Top 2019 Design Studio Trends for Homebuilders - Forward-looking trends for your new home design studio to help increase upgrade revenue while ...
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Top 2019 Design
Studio Trends
for Homebuilders
Forward-looking trends for your
new home design studio to help
increase upgrade revenue while
improving design center workflow
and construction efficiency.
Table of Contents The Opportunity: A Critical Analysis of Your Design Studio ........................................................................... 3 Front Line Trends: Improve Your Design Studio Experience .......................................................................... 5 Back Office Trends: Connect Your Design Studio to Your Build Process ..................................................... 9 Future Trends: Virtual Walkthroughs ................................................................................................................ 13 Use Technology to Meet Trends in 2019 and Beyond ................................................................................... 15
The Opportunity: A Critical Analysis of Your Design Studio Leading homebuilders agree that to effectively and efficiently grow the business, building 100% “custom” homes is not an option. At the same time, homebuyers are increasingly demanding personalization of their homes. Buying a home can be the biggest and most intimate purchase that a family can make, and customization of home interiors is the homeowner’s chance to create something that reflects their personal needs and values – and the builder’s chance to increase overall margins.
CASE STUDY:
The Rise of The Global Home Décor Improvement Market
Growing consumer interest towards home decor
Increasing cost Growth in real
of raw materials estate industry
Improving life Increasing rate
style of urbanization
2014 2020
Source: Secondary research
Increasing disposable income and AMR analysis
“The Home Decor Market is expected to garner $664.0 billion by 2020, registering a CAGR of 4.2% during the forecast
period 2015-2020. Furniture, textiles and floor covering products are key components of home decor. Expansion and
developments in real estate industry have supplemented the growth of world home decor market. Globalization
facilitates easier and wider availability of home decor products and designs for consumers. Moreover, growing
consumer preference towards adoption and usage of eco-friendly products, known for their minimal impact on the
environment, has also boosted the growth of the market.”
*Source - Home Decor Market Report, published by Allied Market Research
Top builders are enlisting effective and efficient design Homebuilders and developers are perfectly positioned
studio management trends highlighted in this guide. to take advantage of this growing market. Adopting an
Top production builders are empowering homebuyers operational strategy of new home personalization through
with interior personalization, while improving overall design studios can improve new home sale margins while
construction efficiency and increasing profit margins fitting in the overall building cycle.
on each new home sold. Interested to know how you
compare with other production builders? Find out if
you are maximizing profits and customer value through
these advanced design studio management strategies.
4
Front Line Trends: Improve Your Design Studio Experience Design studio appointments should be an engaging experience – they are the perfect opportunity to amaze your homeowners. For effective design studio appointments, look no further than these top 5 Trends currently found in the leading design studios from the top residential builders across the country. These insights and best practices can help make your design studios more efficient for your homebuyers, and more lucrative for your sales and your design agents.
Front Line Trend #1: Front Line Trend #2:
Developing an Effective Catalogue Building an Intuitive Flow
System to Save Time to Enhance Visualization
The importance of curating your interior upgrade selections To have an effective design studio appointment, it all starts
is critical to the homeowner experience and sales process with having the right options carefully presented to have
efficiency. Builders must produce interior upgrade an consistent flow through the space. The best builders are
catalogues by each model home offered, to effectively placing their products strategically around the design studio
organize this information. Whether in digital or print format, to make sure that the appointment process flows in a logical
production builders realize that based on each model type order of how the home will be built and what choices appear
offered, their vendors could only provide certain styles for a first. For example, homeowners will often match their hard
specific floor plan. The builder must control what upgrades tops against their cabinets.
the homeowners can see in order to prevent customers from Also consider that your top selling major finishes should be
falling in love with an upgrade package that does not work the ones visible in full size while other options or different
with their selected floorplan or model. finishes should show as a sample size. Customers are
Creating a type of cataloguing system that showcases top more likely to be drawn to the full-sized visible option. For
selling upgrades is the best solution for most production example, builders are placing their best-selling counter tops
builders. Digitizing this catalogue can drastically reduce in full size while secondary performing styles or colors are
production/printing costs, and simplify updates to the only shown as sample palettes. After all, secondary styles
product information (especially pricing and availability) in can be accessed in full view on the builder’s digital product
addition to the significant time savings. catalogue. The shift from previewing full-size products and
inventory to seeing them digitally will prove to be effective
and smooth to the customer décor process.
