Do you remember the end of the movie, “Raiders of the Lost Ark”? After Indiana Jones recovers the Ark of the Covenant, it’s brought to Washington, D.C., where it’s put in a crate and stored with thousands of other crates in a massive warehouse.
The implication is that the ark will forever remain “lost” in that mass of crates.
This is similar to how many building product manufacturers present their building products when they use third-party listing sites, or aggregators.
The product in question is often one of hundreds or thousands listed, which makes it challenging to drill down to the specific product that the architect, engineer or contractor (AEC) needs for a project.
That’s a terrible user experience. If this is what you’re offering your customers, don’t be shocked if they move on to a website that makes it easy to drill down to the precise product or products needed for the project.
Granular Search Makes it Easy to Find Specific Products
We’re not trying to denigrate those third party listing pages, but the very nature of what they do make is exceedingly challenging for the AEC to find exactly what they need.
Why? Because third-party building product listing sites limit search capabilities to brands and categories. While that might seem sufficient, it still leaves a wide range of results to wade through. That results in a frustrating user experience for your customers.
Think of it like this. Imagine you are searching for footwear on an eCommerce site. Are you be satisfied when your search options are limited to a brand and “footwear” as search options? Probably not.
If you’re looking for rugged work boots, as an example, it’s be a poor user experience to have to scroll through all of the results for sneakers, cleats or dress shoes. They’re irrelevant. You want to be able to specify the materials used in the boot, and you want them in a specific color.
When a site makes it hard to find what you’re looking for, you go elsewhere.
The same holds true for building product listing sites. It’s a poor user experience to force your customers to sift through irrelevant results, and it’s virtually impossible to drill down to specific colors, materials, or other attributes beyond the category and the brand.
Concora surveyed AEC customers about their digital experiences. They will find another manufacturer if you don’t meet their expectations:
Consider what Jannette, an interior designer from Idaho had to say:
“If a manufacturer’s website is not easy to use or doesn’t have the correct content or tools, half of the time I’ll choose another manufacturer’s product to select.”
Make it Easy for Your Customers
It’s not difficult to deliver what your customers want. If you know they need refined search options, provide refined search options.
You should also highlight your products, not your competitors. That’s another issue with the aggregate sites. Your products are presented alongside your competition’s products. Unless your customers are brand loyal, sending them to a listing site means they may select your competitor’s product.
These are compelling reasons to provide a method to search, select and specify your building products on your website, rather than sending them to an aggregate site.
The Concora Digital Experience Platform Makes it Easy to Find the Right Building Materials
The Concora Digital Experience Platform (DxP) addresses the unique needs of building product manufacturers who want to have their commercial building products specified in the design and purchased.
With Concora, users can easily drill down to the precise products they need by ticking a couple of checkboxes. They can go from thousands of results to a refined group of relevant results in seconds.
Does that sound interesting? If so, we invite you to book a live demonstration of the Concora DxP to see how it works.