“Quality is never an accident; it’s always the result of intelligent effort.”
A kitchen and bath firm’s reputation is the cornerstone of its success. In 2022, it’s necessary to manage your online presence as meticulously as your showroom so you can be in control of your firm’s reputation. If your company’s reputation slips, it will make it that much harder to generate leads, and that is why it’s imperative to have an unassailable reputation.
Stand for integrity as you grow
While social posting is vital to marketing your firm, user comments can drastically affect a company’s reputation in the blink of an eye. Appearances are the barometer of judgment. Prospects view you from the outside of a company in a matter of seconds—social media marketing is a powerful tool.
The essential quality is professional credibility.
Consumers educate themselves before they shop. Therefore, your prospects come with a bias for certain products and expectations.
Consumers want to know what a CEO stands for. They’ll also want to see how a company will respond if something goes wrong. That’s why I think doing what you say you’ll do is the best reputation to cultivate. Integrity not only resonates well with consumers—people believe in those companies who show proof of integrity.
Build a reputation for value—not high prices
People talk about their experiences. While it’s effortless for clients, employees, and subcontractors to vent their grievances over social media, it’s much easier for firm owners to remain vigilant and engage their clientele to right wrongs.
We all know that consumers educate themselves online before they shop. The majority of your prospects will read about you before deciding whether or not they’ll do business with your firm. Star ratings are more important than the number of ratings to users.
View negative comments as a way to improve your business. Engage users who leave negative reviews with positive, solution-focused responses. You’ll build confidence in prospects when they see that your firm reached out to former clients who spoke critically about you in a review.
Showcase and demonstrate expertise
The nature of the kitchen and bath industry fosters long-term relationships with its clients. Turn leads into clients by coordinating events that have a broad appeal.
- Invite a renowned chef to cook in your showroom for an evening open to the public
- Sponsor cocktail parties hosted by the outgoing owners of newly minted kitchens—this is a superb way to build your reputation locally!
- Hold seminars on a variety of industry-related topics, for instance: How to Save Thousands on a Kitchen Remodeling
- Have a raffle for product giveaways
Owners who share their purpose with the public have more loyal clients than their competition. By educating your prospects and clients, you’re not just adding value to their investment and quality of life—you’re improving the value of your brand.
Clients will be willing to pay more for the services they get—because your high standards appeal to their high standards!
Embrace technology for business growth
Great showrooms cultivate an aura of cutting-edge ideas. Your team is the product expert in the consumer’s eyes, and your showrooms are educational centers.
We have a long set of standards for showing off our businesses locally and marketing ourselves online these days.
The basics:
- Have a fabulous website with high definition photo gallery
- A well-written blog filled with educative content
- Weekly posts to your photo gallery and blog, semi-annual revisions to keep the content fresh
- A strong, steady social media presence on your preferred channels
You must continue to update your media with high-quality content to drive traffic and engagement.
Industry expert Sarah Reep, CMKB, believes using technology to digitalize your showroom is the next big trend to disrupt the kitchen/bath industry and is a must for dealers to remain viable. Capitalize on your expertise to generate economies of scale from your Good-Better-Best sales process and make more revenue using DesignAlign.
If you’ve been reading our advisories or attended SEN-hosted events the past year, you know that we mention DesignAlign often. There’s a good reason for that— it’s the future kitchen and bath industry standard.
We believe DesignAlign will help grow your firm’s professional credibility. You will be perceived as technologically advanced with a far superior customer showroom experience.
Need another reason to get going with DesignAlign? I’ll give you two. A pro will train you and your team to use it as they do, and you can try it for free for a month.
Smart social marketing
In a sense, your social media campaign reaffirms your company’s mission statement.
Consistently posting content on social media shows viewers what your firm stands for.
Knowing why your company does what it does is crucial to how people view it. When prospects clearly understand your company and what you stand for, they’re more likely to identify with an aspect of its purpose and form a strong bond with your company, making it harder for your competition to win them over.
You can show your company’s purpose by posting photos of completed jobs, work in progress, and feedback from happy customers. By using multiple social media simultaneously, your firm will make an outstanding mark on your followers. Kitchen and bath firms best platforms are Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.
Maintain a blog that can educate your web traffic about kitchen and bath products, discuss troubleshooting tactics your firm has skillfully managed, how successful installations happen, and share brilliant ideas applicable to business.
Right now, we’re at the beginning of significant advancements in advertising online. In a few years, the metaverse will be upon us, bringing a new ballgame to online marketing. The investment bank Morgan Stanley predicts that the metaverse will host a $56 billion market by 2030!
Social media can be an immensely effective collaborative-educational process of discovery that creates genuine value for customers. To see stellar results from online marketing, post consistently, often, and convey value. Market your brand throughout the year during the business week—without pausing during recessions or vacations.
—SEN Leadership Team
