The flooring market, like many other home renovation trades, is seeing a big shift in customer habits.
More and more people are expecting a top-class, digital-first service from businesses - and we’re seeing more businesses rise to this challenge by embracing the wonderful suite of different sales and marketing options available to them.
One of the more common growing technologies seen in the flooring industry is the use of visualizers. Simply put, visualizers are a fantastic way to let your customers see your products in their space. This is the perfect way to build more customer confidence in your products while reducing your costs thanks to a reduction in the need for things like samples. Furthermore, they make for excellent showroom tools to give customers an impressive experience while browsing. Think of them like an extra pair of hands for customers on the shop floor. We explore the details of what a visualizer actually is here.
As useful as they are, many flooring business owners have reservations about bringing them into their sales and marketing plans - understandably so. Like any new tech, there can be a hesitancy to adopt and invest in new tech tools. We’ve researched what the key objections are for many flooring business owners adopting visualizers and seeing the huge benefits they bring.
Even better than that, we’ve used this info to improve our own visualizer for our customers. We’ll explain what we’ve done as well. Let’s get to it!
1. The cost of setup
In an article by Floor Covering Weekly, many flooring companies see the cost of setting up a visualizer to be a barrier to using them. Not necessarily the initial costs of the visualizers themselves, but the cost to set these tools up on your website and within your other sales and marketing tools can be pricey.
Another putoff for many is the additional efforts needed to maintain an accurate inventory of your products on your visualizer. Some visualizers are quite complex, meaning maintaining them can feel like a full time job. Not great when you need to be out on the road closing more deals!
Why FloorWiz is different
We hear these issues a lot. The concern about setting up these tools is not news to us and we understand why this would be a concern. That’s why FloorWiz customers receive dedicated tech support as part of their onboarding process. Our mission is to provide the ultimate sales tool to help flooring pros close more deals faster, so it’s in our best interest to ensure you're up and running as quickly as possible. We’ve invested our time and attention into making sure our visualizer works on any website, and integrates with other tech options, seamlessly. We do all this with every customer and all within our clear pricing of only $99 per month.
When it comes to managing your product inventory, FloorWiz comes with our simple yet powerful product management system, where you can easily manage the products you want your customers to see in the visualizer. We built this after receiving a lot of feedback that offering too many products made it difficult for dealers to ensure they had the inventory they needed all the time, so we made it fully configurable - giving you complete control over the products you want to show and change this at any time.
2. The complexity of using them
While visualizers aim to simplify the buying process, not all customers find them intuitive. For some customers, the experience of uploading room photos and customizing their floors can be challenging - especially when there is some manual effort needed to pick out the original floor in the photo. Sales teams can also struggle with these kinds of tools - adding another layer of complexity to an already challenging situation.
Why FloorWiz is different
We’re committed to making our visualizer the simplest tool to use on the market. Our floor detection uses Artificial Intelligence to pick out your existing floor within seconds without users having to painstakingly draw out their floor in the app. This means customers can quickly try out new flooring styles and combinations in a way that is clear and concise on any device.
3. The need for other tech
While the internet is pretty commonplace around the world these days, it’s not exhaustive. More rural areas don’t necessarily have good quality internet access. Of course, this means tools that rely on internet connectivity are not going to deliver very much… The same situation can occur for older customers who might not use the internet as much as younger audiences.
Why FloorWiz is different
Of the many clients we speak to, ensuring accessibility to all their customers is a common necessity. Good customer service comes first and denying customers this good experience because of things like the internet isn’t the best way forward. We couldn’t agree more, which is why FloorWiz offers both an online version and a field sales version.
This lets users show the tool to potential customers without the need for a constant and good quality internet connection. When you do get back online, the data from your offline journey will upload to your online systems, so you don’t lose any of it. Many FloorWiz customers find this feature essential as it helps them to give the customer excellent customer service they need without the risk of things not going quite to plan!
Like with any new tech investment, there are risks that need to be considered carefully before committing. Sophisticated tools like visualizers are no exception to this and while they are excellent tools to help engage your customers, you need to commit thorough research into which option is the best for your customers and makes your life easier!