds" (5,400/mo) and every "blinds nz/[city]" term has no page to land on, the nav currently points at /roman-blinds/.
- Defend roman blinds, already ranking #8-9 on "roman blinds" / "roman blinds nz". Careful, additive-only changes there.
- Curtains is the sleeper giant, the biggest search territory, thinly built and barely interlinked today.
- Motorisation is the margin story: re-slug /affordable-motorisation/ → /motorised-blinds/.
- Approved already: venetian → wooden-slat 301 merge (Matthew ready), roller sub-collection dedupe pending a canonical decision.
Set the expectations (your talking points)
- We start from a live site and build on it. Don't hold the launch for perfect pages, go live, we sharpen from real data.
- Phase one: technical + on-page foundations, priority blog refreshes and new articles (the 3 calibrated articles upload as soon as we have access).
- Product & collection pages: once the content strategy's confirmed, the on-page and metadata layer moves fast, usually within a couple of weeks, deployed straight into WooCommerce.
- Full product-description rewriting comes in phases as those workflows land in Notable. Blog refreshes take priority meanwhile.
- ~100-150 pieces over the six months, approval points before anything ships, AI-Ready at 80/100 is the goal.
Mine their voices, the real job of the hour
Story & positioning
- Bernie, take me back, 40 years of making blinds in Hamilton. How did it start, and what's the story you're proudest of?
- The old site was doing $15-20K a week at its peak. What was working then that we should bring back?
- What do you want to be THE name for? What should someone ask ChatGPT and get Roman Blinds Direct back?
- The top-5 competitor list from last year (Bargain Blinds, Tuiss, Curtain Studio, Rods & Blinds, Budget Blinds), still the right list? Who's hurting you most right now?
Customers (the gap, go deep here)
- Who's the ideal customer? Age, life stage, renovating or building, DIY confidence?
- Walk me through a typical order, what do they ask before buying? What almost stops them?
- Who are the repeat buyers that make up that $4,000 lifetime value, what brings them back?
- Kartika and the team hear customers every day, what words do customers themselves use?
- Trade/commercial or wholesale customers (the Wholesale Blinds arm), in scope for this work, or consumer only?
Products & seasonality
- Best sellers and margin heroes, is motorisation the growth bet? (Woodlook faux wood, supply-your-own-fabric, energy + climate blackout and grey blackout were flagged popular.)
- When's the buying peak? (Oct did $28K, is pre-Christmas the season?)
- Anything new coming to the range we should build content around?
Claims & house rules (confirm on the record)
- Confirmed claims we'll lean on: 2-year guarantee, 5-year motor warranty, up to 6 free samples, save ~30% factory-direct, $220 motorisation entry, healthy-homes/thermal angles. Anything to add or retire?
- Anything we must NEVER say? (We already know: no products you don't sell, no showroom wording, correct pleat terminology.)
Ways of working
- Who approves content and how fast? (After calibration, review-before-publish sits with you.)
- Slack's live and Arlen's in the shared channel, confirm it's the home for day-to-day from here.
- Who runs Google Ads now that Numero's gone? (They held the ads retainer.) We'll work alongside whoever does.
- Matthew's role, does he action our technical specs, or do we deploy directly once we have access?
Technical loose ends to confirm
- Venetian → wooden-slat 301s and canonicals, actioned by Matthew yet?
- Roller sub-collection duplicates (blockout / sunfilter / thermal on two URLs each), canonical decision was parked, settle it.
- Go-live date + the 301 map from the old site, who owns redirects at cutover?
- Site-wide consistency fixes: delivery wording ($35/$50, "4 to 6 weeks"), showroom references removed, and the About page still shows the OLD address (25 Vialou Street, should be 47 King Street).
- Search Console: get a domain-level property added (sc-domain), the URL-prefix one we hold is near-empty, and the engagement needs domain-level. Matthew or Arlen can add teamempathyaccess@gmail.com.
- GA4 carries over at launch (we hold access) · Google Merchant Center, exists? who owns it?
- Backlink history: Prabin / Pure SEO built earlier authority, worth auditing what survives.
Close the call
- Thank them, the $19,000 was paid in full on 31 August. Genuinely appreciated.
- Recap: staging access confirmed this week → strategy confirmed against the staging site → content plan approved → production starts.
- Book the next touchpoint before hanging up.