Closer to the Customer
Throughout the showroom, Nisbet Brower has embraced a tactile and sensory approach to product displays to enable a better understanding of the fit and appearance of the final installed product among contractor customers and their ever-demanding homeowner clients. “My customers like to be involved with every detail of construction, from scheduling to product selection,” says Charles Souciec, owner of Cincinnati-based CFS Custom Homes, a mid-range to high-end custom builder with a limited, quality focus on approximately five homes per year. “It’s a plus for me and my customers to touch and see entire kitchens and interact with displays like [cabinet door spinners] as opposed to just staring at catalog pages and display façades. The showroom is impressive, it is spectacular, and that helps my business.”
Rippe says that one of the best investments Nisbet Brower made during the design and outfitting of the showroom was a hardened effort to put homeowner clients in a home-like atmosphere. “You have to make it feel warm,” he advises. “You want it as comfortable as it would be in your own home. It makes a big difference to your success.” To achieve the home-away-from-home ambience, Nisbet Brower adds unique touches like Oriental carpets and employs multiple lighting systems so customers can see product appearances under their choice of fluorescent, incandescent, direct, and natural lighting. Clients looking for even more information can use Internet kiosks to surf manufacturer Web sites, and a conference room with Internet, CAD, and DVD capabilities is available. The “Kid’s Zone” room allows the little homeowners to play and watch videos while their parents make unencumbered product choices.
All together, the Nisbet Brower experience is doing exactly what a great showroom should do–increasing sales for pro dealer and contractor customers alike by streamlining and simplifying the selection process for product-savvy and image-conscious homeowners. Nisbet Brower outside sales reps notwithstanding, the company’s four on-site showroom sales-people have boosted their revenue by 30 percent collectively compared to when they worked out of the smaller, kitchen and bath–only showroom in Cincinnati that the current facility replaced. “There’s no comparison,” says showroom account manager Mike Taylor, who has handled custom builders like Hinger and others at Nisbet Brower for 15 years. “The showroom shows our commitment to quality and makes my job and the job of my customers so much easier.” Hinger agrees, and says that the showroom’s size, breadth of products, and overall design enable him to continually send in both empty-nester and young professional clients that want “high-amenity home options without being overwhelmed.”
According to Rippe, Nisbet Brower’s efforts to include everything, from the Kid’s Zone all the way to an entry wall greeting that highlights the brand names of the pro dealer’s primary vendor partners, are helping to keep the “wow” factor high, the contractors happy, and the walk-in traffic more brisk than anyone expected. “The only thing we have had to tweak so far is to add to the 1,500 square feet of office space so we can start hiring additional sales staff,” he says. “And I’d say that’s not a bad problem to have.”
Vital Statistics
- Company: Nisbet Brower
- Year founded: 1870
- Headquarters: Cincinnati
- Number of locations: 4
- Number of employees: 210
- 2004 gross sales: $40 million
- Pro sales percentage: 98 percent