6
Front Line Trend #3: Front Line Trend #4:
Using Product Libraries to Organize Using Product Libraries to Increase
the Studio Sales Margins
A product library can guide your design studio managers Most builders that think critically about their design studio
around the design studio based on the homeowner’s operations will agree: it is very challenging to fit all your
model selection. Since certain installations take priority products on the show floor. Some production builders have a
based on the style of home, production builders have a digital product library or booklet that can be easily accessible
preset strategy to guide you around their design studio to on the show floor via a mobile application on a mobile or
ensure the homeowner designs the interior of their homes tablet. This point of purchase technology has allowed design
the same way the schedule will be put together for trades studio managers greater flexibility in showcasing all the
to come in and install the premium finishes. appropriate sales items as possible. Ultimately, preparing
The psychology of the home décor shopper quite logically your product libraries for each appointment will prove greater
starts with the bigger choices first! Homeowners expect sales success and a better customer engagement process as
to walk into your design studio and select their floors and the flow in you design studio follow how the interior of the
cabinets and then will focus on the smaller pieces such home will be constructed.
as doorknobs and outlet styles. Some builders have even Since going digital with their product libraries, this did not
implemented a smooth work flow process throughout their mean that visual presentation was eliminated but only
own design studio appointments. enhanced! Builders strategically display their best-selling
A product library can also act as a smooth guide around your interior finishes in full size in their décor studio’s while
own design studio setup. Due to growing demand, and the secondary performing styles or textures are placed as
design studio space limits, builders are having a customizable sample tiles for homeowners to request further information.
product library that essentially acts as their appointment With a digital product library in hand, the design studio
roadmap, notepad, and time saving tool they need in their manger can quickly preview secondary finishes on a mobile
design studio. device to appear in a sample home.
THE DIGITAL CATALOGUE IS NOT JUST FOR THE DESIGN AGENT!
Use your digital product catalogue to your advantage. Use tablets to
display secondary options, or use scanners to allow customers to lookup
secondary styles around the design studio.
7
Front Line Trend #5:
Creating Digital “Wish Lists” for Buyers
to Pre-Select Options on Their Own Time
Time is money. Time spent in your design studio is
valuable, and more time spent does not necessarily equate
to more options purchased. In fact, too much time spent
in the design center can actually reduce sales of options,
as buyers reconsider every possibility. Some production
builders have taken the additional step of offering add-
on packages to homeowners via a digital portal. Builders
report that their buyers are more comfortable in the design
studio appointment after having previewed options. By
doing “homework” on their own time, homeowners have
the ability to create product wish lists via a web-based
application. On their tablet in the comfort of their home,
your customers then select their favorite add-on options
on a mobile device that they would like to see at the design
center during their appointment.
This wish list functionality effectively trims down the
amount of time used during the appointment since all
the options that the homeowner dislikes have been
excluded. No matter how much a home builder’s interior
selections products evolve, you can ensure that your décor
appointments remain customer centric and efficient since
you are only focused on the best products the homeowner
is interested in.
DON’T FORGET
IN-PERSON PREVIEW DAY!
A digital preview is not a
replacement for preview day!
Allow your buyers to familiarize
themselves with your offerings –
in your design center and online.
8
Back Office Trends: Connect Your Design Studio to Your Build Process Breaking down the modern design studio process, you will realize that there are many details of the effort that can be optimized to save builders time and resources. If your homeowners are visiting a design studio that still follows the old process of going through all your product offerings and choosing what goes into the home, then there is a lot wasted time dealing with a manual process.
Does your company currently view interior décor as a necessary
evil just to keep your homeowners preoccupied? Or does your
company view décor studio appointments as an opportunity to add-on
sales and to elevate your homeowner’s perception of your brand?
Determine the best way to fit design studio management into your
company goals. Seamless interaction and handoffs from the design studio
to other building functions is likely critical to meeting these goals.
