Part 1 - Digital Experience Trends for Building Materials Brands

In the first half of this two-part episode of Constructive Insights, Jen Candlish welcomes Jan Kelley’s Director of Experience Design Andy Patrick to dive into the latest digital trends that are shaping online experiences today. Looking at these digital experience trends is extremely important, as they can help building materials brands grow their online presence, strengthen their digital efforts and ensure they meet their customers’ needs in real time.

What you’ll learn in Part 1

• How customers’ expectations have changed and what this means for B2B brands online 
• The evolution of chatbots and how they can provide insights into what your customers need 
• Why personalization is important and how building materials brands can use recommendations to better connect with their audiences

Want to get a leg up on your competitors? Looking at trends is the first step.

Since the pandemic, there has been a dramatic need for better digital experiences. But brands are still catching up when it comes to the digitization of their offerings, especially on the B2B side. Over the last few years, customer expectations have rapidly changed and grown online. From purchasing items directly on social channels to ordering meals and groceries from a variety of apps, consumers have adopted a new way of interacting with and purchasing from brands. They now need and expect a great digital experience from start to finish. 

And that isn’t just for B2C brands; it’s very much apparent for the B2B world, as well. Customers aren’t just expecting this seamless experience in their day-to-day lives – that expectation is heightened when it comes to their working lives and purchasing products for their operations. 

In order to stay relevant, building materials brands need to be aware of these trends and understand them to better connect with their audiences. 

“The days of us being able to say, ‘It’s a business website. It’s not expected to be as great.’ That gap is very much closing, if it’s not closed already.” – Andy Patrick

Trend 1: Chatbots

Chatbots have existed for decades, although thanks to the recent advancements in technology and AI, they have become more intelligent and are growing in adoption when it comes to enhancing business communications. Business Insider says 80% of businesses are going to have a chatbot of some sort on their website.

Whether it’s a text-based chatbot with pre-determined answers, a message-based one that connects to your sales team or a more sophisticated, AI-based model with ChatGPT, chatbots offer varying degrees of interaction. At the root of it, chatbots allow customers to have another way to reach out to brands that’s faster and requires less effort than sending an email or picking up the phone.

The benefits of having a chatbot:

> Connect with your audience, any time of the day.

For building materials brands, a chatbot can be the perfect way to connect with their audience at their convenience. Builders and contractors are busy on the job site during the day, which means most of their research is done during their off hours. When they can’t reach a sales agent or customer service line, a chatbot can offer the product or installation answers they need.

> Provides answers to complicated or specific questions. 

Your website holds a lot of valuable content, but it’s impossible to be able to answer every single possible question or topic a user is researching. New questions and searches are constantly happening. However, a chatbot can be the tool building materials brands use to bridge that gap. It can have the functionality to capture specific, niche, in-the-moment questions which brands can then use for future content opportunities.

> They can do more than give answers. They can give peace of mind.

Pan-Pacific Mechanical is one example of how a chatbot can provide immense value to customers. The company integrated a chatbot into its site where users can regularly ask about their costs and timelines, and ensure their job is progressing as it should. This chatbot allows users to check on these items at any time, giving them a sense of security, confidence and assurance that they’re being looked after.

> Large investment not required. 

Building materials brands that are interested in adding a chatbot to their websites can start small. Even having a basic chatbot with pre-populated answers or one that connects to a salesperson is a positive step. As you start to use it, you’ll get a better sense of what people are looking for, what they are asking and what kind of support they need from you, so you can pivot if and when needed.

> Gain insights straight from the source. 

One of the biggest benefits of having a chatbot is that you can gain insights into what your customers are really asking and learn what type of content they need to help them in their buying journey.

“There’s so much learning that can come from chatbots. By learning the questions users are asking, you’re continually creating those answers, getting ahead of that content and providing information that’s going to be helpful for your audience.” – Jen Candlish

Trend 2: Personalization

Amazon’s suggested products are a great example of personalization. You complete an order and Amazon presents a variety of recommended items based on your preferences, interests and what others similar to you may have purchased. Through machine learning, this technology can learn users’ typical behaviours to personalize the purchasing experience and serve up items tailored to them.

“It makes you feel like they’re speaking to you on your level…it’s serving up content that makes sense for you, knowing who you are.” – Andy Patrick 

The benefits of personalization:

> It can work for a variety of building materials products.

From trending colours to styles, personalization can be used to serve up your most popular building materials products. Not only does it allow you to bring your products to the forefront; it also helps save a user time deciphering which colours or styles would work best for them.

> It gives users a sense of confidence.

Customer recommendations go a long way when it comes to instilling confidence. Serving up products that hundreds of users have selected instantly speaks to the quality, performance and popularity of that product. Especially for contractors, builders, architects and specifiers who may not be design led, knowing these products are the most trend worthy or popular gives them the confidence that this purchasing decision is the right one.

> It opens users’ minds to what else is possible.

By serving up popular building materials products along with suggested options, it opens a world of possibilities for what a building project can be. From components and panels to countertops and tiles, seeing which building products complement each other makes the purchasing decision easier and gives users an added value of knowing what works.

“At its core, personalization is tapping into your customers’ way of thinking and giving them suggestions that we know are going to make their lives easier.” – Andy Patrick

Curious to learn more about digital experience trends?

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this Constructive Insights episode where we’ll be covering 3 more of the latest digital trends. In the meantime, check out our report on the “5 Ways Leading Building Materials Brands are Harnessing the Power of Digital Experience”. We analyzed 200 of the leading building materials websites to see how they rank in their digital experience and uncover which digital enhancements are hitting the mark and driving growth.