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Three Tips to Get More Retail Jobs with Google Maps
By Stephen Alberts, Countertop Marketing Company
Google maps (currently called Google Business profile) is a MASSIVE opportunity to get more countertop jobs. When people search in Google for “granite countertops” or any of the other terms that are popular in the industry, they will see ads at the top, the maps section and then the organic section as shown in sample 1.
The beauty of the maps section is in the reviews. Reviews give a business “social proof.” The best way to explain social proof is when something goes viral. Say there is a post on social media of a cat doing a backflip. It gets shared and liked, and all of those shares and likes add to the social proof of the cat post. So then more people share/like it and the cycle keeps going. For your countertop shop that most likely won’t happen. But your Google reviews are a form of that.
f a homeowner searches for countertops in their local area and they see three companies in that maps section, which do you think they will look at first? The one with the most reviews, of course! And Google does a great job with showing that star rating up front and center! So… Tip 1: Get More Reviews. Yep, you got it. You need more reviews for your fab shop’s Google maps profile. You don’t need 100 a month, but you should shoot for two to five per month.
The tricky part about it is the odds aren’t great. If you ask 20 customers you will probably get about two to five reviews (10 % response rate, or so). The best ways to ask for reviews are: • In person, after the job. Have your install crew ask for the review right then and there. We give our clients small handout cards that have a QR code a homeowner can scan with their phone and give a review. It works great! • Call them a week after the job. People are still “in love” with their new countertop a week later. Plus, you want to call them to see if everything is OK. That’s good customer service, plus you can ask for that review! • Follow up with an email and an SMS message. Since the percentage is low from asking for a review to getting one, you need to hit it from all angles. Send an email and a text message. Send the customer right to your Google profile.
Continued in the August 2022 issue of the Slippery Rock Gazette.
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What is the Best Solution?
By Ed Young
Have you ever had a problem in your business and you took action to solve that problem, only to find out several months later that you still had the same problem? (I thought we fixed that a few weeks ago!) Have you ever had an employee come to you with a pressing issue and you thought you immediately knew the cause – only to find out later that there was more to the story – and your original conclusion was wrong? In order to improve your business, you need to effectively identify and solve problems – even more importantly, those solutions need to stick; they need to be durable and last more than a few weeks. If the people impacted by the solutions don’t accept them, those changes will not last. So, how do you get your people to accept your solutions?
The answer is: You don’t! There’s an old saying that goes something like this:
Tell me and I forget, Teach me and I remember, Involve me and I learn.
Getting your people involved in crafting solutions to problems is, hands down, the best way to make those solutions last.
Continued in the September 2022 issue of the Slippery Rock Gazette.
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Colonial Marble and Granite: Using Digital Technology to Drive Sales and Efficiency
By Larry M. Hood and Peter Marcucci
Founded in 2006, Colonial has its corporate and fabrication location in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and three showroom/slab yard locations in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and New Castle, Delaware. Colonial Marble and Granite serves a diverse market which includes both retail and commercial, and covers the entire state of Philadelphia, Delaware, New Jersey, and the southern boroughs of New York. The company additionally serves the Maryland market north of Baltimore, and will be expanding in to the Washington D.C. market with a showroom/slab yard in the near future. They produce 50 to 120 countertops per day, and employ from 230 to 300 plus team members.
Representing Colonial Marble and Granite in our conversation is Owner-President, Nikos Papadopoulos, and Senior Vice President of Marketing, Sales and Design, Sandra Phillips. Representing Quote Countertops is COO/ Managing Partner, Frank Sciarrino, and Chief Sales Officer, Stephen Fiumara. SRG: Why and when did you decide to try Quote Countertops software? Nikos Papadopoulos: About eight years ago, we started to look for different tools that create engagement with customers.
When we looked at the Quote Countertops tool, what it offered seemed a good choice to support our marketing efforts, initially all online. We wanted the ability to have the customer in the driver’s seat, and to create a conversion online that helped the customer go through an expectation in the sales process, almost as if they’re a designer browsing our website. We needed two functionalities: one being the estimation and quoting process, and the other was to really take (customers) through a visualization journey, creating a visual experience for them, which was a new concept in the market place. What was really unique about it was that it allowed businesses like ours to create a model and a template that really catered to us. We could showcase what we wanted to showcase, and create a price point for transparency online, which in the beginning I was a little skeptical about. But there’s a benefit to honesty. By putting a price point out there, we were able to see instant success through a tool that showcased our products. So, as we got to see it work, it was almost instantaneous success for our sales reps, and our business, and a real boost to our business’s exposure online. SRG: One innovation we are very curious about are the stand-alone kiosks. Do you have kiosks available in all of your showrooms, for when customers walk in? Nikos: Yes, we do. Stephen Fiumara: One of the big differences between Enterprise subscription, which Colonial is using, and the rest of the subscriptions is the ability to use the kiosk feature. Shops get a kiosk because they’re using it for full quoting in their showroom.
SRG: How do they work, and can clients use Quote Countertops from their homes to get a feel for what you offer? Nikos: There are two different ways kiosks can be used in the showroom. One – we have kiosks that have everything all ready built out to our model on the showroom floor, so if customers are waiting, the sales rep can create the visual encounter right then and there, choosing and selecting the color cabinetry they have, wallpaper, etcetera. This way, they can establish some sort of visual dialogue through the selections they’ve made. The second, in-showroom opportunity that showcases the technology, is in the slab yard. When they are going through their material selection, sales reps have their tablets and the software, where they can go directly to the link on our website. They can actually going through the selection process with the customer, right then. At that point, they’ve gone through the start of the process, identifying what the kitchen essentially looks like, and how these new selections along the process are going to fit into that design.
Read more in the August and September issues of the Slippery Rock Gazette.
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Top Workplaces ... Again!
By Rick Stimac, BB Industries President/CEO
I am excited to share that BB Industries has been named a winner in Knoxville News Sentinel Top Workplaces for the second consecutive year. Being named a Top Workplace is a big deal — only 55 companies made this year’s list. I am honored, especially because the judges were our employees.
The list is based solely on employee feedback gathered through a third-party survey administered by employee engagement technology partner Energage, LLC. The anonymous survey uniquely measures 15 culture drivers that are critical to the success of any organization: including alignment, execution, and connection, just to name a few. I feel so blessed to be a part of the BBI family and there is no group of people I would rather enjoy our company growth with and conquer the environmental challenges we encounter on this journey as well. This award helps us gel even more as an organization and everyone who works here should be proud that they contribute to such a special atmosphere. We know that translates to our valued customers and vendor partners and makes us one of the best in the industry. I want to thank all of our employees for all they do!
You can see more details from the Knoxville Sentinel article here: Top Workplaces 2022 celebrates Knoxville and East Tennessee companies https://lnkd.in/dJf2_tzJ
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