How Showrooms Can Emulate Apple

Have you ever noticed how crowded Apple Stores always are? It doesn’t matter the location; enter an Apple Store, and swarms of people will surround you. Apple Stores attract crowds because going to an Apple Store is enjoyable. The open environment features lots of room and a plethora of products that anyone can test drive.

Apple provides pleasurable experiences by offering:

• A place to learn
• A place to congregate
• A place to serve

Apple makes it easy for its customers to learn about its products in the showroom and online, and DPHA members can do the same. It’s amazing how much time busy professionals take to research bath products before coming to a showroom. Does your website allow customers to research products from the comfort of their own home? Do you offer educational seminars to consumers? Many of them don’t have a clue how to specify products that complement one another and work in a bath. This opens windows of opportunity to help explain the elements of a well-specified space, how to avoid the most common mistakes that blow renovation budgets, what’s trending now and other numerous topics.

Showrooms can also be places to gather. What prevents your showroom from holding community fundraisers for local schools, charities or other worthwhile causes? The goal should be to create a place where members of your community want to come for purposes other than buying a new kitchen or bath.

As good as the store design and products may be, Apple also excels at the basics of retail blocking and tackling. The genius bar is genius. If something goes wrong with an Apple product, you make an appointment and show up at your designated time to have it fixed. It’s easy, it's seamless, and it works.

Apple has mastered the basics of the meet and greet. Apple sales professionals don’t ask if they can help customers. They are trained to identify the problems that customers are trying to solve and then present solutions. Showrooms can emulate Apple’s approach by asking customers how they want their new baths to feel every time they enter. By better understanding the emotions that customers want to reach with their remodel, your showroom and sales professional will be better positioned to exceed your client’s expectations.