Showrooms: Beyond Sample Boards
“My son started talking to one of their regional managers and he was saying they’d like to offer countertops in their stores,” says Wright. “My son began to explain the kiosk display we had; the next thing you know, we were meeting in their corporate office.”
Wright liked the idea of working with one chain. He says HBC is in about 80 percent of the smaller markets where INcounters wanted a presence.
Click to enlargeAs part of the agreement between the two companies, the HBC stores in what INcounters sees as larger markets each receive a kiosk that’s made from two 2’ X 4’ cabinets affixed back-to-back.
“We use different styles of cabinetry on each side, and coming out of the middle is a steel rack that has channel iron in it that holds an 8” X 16” granite sampler,” says Wright. “With some of the exotic colors where you need a little bigger piece, we do a 16” X 16” sample. And, we have some nice signage at the top.”
However, the real star of the show is the side of the kiosk, where the company offers a touch-screen computer terminal running a continuous-loop video showing countertops being manufactured, along with examples of finished kitchens.
By touching the screen, the user can go to a menu to look at samples of granite, quartz and solid surface. Another touch will let the user pull up different shapes of kitchens; by entering a few dimensions, the person can get a rough idea of the square footage of his or her particular kitchen.
“At that point, if the user wants to continue, he can enter his name, address and phone number, and hit ‘submit’, and it will automatically e-mail the info to our rep who handles that store,” says Wright. “In theory, if you entered your cell-phone number, it’s possible for you to get a call before you get out of the store.”
For the HBC stores in even smaller communities, the company eschews the electronic lead entry and invites people to fill in a card that goes into a locked drawer. Wright says it’s a little less technologically threatening, and the store manager faxes the lead cards to INcounters for follow-up by its staff.
In exchange for the space, Wright says INcounters does a weekly report on leads and jobs sold and installed, and HBC receives a check for a percentage of all the sales it helps generate.
Probably the biggest drawback with the kiosks, Wright says, is that someone needs to go by the stores from time-to-time to make sure nothing is piled on them.
“It’s very tempting to set a little display of some hardware or something on there,” he says. “Part of our contract says they can’t do that.”
Wright says the kiosks are working well enough that he plans to install others – probably in carpet and tile shops – in some markets where Higgenbotham’s doesn’t have stores.