Back Office Trend #1: Back Office Trend #2:
Pricing Interior Upgrade Packages to Using Digital Redlining to Create
Maximize Margins Construction Efficiencies
Increasingly, builders are packaging options together as The traditional design studio appointment could take up
“themes” to assist homebuyers in making their selections. to a full day as the agent goes room by room, selecting the
Buyers will select a package of options as an overall theme products, then mark up the product locations on a black line
and starting point. This saves the builder time by auto- drawing for their construction team – AND manually mark up
populating dozens of options at once, and allows the buyer an addendum. At the end of the session, a marked up black
to focus on personalizing the package, rather than starting line drawing on top of all the contracts issued for each new
from scratch. product creates a considerable amount of paperwork to
To keep their sales operations profitable, builders are review. Today, builders are taking the redlining process digital
automating the price lookup process by adding their by marking up drawings on the spot, in front of the buyer,
purchasing costs of resources to their interior upgrade while automating the addendum creation at the same time.
packages. A crucial step done through an integrated system The process of redlining is critical for your construction team
– we are seeing data-driven design centers leverage the to understand how these upgrades fit within the home, and
information from the bidding and purchasing teams to offer important for your scheduling trades to complete the task. To
homeowners the best prices while still increasing margins. save time and manual effort of redlining physical floor plans,
Builders are removing the uncertainty when pricing their builders are using digital floor plans accessible via tablet to
upgrade packages and allowing their design agents to begin simply drag and drop icons representing the customer’s items
selling the latest products to homeowners as soon as they are to the floor plan for an accurate and complete record plan that
added to the product library. Builders claim that this method includes all selected options. At the end of the digital redlining
allows them to bring products to market much faster than any process, a contract addendum is automatically created and
other retailor while providing a competitive price compared to each vendor in your trade base is notified and scheduled
renovators and retailors who will charge homeowners more for the installation work once the contract is approved. The
with additional fees for installation. customer approval is quick and easy as they have been
involved every step of the way.
10Back Office Trend #3: Back Office Trend #4: Using Digital Process to Simplify Using Data to Find the Next Design Work & Ensure Accuracy Studio Trend It is important in any building function to maintain a good In the age of automation and analytics, sales performance track record of transactions, schedules, documents, in the design center is measured, analyzed and optimized purchase orders and variance purchase orders. The biggest for future purchasing and sales strategies. Leading builders trend highlighted today is simplifying work in the design whith the most profitable design studios request their center by inputting the information on a digital platform, design leadership to proactively report on all their products whether selecting products or drafting black line drawings. and forecast future sales with enhanced analytics. This Removing the paperwork from the effort means there is ensures that the builder stays up to date with the most more data integrity of your homeowner’s requests. It also popular design trends, and more importantly, these results allows other departments to lookup information, actively ensure the purchasing team can tailor their bidding strategy or through automation, with the right technology powering to fit what exactly they will need to sell in their design studio. your design studio. Leading builders are using design studio management software alongside technology that powers their other operations. Ultimately, the best design centers are completely transparent to other departments. Your bidding team understands what products are trending, your sales team can understand what’s profitable, your construction team is scheduled promptly for installation, and management gains operational control through in-depth reporting and analysis. 11
Assess your design studio process, how do you
compare to the best industry design studios?
Find out below.
Ineffective Satisfactory Effective Very Effective
-0 -1 -2 -3
Your design studio appointments
help to create construction
efficiencies.
Your décor agents are effective
at sending information between
teams.
Your décor appointments are
effective in terms of speed, accuracy
of detail, and upselling.
Your appointment process
eliminates error-prone manual
processes.
Your vendors and construction
teams successfully install interior
upgrades - every time.
Your décor process allows for
a smooth appointment while
showcasing your best products.
Your process effectively tailors to
homeowners based on their style
and selected model of home.
Score 0 – 7? Score 8 – 14? Score 15 – 21?
Looks like your design Your design studio operations Your design studio operations
studio operations could be seem to be working, but there is are on par with the best in the
greatly improved. room for improvement. industry! Congratulations.
Don’t like your score? Hear directly from home builders how they implemented
these trends in their own business by watching two recorded webinars:
WATCH VIDEO WATCH VIDEO
Design Center Insights: Increase Upgrades The NEW Design Studio
by 50% with Improved Buyer Experience Experience
12Future Trends: Virtual Walkthroughs Based on the current trends, builders are deploying emerging gadgets and tools to enhance their décor studio processes while giving the homeowner a memorable custom home experience. Production builders have also been noted to experiment with the following new platforms to further convince their homeowner about interior upgrades.
