Putting Digital Tablets to Work in Your New Home Sales Office

Did you know 2015 digital tablet sales are scheduled to surpass PC sales worldwide?  Tablets -- whether iPad, Android or Microsoft Surface -- are changing what can be referred to as the computing world by providing a very user-friendly experience that meets the many needs of today's businesses and their connected customer.

Our Solutions Blog (back in 2012) talked about the Connected Customer as a "class of consumer" whose behavior and habits mimic, says Brian Solis in Meet Generation C, those associated with Millenials in that traditional marketing efforts aren't very influential in their decision-making process.

At a minimum, it appears the traditional marketing "funnels" aren't as effective and that businesses should consider multiple engagement strategies. We've mentioned tradigital previously -- taking traditional marketing processes and applying digital technology for an enhanced result.  Think about the ways your prospects register at the sales office -- why not add a digital registration tablet or kiosk?  Start your CRM process with an engaging consumer experience!

Another idea: take the traditional sales brochure and turn it into digital exploration!  There's an opportunity to take a large touchscreen presentation and use it on a Windows Surface tablet -- or create an entirely new iPad/Android downloadable app for your prospect to browse in the sales office and at home.

An added benefit associated with adding tradigital: adding a memorable customer experience that enhances the sales process for your agents. It's a soft benefit that can result in improved employee morale with long-term profitability impacts through a quicker sales cycle, decreased turnover, reductions in collateral materials and decreased employee turnover.  Those benefits can be calculated!

Creating a community that truly provides a
memorable experience shifts work from a sales-oriented model

to an experience-oriented model.

 

Get Your Audience Engaged; Do Something That Really Stands Out

We're readers: books, magazines, blogs, you name it!  What's new in technology, marketing, the user experience, computer and mobile hardware ... all the areas we touch on with CPS' software products and our interactive touchscreen product, SalesTouch. 

And, we like to highlight articles we think others would enjoy, as well.

Power of Touch: Engage Your Prospects; Stand Out!

A recent Multifamily Insiders blog by Brittany McBride titled Let's Give Them Something to Talk About: Getting Your Audience to Engage with Your Brand is worth checking out; you can read it here.  Tongue-in-cheek she asks if anyone would every say, "Nope, I don't want anyone talking about me or engaging with my brand, said no one ever!"  She talks about the value of "word of mouse" as an influential tool.

We'll suggest the "power of touch" is equally persuasive.  Studies go so far to say as people touch, they make decisions.

And, if you're utilizing an interactive touchscreen system as a marketing tool in your sales or leasing office, consumers are touching your product!  And making decisions: I like Plan 2 better than Plan 1, for example.  Interactive touchscreens get consumers engaged and making decisions..who wouldn't want that?

Jeff Shore, the sales training guru, suggests (in his May 15 blog entitled Why You?)  that every sales person needs to ask, "What will make my product stand out?" to a home shopper as they go from community to community, looking at seemingly endless possibilities.

Shore suggests your sales presentation is key. What is different? What will really stand out in your buyer's mind?  What can you do to make your buyer feel differently about your community than all the others they have visited?

Again, we'll suggest the power of touch!  Let them browse through floorplans that meet their criteria, check out what's going on in the neighborhood that meets their needs (walking trails for one; nearby medical facilities for another), move some furniture around to see how things will look ( we've illustrated the Move it/Move it feature offered by SalesTouch above).

Engage your consumer; stand out in the marketplace; it's all possible with touch!

Builders and Developers: Shifting from a Sales-Oriented to Experience-Oriented Model

Brent Williamson, writing in Multifamily Insiders, talks what it would be like to be an employee in an exceptional community. Take a look at the complete blog here;  he discusses how an employee views working in such a community, how that view impacts confidence in the product as well as influencing the entire operational experience.  He summarizes:

Creating a community that truly provides a memorable experience

shifts work from a sales-oriented model

to an experience-oriented model.

Prospects use SalesTouch to create memorable experiences!

Every business must analyze costs and benefits -- and some find it difficult to evaluate so-called "soft benefits" although the costs tend to be fairly straightforward.  Adding "soft benefit" sales/leasing office amenities and employee tools generally requires additional monetary investment; however, Williamson suggests the added costs, when properly allocated and understood, will result in significant rewards -- and monetary ones, at that! 

Williams recounts hearing Ann Sadovsky saying, in a recent webinar, that the top reason people work is to make an impact and feel they are part of something special. Spending decisions for a perceived"soft benefit" that is recognizable and improves employee morale can have a long-term profitability impacts -- through a quicker sales cycle, decreased turnover/cancellations, reductions in unnecessary advertising/collateral materials and decreased employee turnover.  In other words, those benefits can be calculated!

What would help create memorable experiences at your property?  We'd like to suggest that an interactive touchscreen does exactly that!  Prospects and employees consistently mention enjoying the experience associated with touchscreen use -- as well as easy accessibility to information, enhancing a "green strategy" with decreased use of pre-printed brochures and the ability to "signal" we've invested in you!