Washington– Personalization and creating an unforgettable customer experience remains critical to the strategy to drive growth and market differentiation for independent flooring retailers in 2019, according to executives at Flooring America, Flooring Canada and The Floor Trader.
The corporate team and its members gathered as a group in the nation’s capital to kick-off the new year at conneXtion, an annual meeting with 500 independent floor covering retailers from North America and Canada. The two-day conference, held at the Gaylord National, brings together the best flooring retailers where they embark upon a personalized experience and learn about innovative solutions that they can implement in their businesses to drive sales.
“Today’s consumers are savvy shoppers who expect to feel special through an experience built just for them when they shop,” said Keith Spano, president of Flooring America/Flooring Canada and The Floor Trader group. “In 2019, we’re focused on four key strategic drivers; the customer experience, customer engagement, lead conversion and sales professional development. The programs introduced will focus on delivering enhanced customers experiences from an impressive augmented-reality visualization tool, HomeVio to a Retail Sales Professional Network (RSPN), a video news network designed for sales professionals to access tips and tricks and just in time news.”
Striving to be at the forefront of the flooring industry when it comes to technology, the cooperative continues to pave the way in the flooring industry. Frank Chiera, senior vice president, marketing and advertising at Flooring America/Flooring Canada and The Floor Trader, explains, “understanding consumers’ buying habits and the way they interact with technology is what drives competitive distinction. And, our membership has access to best-in-class marketing and technology programs through the cooperative.”
Launching at conneXtion will be the Mosaic Marketing Suite—a suite of marketing services from Drive, a technology-driven, marketing automation platform and customer relationship management system.
“These new offerings will allow our members to capture shoppers’ attention in a more meaningful way," Chiera said.
The cooperative is also rolling-out HomeVio, a three-dimensional, virtual reality experience for showrooms where the shopper can visualize what a floor looks like in a room as opposed to making a decision after looking at a product swatch.
Winter 2019 product launches answer the demand for waterproof, kid-proof and pet-proof floors, including Aquadura H2O waterproof hardwood flooring. Additionally, the newest launch in Downs H2O adds 20 exclusive SKUs of luxury vinyl tile.
“We will continue to push boundaries to help our retailers be successful,” Spano said. “We’re focused on providing a superior customer experience for any shopper who walks into our members showrooms and we will achieve this by continuing to innovate and develop value-added programs that distinguish our members from the competition.”
For more information visit flooringamerica.com and https://www.flooringcanada.ca/.
