Are You A Jen Air Electric Range, A GE Double Oven Or A Viking Range?

Mike Finley

The events of the last few months have given me some thoughts to consider. We recently remodeled our kitchen and we are now remodeling a rental condo, so over the last few months we have been appliance shopping. We have been appliance shopping at different types of stores for both projects and the differences remind me of some powerful business correlations.

A) For our kitchen we shopped for appliances at places like The Great Indoors (a bit higher end remodeling/retail store), The Maytag store (where they have appliances running, stoves you can cook on, washers you can bring clothes in to wash to try the appliances out) and other stores that feature mid to moderate lines of appliances with lots of selections, good customer service where the store representatives are trained to help you by answering questions and know their product well. These stores allowed us to select really good quality products with some nice features, finishes, design and creature comfort.

B) For the rental we are shopping at places called Discount Appliance Factory, The Appliance Factory Outlet... these stores feature more of the entry level appliances from well known manufacturers, not a lot of features available on these, nor are we looking for higher grade appliances. White is pretty much the dominant color, much fewer choices to choose from. The stores aren't that nice, they are more like big warehouse rooms, the sales people are older, not well groomed, but do know the products they are selling very well. Service is available on a much lower level, but acceptable considering the products we are selecting.

C) For a high end kitchen customer I would be sending them to a designer store such as Kitchens At Denver.... where high end Viking appliances and such are on display, they give you fresh baked cookies, bottles of water and even a glass of wine while you discuss your needs. Service is top notch, the salespeople are constantly under going factory training and know everything there is to know about the products they are selling. If they don't have what you want they will get it for you. Prices are very high, but so is the level of customer service and the products are on par with the pricing. Very feature laden, they will do anything and everything you could possible demand from an appliance, the appliances are very varied and some are very specialized to perform only a few tasks.

So here we are shopping for the same product (appliances) but there are 3 very distinctly different categories of stores to choose from. Before we even meet anyone in these stores we already have a pretty good idea of what we will find in them, the prices and how the service will be and what to expect.

As a consumer I am not shocked by not being offered a fresh cookie at the discount appliance store, at the high end design center I am not shocked that the kitchens on display are all super high end. I'm not shocked that at the discount center there are no kitchen displays at all, rather the appliances are lined up in row after row under harsh lighting.

So as a contractor which business are you? Are you the discount factory appliance center, the Great Indoors or the high end design center? More importantly do you have prospects that are expecting you to be one or the other and once you meet only then do you both discover that you aren't what they were expecting, and they are shopping at the wrong type of store? If so, why is this happening?

Do a lot of us even realize that consumers shop for everything this way? Market segmentation is nothing new, it only maybe new to our thinking.

Mike Finley

Okay, too confusing?

john elliott

In your first post you described the different experiences customers have when visiting different showrooms, the fact that they expect these differences and allow for them when deciding what sort of price range they are looking at. Your example of rental property against own home was a good one.

I expect the reason why nobody else has replied is that most of the contractors here don't have a showroom. I do have a showroom which I opened recently, too soon to tell if it will be a success. Unfortunately I had little choice but to use the building next to my workshop when it became vacant, and therefore I have no control over the three most important aspects of its economic viability- its location (1), where it is (2), and its location (3)

John

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Ed the Roofer said "John too, in his crass and blunt demeanor.............."

ultimatetouch

I hate shopping, but I like to think high end like viking or wolf. It depends on the neiborhood you live in. Who wants to put a caddy in the old shed.

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Ultimatetouch
Illinois Remodeling Company, Kitchen Remodeling Chicago, Room Additions Illinois

Brian

Mike,

I aim for A. I try to provide very good service, good quality products, and educate my customers. I think this is the largest market segment, at least in terms of profit potential.

The discount shoppers want blow and go, and don't want to pay much for it. The super high end is a very small market, and while more profitable per hour, there aren't enough hours in that market.

Brian Phillips

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Houston Interior Painting
Houston Exterior Painting
Houston Painting Contractor

bill02

Mike
I am presently "shopping" for a budget-minded client for her new kitchen. I generally don't do this, but I have remodeled her bathroom, then replaced her windows, then a year later, her exterior doors. You get my drift, a continuing client. We have been to appliance warehouse, Sears, carnac kitchens, Lowes- Prices are all over the place for same product (GE Profile) and for equiv. product of different brands!
In the future, I think I will direct them to the high end stores to find what features they would really like, the brands they like the best and then shop the heck out of it in town. They will know how much they would have spent in the pricey store and everthing you bring them (labor and material) will appear real reasonable. As far as my rental, I shop Sears dent and scratch off of sixth ave (I am in Denver) Pricing there can be as much as 50% off for a minor scratch that is hidden by cabinets. (not that my tenants would ever damage my appliances)

Mike Finley

I must have written this badly, everybody but Brian got it. I didn't mean this about shopping for appliances or selling appliances to your customers. It's more about consumer expectations in shopping us (contractors), and the way we position or probably more likely don't even consider how we position ourselves.

I suspect it is much more the latter, because there are an awful lot of posts on here about low-ballers and customers with unrealistic expectations or 'bad' customers in general.

The gist of the entire post is consumers have to some degree pre-concieved notions about just about everything they will shell their hard earned money out for. The examples of the 3 different levels of appliance retailers are a good example to demonstrate how it works.

If this is true then isn't it more a problem when you continually run into customers that you consider price shoppers or with unrealistic expectations, isn't part of the problem a miss-match between the two of you?

Diesel65

I am in commercial construction (so have no business posting here I guess).

I would consider my company high end, and my main market niche are high end clients.

However I have found that I am placed in the "Great indoors" category simply based on the competition.

This makes me a "sellout" but if I cannot compete in the bidding process I am not going to eat, I hate that the end product consists of lessor grade materials but I have not yet found a client who will not price shop. So I am forced to value engineer most jobs to get my price in line with other's.

All most of my clients are interested in is the "wrapper" they don't care about the "candy".

Mike Finley

That's a very good way of putting it, in regard to how a lot of today's consumers look at these things.

I find the younger the customers the more they tend to fall into that category. It's almost exclusively older clientel that care about longevity and are willing to pay more for things behind the wrappers in order to ensure a trouble free experience down the road.