Future Trend #1: Future Trend #2: Future Trend #3:
Virtual Reality Meets 2D Custom Renderings Buy a Home
Design Against a 3D Plane Online
Builders are deploying VR technology Consider a technology that takes Developments in the online home
that allows homeowners to select strategic angles of each room in buying sector are meeting the demands
products inside a 3D rendering of for your model homes that can of millennials and foreign buyers.
their home to allow them to visualize allow you to project a style of a Expect interior design to be an option
the new interior and get a feel for product add-on to the room for your when the future generation looks to
their home without committing to homeowners to have a nice snap buy a home completely online. Foreign
the product. shot of what their future living space investors already expect the ability to
will look like. make selections from overseas.
14Use Technology to Meet Trends in 2019 and Beyond Simplify the options selection process, increase customer upgrade revenue and improve design center workflow during your client design appointments. Design Studio Manager is a software system from Constellation HomeBuilder Systems that provides home builders and developers with a single environment for managing and simplifying your complex options selection process. Make it easier for buyers to identify and prioritize options. Improve accuracy and completeness of sales contract addendums. Increase interaction with design center visual merchandising strategies. Structure a selections process that works for your business. Sell with confidence using real-time product information, sales contracts and construction schedules. Reduce selection time with mobile touch or scan input methods. All of this can be accomplished, while improving overall construction efficiency by starting with accurate, customized red line drawings.
Design Agent Portal, Alternate Room Sales, Floor Plans and Customer Wish List are integrated and tracked into final sales contracts/addendums. DESIGN AGENT PORTAL ALTERNATE ROOM SALES Simplify and improve the flow through your design center An intelligent module to sell floor plan layout changes and with a powerful management tool linking physical products enforce design selections that are limited to the scope directly to the sales addendum. This feature structures the of the applicable rooms, including recognition of room design selection workflow for designers and customers, fully measures. This sales module is perfect for upgrading your integrates with your main ERP system in real time and allows homeowners to premium floor plans or to add modified you to become mobile during design center appointments. rooms while still maintaining accurate interior product costs Ease the options selections processes with a bar code by room measurements. Ensure that you always give your scanning solution. homeowners the most accurate room décor quotes. FLOOR PLANS CUSTOMER WISH LIST Built for designers to create digitally integrated redline Enhance the options selection process for new home floor plans. Easily add options to floor plans with direct purchasers with access to a personalized online portal integration into the Design Agent Portal allows client’s to preview options prior to visiting the design center. favorite items to be dragged right onto the floor plan via Customer-facing options are displayed in a self-serve portal tablet. Floor plans support architectural icons and colored and are linked to your existing product database in real time. pin locators for a rich floor plan. Floor plans create contract The feature lists product pricing, availability and includes addendum items in real-time for accurate budgeting and the option of adding product photos. Reduce design center estimates using the drag and drop feature. Automatically appointment time and prompt designers to pre-populate create addendum items during client meetings and produce the sales addendum. This feature records approval or rich lot documents with seamless mobile integration. rejection of proposed wish list items. Automatically produce PDF summaries that sync back to your main ERP system as a lot document. Ultimately, design studio managers can enhance communication across the organization by adding client appointment details. 16
Contact our team of experts who are ready to assist your sales,
marketing and design studio managers by elevating the experience
for your buyers, and improving overall efficiency for your team.
CONTACT A DESIGN STUDIO
TECHNOLOGY EXPERT
ABOUT CONSTELLATION HOMEBUILDER SYSTEMS
Constellation HomeBuilder Systems builds software solutions is committed to maximizing your return on technology
for private and public production homebuilders, and efficient investment. Constellation HomeBuilder Systems is the
custom builders. Their innovative solutions empower homebuilding software division of Constellation Software
builders with information, driving business objectives from Inc., an international provider of market-leading software and
website to warranty. Constellation HomeBuilder Systems services for specialized industries, and is traded publicly on
continuously improves home construction software, and the Toronto Stock Exchange.
17www.constellationhb.com 1-888-723-2222 | info@constellationhb.com
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