Picture your average new homes sales office. A potential homebuyer strolls in, squints at static displays, chooses a design he likes, then walks over to the site plan table, where he again has to locate the homesite.
A cumbersome process if I ever saw one. Worse still, it hasn’t changed much in the last 30 years, despite the technology being there to improve it.
Other industries have woken up. Inspired by Apple, companies like Audi, Nike and Burberry lure store traffic with technology designed to make their experience easier and more pleasant — magical even.
I love this statement by Paul Roth, president of retail at AT&T, as quoted by Adweek: “It’s all about creating interactions rather than just transactions.”
It’s in this spirit that AT&T’s Chicago flagship store boasts an 18-foot video wall equipped with motion-sensory software on which kids can play games. And raindrops patter on a digital rooftop while wind chimes produce something called cyber inharmonic spectra.
I for one strongly believe the new home industry would be wise to join the revolution quietly taking place in the retail world.
That’s why BAM used touchscreens rather than static displays at Empire Communities’ Victory. And why we’re kicking things up a notch with Empire’s Lakeside community, which is opening soon.
In the Lakeside Showroom (doesn’t that sound better than “sales office”?) homebuyers will be able to browse home designs on touchscreens, much like they did at Victory.
More than that, they’ll be able to choose a specific homesite and watch it light up on the site plan (which is also digital).
It’s not just innovative and cool — it’s also helpful for the consumer. And it elevates the client to a status above and beyond every other low-rise builder in the province. Maybe even the country.
The digital revolution is evolving so fast it’s permeating offline territory. Those who ignore it do so at their peril.
JohnAmardeil.com 
Jun 10, 2013 @ 21:34:46
Well said.