The Buying Experience Is More Important Than Ever

It doesn’t matter whether it’s a cup of coffee, a car, new windows and doors, a kitchen or a holiday, the experience of that purchase is about one of the most important aspects of business. The buying experience encapsulates almost all other areas of business interactions with customers. And now, with social media and the immense power of the internet, a good or bad buying experience can have huge knock-on effects for a company.

In the window and door industry, with an often shaky reputation, the buying experience is perhaps one of the most fundamental points.

All in the approach

I won an order on Monday, for a house full of windows. I was up against what Safestyle would call an “aggressive new market entrant”. After I had signed them up, in our usual no-pressure, no hard-sell way, they explained that they had a quote from this other company a few months ago. They said they were aggressive, rude and they struggled to leave the house. Not something I was surprised about.

But one thing they did say was that they were nearly put off buying new windows altogether. Thankfully we saw them and did what we usually do and won the order in the end. But you see what a bad buying experience can do. Not only could the company ruin the chance of a sale for themselves, but also put off the home owners from buying from any business completely.

Our industry is not blessed with the best reputation. So for many home owners, they already have a negative preconception of our sector, before any sales person has walked through their door. If the home owner is unlucky enough to invite an aggressive and pushy company into their home first, you can understand why they might think that all installers are the same and why they would be wary of having anyone else come out to quote them.

For this home owner, they were happy to deal with a small, family run company who paid attention to them, the product and the service, rather than rushing them into what was a substantial contract. We took the time with them, answered their questions, established a relationship and then they were happy to move things forward. It was never about price for these home owners. In fact it turned out that the other company was more expensive, even after the million percent discounts and offers.

We won this order because of our approach. Because of the buying experience we gave to the home owner. It wasn’t down to discounts or other old hat pricing tactics. It wasn’t due to pressure being applied. It was because we showed them all the options at their disposal, invited them to our showroom, treated them like people rather than numbers and made them feel comfortable all the way throughout.

All in the detail

A positive buying experience doesn’t mean an installer has to go all guns blazing to blow the socks off a potential client. Granted, it does feel nice to walk into a huge, modern, clean showroom and be wowed by all the shiny new products someone could have. I get that feeling when I walk into the Audi showroom a few miles from us. It’s a stunning place.

But it’s the little things more often than not that make the difference. Tea and coffee on arrival for home owners who have arranged to come into the showroom. A quick phone call or email during the buying process to let the customer know that they’re still thought of. A “thank you” card at the end of an installation just to show gratitude for their business. Even just a quick chat about something the customer likes other than windows and doors can go a long way.

The smaller details, the things that often the home owner will only notice once they have happened, can be key to a positive buying experience that will not only secure a sale of new windows and doors now, but potentially secure all future business from that client and ensure recommendations to friends and family when their time comes to replace their old windows and doors.

Given how powerful social media and the internet is, especially the review systems, the buying experience is key. You only need to look at the Twitter feeds of the nationals and a certain other newcomer to see that home owners will have no hesitation to go online and complain in public about the things they’re not happy about. I will say that this aspect of the internet can hold companies over a barrel unfairly and in a biased way towards a consumer, even if the company hasn’t actually done anything wrong. But, it doesn’t actually take all that much to create a positive buying experience that would prevent all of that.

The problem with our industry however is that in many quarters it is still populated by people that still believe in the sales methods of decades ago, which unfortunately are very much out of step with modern business practices and expectations. Some of us do it right, and you see some great reviews of some quality installers out there. You also see some dross too.

As consumers become more expecting of quality, it is up to the installers of our sector to ensure that the buying experience they provide for their clients is as good as it can be.