But in addition to Kearse’s one-of-a-kind, wow-factor directive, the company also wanted to showcase the types of products and projects suitable for their market. “We needed something that looked great but was also functional. Not all of our customers are going to buy a $9,000 patio door or a mahogany entry door,” Deb Ritter says. “We wanted to stick with vinyl windows, vinyl siding, the bread-and-butter shutters—we’re not in the suburbs of a lucrative metro area. Not that there are not high-end homes in our markets, but the bulk of it is working people who simply want a really nice house.” As a result, Keith Ritter developed the idea of building actual “homes” within the showroom, 3-D walk-in models featuring a broad spectrum of roofing, siding, trim, windows, and doors in an installed setting to give homeowners a greater appreciation of the finished look of their projects.
The idea was an immediate hit with contractors. “The model home design is very nice because it shows so many products and can only increase [Kohl’s] sales, but it makes things much easier for my customers as well,” says Mumper, who intends to send some homeowners in to deal with Kohl directly while accompanying more challenging projects himself and using the conference facilities at the showroom. “Any contractor can send their customers in to see 20 different products actually up on the wall versus going to another supplier and just seeing small samples. The whole showroom is brightly lit and there’s not a sense of your typical, dim sales counter with a couple of guys just sitting behind it.”
Remodelers in the market share the bowled-over feeling of custom home builders like Mumper, especially as the ProSolution Center’s kitchen and bath and model home exterior sections enable remodeling contractors to use the showroom for project-specific product selections. “I like to walk into showrooms with my customers, and the ProSolution Center is great for that purpose. It’s just beautiful,” says Matt Page, president of Page Bros., a Mechanicsburg residential remodeling firm with a focus on kitchen and bath remodels and additions. “I know a lot of remodelers around here, and we are all as busy as we can be, so it’s great for smaller contractors who can’t afford showrooms for themselves. I’ve already sent several customers in to select some doors and windows. The kitchen section is probably the nicest showroom featuring stock cabinets in this market, and I’m going to be tapping into that, as well.”
Comments like those of Mumper and Page—along with the brisk business in Mechanicsburg—have convinced Kearse that Kohl has made the right choice in bringing their showrooms to another level in size and operations. Kohl vendors, some of which collectively contributed approximately 50 percent of the total $600,000 showroom cost, are likewise pleased with the success: Alcoa has selected Mechanicsburg as a test market for its Custom Colors program, and Andersen has named Kohl a Circle of Excellence dealer. “Right from the get-go, everyone stepped up, both our employees but also our customers, and the whole level of professionalism at that location has just soared,” Kearse says. So much so that Kohl has trademarked the ProSolution Center name and has another showroom on the drawing board, targeting a 2005 opening.
For Kearse, the Pro-Solution Center process has been another step forward in an industry that the Kohl management team feels is becoming less segmented. “You have to find a way to show your customers new things and help your customers sell their customers. We did this with the idea that ‘Our showroom is your showroom,’” he says. “We’re totally committed to the professional, they have always been our specialty, and this is just one more step in the evolution of that commitment.”
Office Space Much like the projects they plan for their custom home builder and remodeler customers, Kohl Building Products’ ProSolution Center uses a selection of vendor products to embrace a spirit of fashion and functionality in its own design.
During the early 2003 design phase of Kohl Building Products’ new 6,000-square-foot ProSolution Center in Mechanicsburg, Pa., Kohl vice president of marketing Deb Ritter was prompted by the project’s general contractor to select a counter style for salesmen working the window and exterior building products sections of the showroom. “We sat down with the GC and the designer, and had counter options like an “L” or the traditional straight line, but we wanted something nobody else has,” recalls Ritter, who drew a curved, squiggling line for her design team to consider.
“It was this spaceship-kind of squiggle. It probably comes of squiggle. It probably comes out of more of a retail environment, but we wanted something that had some lines to it,” Ritter says. “We wanted to separate the office space from the showroom, but we did not want a wall—we needed a barrier but something friendly, not something that compartmentalized the salespeople.” Additionally, Ritter and Mechanicsburg management wanted to overcome the traditional, straight-line counter with its associated inefficiencies of salesman lined up and spilling over onto each other’s work areas. “Once we started getting into a lot of business, we needed workstations with enough space for customers to lay out large blueprints and for salespeople to work freely without bumping into the salesperson next to them,” Ritter says.
The resulting 60-foot counter creates curved enclaves for four workstations approximately 10 feet apart, and includes large, backlit sections constructed with Hy-Lite acrylic block, a Kohl product staple. The inclusion of some of Kohl’s featured products in the construction of the ProSolution Center’s office and employee spaces in addition to the main showroom was a key aspect initiated in the design phase, according to company president Tom Kearse. “You can only display so many kitchens, so we wanted to incorporate active displays within our own utility and work areas,” he says.
In addition to enabling Kohl to feature specialty products deeper within their product lines, the use of Kohl supplier products in facility construction also intends to reaffirm that the company sticks by their vendor partnerships and the products that they sell. Public and employee bathrooms are outfitted with Therma-Tru doors, and an employee café and training room kitchenette feature Medallion cabinetry.
