For many installers and fabricators, the last few years has all been about switching to the higher end of the window and door market. Many now understand that to make the better profit margins and attract the bigger contract values, the higher end is where it’s at.

The margins left in small, shiny white window contracts get smaller by the year, and there are only certain types of installers who are willing to scrap around at the bottom end for the few pounds they will make out of that contract.

For those operating at the higher end, you’ll be familiar with the expectation bar. The barometer against which you are measure by home owners so that they can judge whether they are getting their perceived value for money.

This is where the buying experience becomes hugely important. The buying experience has been mentioned in the media a lot in the last few months, and personally I believe that it is now perhaps as important, if not more so in some cases, as the products you are selling. This goes for all companies in our supply chain, from sysco to installer.

The importance of the buying experience

No matter what you’re buying, be it a kitchen, windows and doors, a holiday, a car or anything else worth a few quid, we always feel better about the purchase when we are treated better than we expected.

I tend to use my own car buying experience in these sorts of posts, but it’s just a damn good example. I have bought a couple of cars from Audi now, and both times I have been suitably impressed with the service from Audi. Each time I have gone in there looking to buy a car, the buying experience left me feeling like I really was at the premium end of the car market. Audi is of course up there, but it never hurts to have that extra bit of sparkle throughout the buying process. Whether it was their own coffee bar with high end branded cups and glasses. Or the multi-million pound glass box showroom which felt like a glass palace. The variety of makes and models positioned perfectly on a supremely polished floor. The attentiveness of their staff. The quality furniture. The phone calls. Even the pens. It all combines to make my buying experience that extra bit more impressive, with the end goal for Audi of course selling me a new car for that bit extra than the previous time. They exist to make money of course.

And that is what we all have to remember in the window industry. Especially installers. If the sector is going to fully evolve into one that focuses much more on the higher end of the scale, then the buying experience has to be able to match what be believe that product quality is.

It’s the obvious things and the less than obvious. So for an installer who might have a showroom, it is making sure that they have all their latest products and options available on display in a classy manner. It is keeping the whole place clean and tidy. It is making sure there is a friendly face when the potential client steps through the door. It is making sure all marketing and literature accurately builds up the excitement and expectations of the client.

The buying experience counts too for fabricators and syscos. Installers want to feel like they are valued customers from their fabricators. If they are going to be selling their more expensive variety of products, the installer wants to know that their products will arrive on time and in good condition. That they will be in regular touch with their rep to make sure the relationship is stable. To know when things are being updated. To get marketing support. All of this applies in the same manner between a fabricator and their systems company. A quality buying experience always adds value to the product.

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Adding value

A high end buying experience adds value to a high end product. You wouldn’t walk into a Rolex shop and expect some attitudal moron to just start chucking you some watches to try on. You would be treated seriously, and with respect, by a person who you would hope would be genuinely interested in helping you to select the right timepiece that is right for you. And that is what it should be in the window industry.

As and when a home owner walks in to an installer’s showroom that is positioned at the high end of the market, it needs to be a Rolex experience. You can sell the finest windows in the world, but if the enthusiasm, attention to detail, customer service and energy isn’t there, then the home owner is not going to feel like they are buying the finest windows in the world. That’s where you lose the extra added value and that’s where you lose a sale.

It also doesn’t matter how big the order is. Whether it’s for one window or fifty windows and ten doors, they are spending their hard earned money with you and each client deserves the same attentiveness and focus as everyone else.

What I’m saying here shouldn’t be a big surprise for anyone reading this. Yet, in my own experience with home owners, I know that our local competition doesn’t seem to care so much about the overall buying experience as we do. On a personal level that’s music to my ears because I know if I go to see a customer or someone comes in to see me, all I have to do is what I do best and the chances of me securing that sale are already higher thanks to the lack of effort by other companies. There are still plenty of stereotypical glazing companies out there keeping the tradesman-like approach going, seeing a window as just that, a window. But in the past few years, as we at our place have started to really focus our energies on the higher end products and the service to go with it, we have seen stronger sales as a result.

Moving forwards into 2018, the buying experience, especially when it comes to installers selling to home owners, is going to become a real focus. As more and more companies ditch the cheap stuff and upgrade to the better quality options, there will be less products USP’s to go around. So, the new battlegrounds will become service and experience. The installers that can offer the better of these will be able to command better margins, win more sales and leave more and more home owners feeling reassured that although they spent more than perhaps they expected, they are getting value in what they are paying out for.

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