Standards are a sign of excellence to your prospects, and maintaining them is necessary for your kitchen and bath remodeling firm to thrive.
The most visible consumer trends in 2022 include omnichannel, customer-center marketing, digital service, deliverability, brand-direct purchasing, and storytelling. These concepts are linked by how they make the shopping experience more convenient for the consumer.
Consumers shop with brands they relate to. Everyone wants a smooth experience no matter how they interact with a business. Whether your prospect reads your website or visits your showroom, you’ll want them to experience the same seamless high standards of professionalism that your clients have come to expect.
Identifying your code of values
Far from being merely a framed statement prominently displayed when prospects walk into your showroom or an “our story” page on your website, a written code of values is the foundation of strong corporate culture and a positive work environment. It also boosts team morale and an overall sense of pride for the work done by your firm.
What you write into your code of values should be inherently important to you, something that anyone who works with you embraces and attracts prospects to do business with your firm. When writing your code of values, think about why you’re in business and what you want to achieve out of serving people, then link it with what you understand to be the needs of your prospective clients.
Decide where your firm stands amidst trends
If you have written a code of values and haven’t read it in a while, it’s a good idea to re-read it to see if it states exactly how you do business. If you still need to write a code of values, now is a great time to do that.
While the code of values is a personal statement of what you stand for and how you conduct business, it ought to be developed with the prospect’s point of view in mind because its function is to build and maintain healthy customer relations.
For instance, consider five crucial concepts of good business that everyone finds admirable and customers are attracted to.
Trust
Trust is an intrinsic element of a successful partnership. We believe excellent communication is the founding reason for trust to develop. We deliver what we promise our clients on time. If there is ever an issue with an order, our client knows upfront what it is and what it means for the completion of their project. We stand by our promises.
Partnership
Every remodeling project is a team effort. We believe in being fully transparent with our clients at every step. Our customers know the cost of each of the items that factor into the final price of their project through interactive budgeting. Our customers have confidence that they are getting exactly what they want. Transparency is a key ingredient in a successful partnership.
Team
The deciding factor in the success of a remodeling job is the people who make it happen. Everyone who works with us – from our team of sales designers and independent contractors to the vendors we buy from – ranks among the best in their field.
Selection
We believe in a variety of uncompromising quality. Our Good-Better-Best product selection includes the best quality products for the dollar within their respective grades. As members of SEN Design Group, we assure our clients that they are getting the best value in kitchen and bath products. We only feature products we want in our homes and stand by everything we sell.
Research
Research is foundational to receiving the highest level of satisfaction from your investment.
Crafting your professional identity through daily operations
The next step is to apply your code of values to your operating procedures. When your team is on board with correct operational procedures, you have the catalyst for providing excellent service. Your prospects will sense that excellence of service when they walk into your showroom and know it when they interact with your personnel.
We recognize the following seven areas as key to maintaining the highest operational standards.
- Office procedures. State your business hours and showroom duty assignments.
- Business meetings. List the frequency and content of your staff meetings and training programs.
- Salutations. First impressions are critical. Let prospects know how you engage customers on the phone and showroom.
- Appearance. The appearance of your staff, the order of their workstations and the overall look of your showroom should be acknowledged.
- Conduct. State why your team’s behavior is essential to your way of doing business.
- Presentation. How your firm is represented through corporate identification, business cards, logo, signage, advertising, slogan, stationery, website, and so forth.
- Performance. State how you respond to leads, customer desires, contracts, orders, client communication during the job, respond to complaints, conduct market research, and quality control.
Finally, your code of values should be validated and locatable in multiple areas.
- Have it signed by everyone on your team
- Prominently display it in your showroom
- Include it in your dealer capability brochure
- Include it in your prospect information portfolio
- Include it on a page of your website
- Publish it in your operations manual
A written code of values combined with business standards is the catalyst of strong corporate culture and a positive work environment. We have seen firms retain team members for years, perform better through recessions, and enjoy much higher gross profit margins than their competitors. High business standards lead the way to great business!
—SEN Design Group
Master strategic planning, selling more into each job, leveraging technology, Good-Better-Best selling, and other intelligent implementations at one of SEN University’s valued online business courses. Or contact us to attend our in-person schools.
