Improving the In-Person Digital Experience in Your Sales/Leasing Offices

Meredith Oliver just released a copy of her BDX Digital Transformation Summit talk, Bridging the Physical & Digital Worlds with Interactive Technology in Sales Centers.

CPS CRM provides data to populate this interactive map!

Home Shoppers Expect a Self-Service Experience

It's well worth a listen as it addresses why builders and developers need to add interactive technology to their sales/marketing process: their home shoppers expect a self-service process.

It's that simple!

Oliver provides an interesting research stat: 76% of consumers have a better experience when the sales person is armed with technology. And, those stats apply regardless of whether your home shopper is a Millennial or a 55+.

Yet, Oliver mentions, many sales agents don't take advantage of the tools to provide this enhanced buying experience!  CPS has been developing interactive touchscreen presentations for over 10 years and we have some ideas to share that will help you develop a more effective set of tools so your home shoppers will start the journey to dream and imagine their new home!

Build a Strong Foundation to Promote Effectiveness

Meredith touched on an important thought in her BDX talk: how many times have you walked into a business and the technology wasn't being used?

We'll be talking about ways to maximize the value of your interactive presentation's investment over several blogs; here we'll focus creating a foundation for an effective presentation -- that's used by your agents and home shoppers!

Corporate Collaboration Improves Efficiency and Buy-In

Oliver mentions she's a "tactician" implementing builder's dreams; CPS has particular experience in digital signage.  We've found 3 key items contribute to establishing the foundation for a successful self-serve experience:

1. Collaborate on objectives and design: The 2018 Housing Leadership Summit focused on corporate collaboration. It doesn't make sense to drop a new tool into sales offices without considering cultural and behavioral elements.  The more people involved in the initial stages, the more buy-in and desire for success! And, you'll need to provide training to provide everyone with the details as to why you've incorporated interactives at the sales office and how to effectively utilize them in a sales presentation. 
2. Build-in meaningful hardware management: We've all run into situations where we've heard: our system is down! Yet, you can take steps to make those days few and far between: automated hardware management so Maria doesn't turn off the system and Ted doesn't know how to turn it back on; remote monitoring systems so a tech team can analyze issues remotely and make changes long-distance, as well.  Get rid of the housekeeping, in other words!
3. Incorporate integration: In a recent Builder article, Hyphen Solutions' Felix Vasquez suggests that automated connectivity results in a more efficient home builder production environment.  Why not have your CRM or inventory management system provide unit status and pricing info (vs. having a sales agent manually input)? Maximize tools already in-house to provide consistent information without manual intervention. 

Warranty Management: Developing a Strategic Advantage

Today, it seems that everyone is talking about improving the quality of customer engagement.

Use Warranty as a Customer Engagement Touchpoint!

There are many possible engagement touch points: have you considered your warranty operation as an opportunity to enhance your relationship?.

Back in the day, warranty was introduced as a tool to attract customers. Companies wanted to show buyers that they were willing to guarantee their products.  Soon, the idea caught on and everyone was providing a warranty on their products and.. home builders were no different.

Home builders found, as did others, that managing warranty was a task in and of itself.

Claims management, vendor logistics,... before they knew it, warranty seemed to be a monster that had a life of its own.

Today, however, warranty management, if properly conceived and administered, offers an opportunity to increase your strategic advantage.  It can improve customer engagement and, through today's social media outlets, provide a direct customer voice.  What home shopper wouldn't be encouraged to see a Facebook post highlighting a successful warranty claim?

Successful warranty operations can become both a strategic advantage and a referral source!

How?  An article by Aditya Baliga in Industry Week, suggests a key element is to develop a holistic and streamlined warranty process.  Some key elements:

1. Warranty Analytics -- Do you know your Top 10 issues? How about their reasons?
2. Claims Processing -- Have you done everything to improve the process and minimize costs?
3. Automation -- Go Mobile! and let your homeowners submit requests directly, as an example.

CPS has been helping home builders improve their customer relationships for -- over 30 years.  WarrantyWatcher can provide the analytics you need as well as expedite both claims processing and vendor notification using automation.  Give us a shout out!

Multifamily Amenities Marketing: Pet Spas Replacing No Pets Allowed

Believe it or not, it's only been about 20 years since "No Pets Allowed" signs were commonplace in the majority of multifamily properties!

Today, you'll see an abundance of pet-friendly communities offering a wide variety of amenities to entice pet-owning prospects to become tenants.

Making Your Property's Story Engaging and Visually Appealing!

What do you know about Pet Spas? For one, they're becoming more and more available at high-end properties.  Pet Spas provide a range of services from self-serve washing stations to specialized care and treatments by professionals.  Need to board for a week? There are facilities right at the property.

Pet-owning tenants are drawn to properties that cater to human as well as pet needs.  By providing these amenities in addition to concierge services, sports bars and in-property office space, developers are meeting lifestyle needs.  Today's pet owners frequently see their pets as family members -- and desire property services meeting their needs for convenience as well as providing essential peace of mind.

Looking for an engaging and informative way to highlight property amenities to prospects? We suggest an interactive touchscreen system capable of telling your neighborhood and property story -- as well as offering full details regarding floor plans and availability.

CPS' SalesTouch system can be wall-mounted or offered in an easy-to-use kiosk or topo table style. We offer real-time integration with a number of 3rd party inventory/availability software packages, too.

2016: What's New in CPS CRM?

Today's new home buying experience, for the home shopper, frequently isn't seen as too very different than any other retail experience. Of course, prices are a bit higher than in a car dealership or a furniture store but overall we see an interest in a seamless -- and efficient -- consumer shopping experience.

CPS CRM provides builders with a unique design and approach to manage the new home sales process through a single experience.  Bob Musa, CPS' President says, "Our job, as software developers, is to harness technology to help make a great buying experience for consumers along with a consistent, reliable and powerful back-end processing environment for the builder."

2016 CPS CRM: Seamless Integration is a keyword!

Several key concepts emerge:

• Supporting a seamless customer interaction: Home shoppers come into contact with the builder and specific communities through multiple channels -- builder website, mobile registration, 3rd party marketing sites, a developer information center and, last but certainly not least, the sales office itself.  No one wants to register multiple times, providing the same (or different!) information.  CPS CRM accepts registration from all sites, seamlessly, and recognizes when a prospect has previously registered, as well. 

• Cloud Enhancements: CPS CRM is, of course, a cloud-based system -- available anywhere/anytime.  We've added another cloud-based application, DocuSign, to our integration processes so agents can generate purchase agreements using CPS CRM and provide anywhere/anytime purchase agreement execution access for buyers -- as well as co-op agents, lenders, escrow agents and the builder -- via DocuSign. And, this is an end-to-end enhancement of the current contract wizard -- prospect registration, floorplan/homesite/option selections, loan program calculations are seamlessly integrated into the DocuSign forms.

• Enriched Back-end Processing: The new home sales, construction and document process is a series of key dates and steps.  CPS CRM facilitates sales processing with easy-to-maintain checklists along with automatic email reminders regarding pending or behind-schedule activities. 

We'll be in Las Vegas for the IBS Builders Show -- stop at Booth C2856 and we'll show you how to enhance your home builder sales process with CPS CRM!