Never stop improving. Upgrade your business strategy while your competition is watching Netflix.

5 things for Kitchen & Bath professionals to do during the shutdown

“May you live interesting times” is an old English saying that resonates with most people. As I write this, however, we’re in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic and most people are longing for less interesting times and some return to normalcy. Business across the united states are closed, the economy seems to be tumbling, and many states have issued a shelter-at-home order leaving millions of Americans confined to their homes. Netflix has had to decrease their streaming video quality (How are we going to survive?!) due to so many people tuning in. It would be easy to get on the Tiger King bandwagon and finally find out what all these memes are about, but as a busy entrepreneur I rarely get a break from the daily fire drills and a chance to take a step back and take a look at how my business is performing. Rather than stress about when and how well the economy will bounce back, why not work on the things that you can control and take this time to make sure your business is ready to thrive when this pandemic is over?

Here’s a few things you can work on now that will have a huge return on investment when people start shopping for kitchens again.

Re-Imagine your client experience

This is an exercise I would recommend doing regularly. Those of you that know me, know how much I focus on client experience. I believe this is the single biggest way businesses in today’s environment can differentiate themselves from their competitors and create raving fans out of their customers. So here’s the exercise….

Imagine to yourself every interaction a client has with your business. Think through how you want that experience to be for your client and write it down to be shared with your team.

For example, when someone dials your phone number, who answers? What do they say? Is the potential client able to get the answers they wanted on the initial call? Is the person answering the phone trained to represent you and your brand? What customer pain points are you handling on this initial call and what pain points are not getting taken care of? And if it goes to voicemail, is that a great experience? What is the voicemail message, how quickly is that call returned? How can you improve each of these items? It’s very Important to write this down. Here’s an example… “When a client calls ABC kitchens, we always answer by the third ring and say “Thank you for calling ABC kitchens, my name is John, how can I help you today?” John answers any frequently asked questions, and is trained and empowered to schedule a design consultation with a designer. We want every prospect to be able to schedule an appointment with a professional designer who can answer their questions more in depth. Before ending the call John will ask the client for their contact info and send them our introduction email, including our “Where to start when remodeling a kitchen” and “How much should I spend on a kitchen remodel” resources. During business hours the phone is always answered by the third ring. Any voicemails left after business hours should be returned by 10am the next morning. You get the point. Once this is written out, you can share it with your team so they know the expectations and can also contribute to making the experience even better. I’ve found in my businesses, sometimes I’ve have these expectations in my head and thought our team understood and followed them, but it wasn’t until we wrote it out and shared it with everyone that this experience became a reality for our clients.

The phone call we walked through above is just the first of possibly hundreds of experiences your potential client has with your team. Think through each and see where you can improve the experience for Initial design consultation, product selection, follow up after each appointment, Job starts, scheduling trades, communication throughout the construction process, etc., Write these each down and this becomes a living document that describes the “ABC Kitchens experience”. Use this as a guide for yourself and your team and keep your standards high. No touch point is too small to examine and re-imagine.

Turn your showroom into a sales tool

One of the experiences you should imagine in the exercise above is a potential client walking in the front door of your showroom. What do they see? What’s their first impression? If they see 7 brands of flooring and 20 samples of each brand, I would guess their first impressions is “oh, this is similar to a box store. I can walk in and browse through samples and when I’m ready I’ll ask someone for pricing, then I’ll leave and compare pricing to the other guy”. If they see stunning designs, in a beautifully lit showroom and are greeted at the front door, they immediately get a different impression.

Take this time to sort through all your samples & POS materials. First get rid of all the discontinued products or lines that you don’t carry (or don’t want to carry) anymore. Then, put all your most popular or favorite materials in the front of the drawer, shelf, box or wherever you keep samples. Coming back to the experience for your client, you want to very quickly be able to pull out the sample you need “this is the perfect tile to match your countertop”, rather than fumbling through drawers for 5 minutes trying to find what you’re looking for.

When it comes to branding in the showroom, I have a very simple rule. If a Vendor doesn’t drive traffic to your showroom or enhance your image through co-branding, I would not show any brands images and logos other than your own on the showroom floor. For example, I have a client that is a Sub Zero / Wolf dealer. Sub/Wolf promotes this client’s showroom through various channels which helps drive traffic. Sub Wolf also has brand equity that benefits this particular client. By associating their brand with Sub Wolf they benefit from the perception that Sub/Wolf is a high quality, luxury brand. People will perceive my client to be similar if they recognize the Sub/Wolf brand (Which most consumers do). To contrast that, Frigidaire wouldn’t provide the same brand value to this showroom. Frigidaire might be fine appliances (and this client can still sell Frigidaire when it’s the right fit for a customer of theirs) but it doesn’t bring any extra value to the showroom to put the Frigidaire brand name & logo all over the showroom. So, look around your showroom and ask yourself, are all these flooring, countertop, tile, appliance brands helping my business by driving traffic to our showroom or elevating our own brand? If not, you don’t have to stop selling these products, but I would suggest removing the samples, logos & branding from your showroom. Put them in a back room or closet for when you need them. I always would prefer to have a designer say “I have the perfect countertop color for you”, than to have a client walk around the showroom, browsing for themselves. You’re a designer after all and that’s where you can add value for the client. I would rather have the client focused on how you’re going to bring their dream kitchen to life than “How much does this brand cost vs. this brand”. If you listen to what they want, you’ll be able to answer those questions before the ask them, and you’ll be seen as the expert.

Get some new skills

Ever thought to yourself, I wish I could do 3D CAD drawings, or if I could use google sketch-up my presentations could be amazing? Well, no matter what skill you want to learn, there is probably an online course where you can learn it. Just jump in and try it. You’ll be surprised what you can learn. Many software companies provide some form of online training or webinars (some are free, many are not). Or you can try Udemy.com which has a huge database of online courses.

Revamp your online marketing

The current Shelter-At-Home order in Illinois is forcing many of us to ask ourselves “if clients stop walking in the front door, how do we get new business?” Consumers’ buying habits are moving more and more online every year. Is your business ready to meet them there? Does your website provide the resources that your potential clients are looking for. Does it adequately push them through a funnel that leads them to actually contacting you. One of the big challenges in our industry is taking that online traffic and converting it to offline traffic. Does your website and online marketing give potential clients an easy way to connect with you? (Hint if it’s more than three clicks, the answer is “No”) We’ve been experimenting with things like a Kitchen Visualizer tools that let the client get the creative juices flowing, but also leads them down our funnel to connect directly with a designer. Regardless of what step in the buying process they are on, we want to be their source for all things Kitchen Design.

Rest & Recharge

For some of us workaholics, Rest is a four letter word that is not part of our vocabulary. I may be one of the worst offenders, but I’m learning to take my own advice. There’s no time like right now to refresh a little bit. That doesn’t mean you have to neglect all your responsibilities and binge-watch the new season of Ozark for 2 days straight days (although, I won’t judge you if you do). I just mean to take an hour a day to take care of yourself. For me, it means getting back on my workout routine that I’ve been slacking on the last few months. For others it might mean meditation, or reading a book, or playing games with your kids (no cell phone allowed), or all of the above. Take the time now to give yourself what you need. It’s important.

I firmly believe that the economy is going to come roaring back when this pandemic is finally over, but some things will not be the same. As an entrepreneur you must adapt to survive. Take advantage of the downtime to prepare yourself and your business to thrive in the new economy in which we live.