Designing Your Design Business – Value of Client Testimonials and Reviews

We’ve talked quite a bit about the value, and need, of developing a strategic business plan for your design business (here and here). We’ve also offered advice on the importance of creating an online marketing strategy (most recently here). While many of the business building and marketing tips we’ve shared are important, we would be remise if we neglected to mention the incredible value of client testimonials and reviews.

According to an article at Inc.com, 91% of people regularly or occasionally read online reviews, and 84% trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation. (More of the research to back up this stunning claim can be found here.)

Client Testimonials May Be the Key to Designer Success

The absolute value of client testimonials and reviews really cannot be overstated. The inherently impersonal environment of the internet makes it a place where skepticism runs rampant and where trust may be the greatest commodity you can find. In fact, we’ve known many online shoppers who base their purchases exclusively on the testimonials and reviews they see.

This is why it is so very important that you create and maintain a process that encourages your design clients to leave reviews and/or testimonials, that monitors the reviews they leave, and that deals with and improves any negative reviews you might receive. (Opportunity calling!!!)

Dedicated to offering tips to both homeowners and design professionals, the website Houzz.com recently shared some great tips for just such a client review process:

1. Ask Your Clients for Reviews and Testimonials

• Make reviews part of your design process – Mention reviews at the start and throughout the project so clients keep reviews top of mind. Planting the seed from the beginning will make it easier to get reviews at the end of the project.

• Personalize your client requests – Requesting reviews with a personalized note is much more effective than sending a generic message. Ask how they’re enjoying a specific feature you worked on or how they’re decorating for the holidays.

• Tap your professional designer network – On Houzz, members of the professional community can fill out reviews as “Colleagues” to provide a different angle of your business. Only request reviews from other professionals with whom you have worked.

2. Track Your Projects and Client Testimonials

• Keep a project tracking spreadsheet – Keep an Excel or Google doc of all the projects you finish. At the end of every month, send requests to all the clients who haven’t reviewed you yet. Once you receive a review, mark it in the doc.

• Request reviews with Houzz – With the “Get Reviews” tool on your Houzz profile, just add the client’s email address and write a personalized note. Houzz will send the client an invitation to review your work.

• Ask your account manager to follow up for you – Pro+ pros can have their dedicated Houzz account manager assist with reviews. Ask your account manager about the Review Concierge Service that can send requests via email on your behalf.

3. Follow Up with Every Client, Review or Not

• Thank your clients for thanking you – Since responding by email can be time consuming, Houzz allows you to respond to your reviews with a thank-you message and a “Like.” Responding to reviews shows that you truly value relationships with your clients, even after the project is complete.

• Respond to negative reviews – Offering clarification or perhaps how you might improve the situation will allow potential clients to see how you handle situations that aren’t ideal. A negative review can be a positive marketing opportunity. (More on this below.)

• Make client testimonials available online – Make the reviews you receive available to prospective clients to showcase your credibility and experience as a real interior design professional. Send clients a link to your reviews page, add them to your website with the Houzz Review Widget, and include them in any prospective client welcome materials.

BONUS TIP: Remember that repeat clients are more likely to hire you again – and to spend more – than a new client so, keep in touch with clients after you finish a design project by asking for a testimonial, and by asking of they may need more work in the future.

Turn a Bad Review Into and Opportunity

Here is some great advice from the Inc.com article we mentioned above: If you receive a negative review, the first thing to do is…

“Make the customer feel [like they are being] heard. Jump too quickly to trying to solve the problem and some will think you didn't take the time to fully understand the problem – and how it made the customer feel. Listen, ask questions, and then validate the customer's feelings. Say, for example, ‘It must have been frustrating for you to not be able to…’

“Then, focus on solving the problem, confident that you not only understand the problem, but what the customer really needs. Once the customer is happy… politely ask them to edit their rating.

“Most will do so. After all, customers don't want to leave negative reviews. They want to be happy.”

Since interior design is a largely local business, and because online reviews have become on of the most important local ranking factors with search engines, creating a process for client testimonials and reviews is absolutely a key to the growth of your design business.

Looking for more design business tips, new interior design trends, and new product ideas? Get in touch with TD Fall today.

