With the turn of every new season, various services will be more highly required than others. You must take preventative action and prepare yourself for the high calls in demand to maximize your costs and optimist your profits. Take advantage of the seasonal change through marketing tactics as well as staying on top of competitive pressures through taking note of the external environment within the home renovation industry.
As your home improvement business changes with the seasons, the needs of your consumers will also change according to the needs of the season to prepare them for the warmer months. There will be a higher number of requests for repairs owing to the damages from temperature and harsh rainy and windy conditions. Here are ways to prepare your home improvement business for the summer months and maximise your sales.
- Examine external trends
Scanning the external environment is the key to discovering trends that will impact your industry and consequently the success of your business. Trends can either be highly detrimental to your business or can be used as an opportunity that you can effectively capitalise on. Take note of the changing home lifestyle of your consumers and the needs that would be required and focus on your services depending on their needs. For instance, the decrease in household sizes and smaller backyard sizes in suburban and urban areas will reduce the prevalence of swimming pools and increases the demand for swim spas. A higher environmental consciousness will change the service requirements and demands where the most energy efficient fans, air conditioners and cooling systems will be higher in demand. Owing to the impacts of the rainy and windy seasons, power cleaning on pavements and driveways will become a popular service. The footpaths will have clogged up and caught dirt and will need to be pressure washed to prepare for barefoot walking in Summer.
Another effective way of determining Summer trends is by gathering insights from your clients. Through your consumers’ opinions, you will be able to establish which services to focus on during the Summer months. Ask your clients directly or create surveys to gather data on what services they would require in the Summer to gain a more accurate idea of the machinery, equipment and supplies to invest in.
- Use technology
To remain competitive within the home improvement industry, you will utilise software to further increase revenue and sales. Investing in management software is an effective way to increase efficiencies and minimise delays and misunderstandings during the service process. ServiceTitan HVAC Software allows your business to connect to the field and office in real-time for live updates, accurate reporting and communication through using ‘big data’. The software also improves customer satisfaction and experience through direct text/email and the implementation of a Tech Tracker Map to enhance transparency. Through allowing you to manage your marketing campaigns, financial and accounting data all in one platform, this can create conveniences for your business to thrive within the Summer months, especially during busy peak times. With your ability to store data, you will also be able to measure growth projections and compare against your objective targets and current financial status.
- Cut down costs
To prepare yourself for the high demand of your services in the Summer, seek ways to decrease costs to attain a larger profit margin or to reduce prices for customers. Ask your suppliers for cheaper ways to purchase your supplies such buying in bulk or create a contract. Reduce supplier process and delivery costs by collecting supplies directly from their site. Consider the needs of your equipment and machinery to find cost-efficiencies in leasing or purchasing. Do the equipment need to be upgraded regularly? Does the lease of the machine cost more than the cost price and will used for long duration? What is the cost of repairing and tuning the equipment? Buying used tools are also a cost-efficient way of attaining tools at a lower cost. Look at competitive costs and identify the best buy for each equipment that you are using.
- Alter prices
A tactic that you can capitalise throughout the Summer months is to raise prices instead of discounting prices. This will be greatly effective for services that are highly required in the Summer months such as outdoor repairs and cooling systems. Consider your competitive landscape and determine your pricing based on your competitors. Are charging less, more or equal to other home improvement businesses in your area? To achieve a premium and high-quality brand image, pricing higher will market to your consumers a perception that your service is reliable and trustworthy.
You can also choose to lower your prices to a discounted price depending on the services that are high or low in demand. This another pricing tactic that will instead target price conscious consumers. Determine this through the consumer insights and trends that you have gathered. You can also take the opportunity to offer additional promotional features for a discounted price, although overall increasing the number of sales.
- Marketing
Track
To determine profitability and business growth you will need to track marketing results. Evaluating marketing data will allow you to not only showcase the popularity of your business, but also can generate consumer insights to better develop and improve your services. Track your results through social media analytics to distinguish your idea and actual target markets. You can also improve your business through other digital marketing approaches such as improving SEO, EDM and email campaigns.
Relationship marketing
You will require networking skills to effectively engage in relationship marketing. Developing connections with complementary service providers and real estates will allow you gain partnerships and lock in contracts to employ your services and secure continuous sales. You can also develop strong client relationships with your customers to gain positive reviews and personal referrals.
Outdoor
Another avenue of increasing awareness of your business before the Summer hits, is by promoting your services in outdoor locations. Showcase print promotional material in high traffic areas as well as locations that correspond with Summer such as the beach. You can also take the opportunity to further invest your promotional efforts by listing your advertisement in the local newspaper or online classifieds.
To ensure that you properly prepare for any season, you will need to organised your business ahead of each season and take advantage of opportunities that approach you. Which tips will you use to enhance your home improvement business before the Summer season?
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