How to make a statement online

Installation companies need an exciting online presence, even if all restrictions on movement have been lifted. Sternfenster’s sales director, Nathan Court, believes you are missing a trick if a virtual showroom isn’t part of that mix.

Glass Times (GT): Now that we have returned to normal after the restrictions imposed on us during lockdown have been lifted, is it still important to invest in your online presence?

Nathan Court (NC): This isn’t an ‘either/or’ situation. It is a mistake to think that online marketing – lead generation, quoting and selling, etc – grew in the last three years as a direct result of the coronavirus pandemic, and now that customers are welcomed back into showrooms, and salesmen welcomed back into people’s homes, we don’t need an online presence anymore.

Sternfenster saw a shifting pattern of behaviour long before Covid hit our shores, and we have been building a comprehensive suite of online marketing tools for a number of years to meet that change.

GT: Many fabricators offer their customers a website-building service. How is Sternfenster’s any different?

NC: Yes, with our digital partner Icaal, Sternfenster also offers a website-building service for our customers. But we offer many more features that have helped our customers in very practical ways – providing support for admin, sales, marketing, and workflow, for example.

But this is part of the problem. If you see ‘online support’ as simply providing a website, then you are missing the point.

While the pandemic speeded things up a little, people have increasingly been relying on online services, whether they are homeowners, or our customers. A failure to embrace this new way of working, we believe, puts you on a one-way street to irrelevance and, ultimately, obscurity.

GT: So, which online services do you offer?

NC: In the last year, we launched a virtual showroom, which sits at the centre of an online environment that supports our customers as they sell windows to homeowners.

This includes a collection of CGI videos, which provide one-minute product fly-throughs, showing close-ups of our products’ key features. They took 18 months to complete, and they represent a significant investment for Sternfenster, but the feedback from customers has been excellent.

While they feature as part of our virtual showroom, customers can also choose to have them embedded into their own websites.

But the virtual showroom doesn’t sit in isolation – it forms part of a much broader offering of online support. For example: Proposal Builder allows homeowners to request a quote by submitting their own dimensions and colour and hardware options; EasyAdmin allows customers to track leads, generate quotes and place orders online; and Sternfenster Plus gives our customers full access to our productions schedule alongside a complete package of downloadable marketing and training material.

GT: Is a virtual showroom still necessary if people can meet in person?

NC: We’ve seen a drop in the number of leads window installers are getting, but the value of leads is going up. Instead of simply buying new windows and doors, homeowners are buying statement pieces. They are looking for products that add character to their homes; the demand for flush casements and colour, for example, have certainly gone through the roof.

If your business was solely geared to supplying the high-volume market, then you are going to have a lot of work to do to position yourself to offer high-end products that are now in demand.

But the key thing here is that it isn’t just about having the products in your range. It is about how they are presented. Today’s homeowners are more comfortable than ever researching the market and buying products – even big-ticket items like windows and doors – on the internet.

So, if you don’t have the online infrastructure – and we are talking more than just a website – then you could be missing out on a significant opportunity.