Designing Your Design Business – Successful Designers Business Model

designers business model

While it would be unethical to copy the work of a more successful interior designer, learning from a successful designers business model makes perfect sense – and does not present the question of ethics.In his latest article for BusinessOfHome.com, columnist Maury Riad presents a glimpse of just such a business model and offers it as a guide for both fledgling and established designers to follow on the path to lasting success.While it should go without saying that clarity of focus and organization are two of the most crucial business principles every design business should follow, many designers struggle to achieve them. If profitability depends on performance at every level, and it does, then building a cost-effective process for implementing the work you do is crucial.3 (+1) Characteristics of a Successful Design BusinessSo, where does Mr. Riad focus his attention?

1. Operational Procedures – “The big difference that I’ve noticed between a designer who is just starting out and a more established studio lies in their operational procedures. It may sound obvious, but a major key to any design firm’s success is business practices that are organized, efficient, and thorough. Where working with a new designer may require a lot of back and forth about a handful of purchase orders or invoices, an established, profitable firm can juggle thousands of these processes at any given time.”

2. Vendor Relationships – “Profitable designers know how to leverage their vendors as extensions of their teams to get their work done. Any given design firm works with a wide range of vendors – whether they provide fabric, furniture, or flooring – and knowing what their vendors can do for them is crucial to their success.”

3. Elevated Design Opportunities – “The whole impetus behind hiring an interior designer – besides having someone else do the legwork for you – is the idea that they can find the decor that clients can’t achieve themselves. This ties back into maintaining good relationships with your vendors… [and] involves knowing who to go to and what to ask for. The right pieces or components elevate your design above the ubiquitous DIY aesthetic that is so popular today – and are the reason your clients will seek you out.”

What’s the +1 Design Business Characteristic?While each of these business characteristics of successful designers is vitally important to your success, we would add:

1. Contractor Relationships – The contractors and subs you work within any design project can make or break your business. These folks will often have more direct contact with your client than you do, which makes the relationship you have with them critically important. Building positive relationships with talented and committed contractors foster loyalty toward you – investing them in the success of your design business because they know that their success is dependent on yours.

While most of these characteristics of aa successful design business may seem obvious, the truth is that many designers struggle to craft and implement something that matches the most successful designers business model. By focusing on these four areas of your business, you are far more likely to enjoy long-term success.Are you looking for more tips on designing your design business, new home design trends, designer marketing tips, and product ideas? Get in touch with TD Fall today.

Designing Your Design Business – Your Design Studio is a Good Investment

Does it still make sense to invest your hard-earned revenue in a design studio when online shopping has become so popular? In a word, yes.In a previous post, we shared the importance of designing a strategic business plan for your business. Here, we argue that investing in a design studio should be an integral part of that plan; a comfortable and stylish place to schedule face-to-face meetings with potential clients, as well as a beautiful space that allows you to share your vision with them.The reason for this is simple: despite the popularity of internet shopping, and your concurrent need for a quality website to showcase your talent, potential clients will want to touch and feel samples while also meeting you personally. You also get to know them better and both of you will benefit from engaging in an environment that promotes building a relationship.This is simply impossible to accomplish in the impersonal world of the internet.Brick-and-Mortar Locations Remain Valuable Client Acquisition ToolsIn a recent article at BusinessOfHome.com, editor-at-large Maury Riad makes a compelling case that traditional brick-and-mortar design centers remain important to vendors in the age of internet shopping.If that is true, then investing in a design studio also remains important to interior designers, for some of the same reasons:

• Brand building – Building your brand, a unique identity within your market, is difficult to do in an environment that is flooded with competitors from around the world (as the internet is). On the other hand, a well-designed retail location puts you right in front of clients and potential clients. Being able to see and speak with you directly will only enhance your brand as one of the few designers willing to make such an effort – and investment.
• Reputation enhancement – Like building your brand, building your reputation in a highly competitive marketplace is difficult in the extreme. In-person contact with potential clients, and being available to existing and past clients, ensures that you will be seen as a designer who is committed to customer service and satisfaction. And, since interior design is above all things a local business, enhancing your reputation locally offers massive potential for success.
• Relationship building – Building relationships is critical to your long-term success as a designer. We’ve said it before (here) and will say it again: repeat customers are more valuable than new customers since they are more likely to buy from you and are less costly to engage, offering you a far greater ROI. Your design studio is the perfect place to re-engage with them and build a lasting relationship that can lead to future work for them. It’s a win/win for both of you.
• Vendor support – Vendors love to support interior designers who feature their furnishings in their design studio. They tend to offer better pricing and larger discounts, sneak previews of new designs, priority shipping, enhanced payment terms, and even cash-back promotions that can help reduce overhead. Such vendor support can be invaluable to your business and you should take advantage of these types of relationships whenever possible.
• Community involvement – Being seen as an integral part of your community will automatically build brand recognition, enhance your reputation, and leads to great relationships and profitable networking opportunities. It is also fulfilling on both a professional and personal level. Get involved and make your mark in your community, if you hope to have long-term success.

While it may seem to make sense that the expense of maintaining a design studio in the internet age flies in the face of logic, for the reasons listed above, and more, a brick-and-mortar location makes perfect sense for the success of your design business.Looking for more tips on designing your design business, new home design trends, designer marketing tips, and product ideas? Get in touch with TD Fall today.

Designing Your Design Business – Designing a Strategic Business Plan

It occurs to us that we may have erred in our first post in this series about designing your design business. In that post, we took for granted that our audience was already familiar with the idea of designing a strategic business plan that would increase their odds of success. Today, we hope to remedy that error.Regardless of niche, building a successful business requires planning, as well as implementation. Strategic business planning focuses on all areas of your business, with goals for both short- and long-term success. Without this type of planning, you will be forced into a seat-of-the-pants approach to running your business, adding stress, sapping energy and focus and, almost guaranteeing your dreams will not be realized.While it’s not our goal to offer a template for creating an actual business plan, something you might submit to your bank to acquire a business loan for example, we would like to share some ideas for strategic business planing. These are the broad strokes we have found invaluable for successful interior design and furnishing businesses, whether online or brick and mortar.Successful business owners focus on the big picture as well as the day-to-day minutia of running their business. They know the details are important, like paying bills and employees and handling paperwork but, they are also conscious of the larger issues; what the competition is doing, latest market trends, how their clients are being satisfied (or not), and more.Thinking about the Big Stuff and the Small Stuff all the time can be taxing yet, that is what a leader must do.

Designing Your Strategic Business Plan

Here are some things that can make this easier for you:

• Goal setting – for the moment and the future. Having a Big Goal for your business is great but you can’t focus on end-of-year stats while ignoring daily, weekly or monthly performance. In other words, if you hope to grow sales by 10% for the year, you will need to focus on increasing sales by a bit less than 1% per month. In other words, setting incremental goals will make achieving your larger goals much more likely.
• Vision and mission – including your dream and purpose. The vision you have for your business can be anything you dream of achieving, while your mission should be about how you plan to get there. It should also be client-focused and benefits-based; that is, how your business goals and philosophy will make a positive impact on the lives of your clients.
• Focus on relationships – with clients, suppliers, contractors, and subs. In both the short- and long-term, your greatest business asset is the relationships you build. Working with contractors and subs whom you know and trust (and who know and trust you), has value that is almost impossible to quantify. The same is true of existing clients, who are far more likely to work with you than a prospect (see this post for more on the value of current clients).
• Be realistic and practical – when setting goals. Goals are used to help a business grow and achieve its objectives. You can use them to promote teamwork and help describe what you want to accomplish. However, setting too many goals for the year (or too big a goal) can lead to problems. Too many goals can diffuse your focus and too big a goal may well be impossible to achieve. If you “keep it real” and use incremental steps to get there, you are far more likely to get where you want to be.
• Stay focused – on your vision, your mission, and your goals. When your business goals are tied to your vision and your mission, along with realistic steps to achieve them, it becomes much easier to stay focused on things that matter and ignore the rest. This reduces stress and helps you maintain the mental and emotional energy you need to run your design business effectively. That’s a big win/win for you as both an interior designer and business owner.

It’s very important to remember that your business plan should be used as you start your business (to obtain funding or direct operations, for example); while your strategic business plan is primarily used for implementing and managing the overall direction of your business.The difference is significant and critical to the long-term success of your design business.Looking for more tips on designing your design business, new home design trends, designer marketing tips, and product ideas? Get in touch with TD Fall today.