My Phone is Ringing, and This is Why
I am frequently contacted by business owners who are dissatisfied with their digital marketing efforts. The number one reason I hear time and time again is “My phone isn’t ringing.” The owners want more customers, and their marketing efforts are not achieving that goal.
I have pinpointed three categorical reasons this disconnect occurs. If you are spending money on digital marketing and your phone isn’t ringing, read on for a guide to garner more customers. As an advocate for businesses, my hope is to empower owners with educational insight from independent sources so they can make informed decisions with confidence.
Reason #1: Agencies Selling the Work Wanted
To understand the business/agency disconnect, we must explore the typical marketing agency business model. Most are structured around a staff that includes website builders, social media marketers, graphic designers and copywriters who often work on search engine optimization as well. The website builders are project oriented and need an ongoing supply of work to justify their pay. Conversely, the social media work is typically ongoing.
The most common occurrence I see is building an entirely new website for a client when a less expensive update would suffice. If a website builder is needing new work, unscrupulous agencies will begin pitching websites to all their prospects, and statistically they will get work. I personally discovered one agency that designed a website template programmed to increase additional billings and work. They created internal coding on the website that overrides automatic search engine optimization (SEO) from working so they could bill for SEO work separately after the website build. I had the uncomfortable task of informing the client of my discovery and the cost of re-coding the website.
Green Light: An agency that produces documented reporting that shows your website needs SEO work and provides a market share report that demonstrates a deficiency in your website visitors compared to your competitors visitors is an indicator they have the expertise and have done research to support the suggestion. Reporting that clearly shows the deficiencies that need correction is a good sign.
Red Light: When the agency relies only on the visual appearance of the website, or wants to produce a website that is photography based with no supporting analysis of your site. Websites that serve as a photo album with little or no written content will not increase new visitors from Google searches.
Hint: You can check your website’s SEO score for free on many websites. This one scores on a scale of 100: https://www.seobility.net/en/seocheck/. This is the perfect tool to utilize to double check agency website work for integrity. This tool (or a similar third party) should also serve as a deliverable to achieve prior to final payment for website work.
Hint: If you are rebuilding your website, insist on an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant website. This ensures disabled visitors can access all the information. Websites are legally required to be ADA compliant; additionally, ADA-compliant websites are more SEO friendly, as the requirements of ADA and SEO overlap. Following is a link to a free ADA website checker: https://wave.webaim.org/
Reason #2: Owners Believe Digital Marketing is a Finite Process
Digital marketing is an ongoing process of pivoting with the additions of experiences on social media. Instagram Live video feeds and Facebook Business Suite are a few of the latest 2021 additions. Additionally, building traffic to a website is an ongoing process of deliberate growth dictated by Google, Bing and others. All of these show your content based on algorithmic updates that change how they choose, and who to show, your content. To add to the complexity, your competitors are actively adding content to drive visitors in tandem.
I demonstrate this to clients by showing them their market share of the products they offer, as it is an effective benchmark. For example, the search terms “cabinet hardware” and “kitchen cabinet hardware” total 124,000 per month. If your website generates 4,000 monthly visitors, you have 3% of the total market. By showing this data in numerical form, it speaks a language most owners can understand and they can then develop a budget. After a website is built, there is work to be done on the SEO side, digital advertising, or both, to drive people to it.
Red Light: Business owners who think a website just needs to exist to increase visitors, or they sporadically post on social media with no brand campaign.
Green Light: Professionals who have market share reports to determine the growth potential and the credentials to grow, and will supply references for website SEO initiatives. Social media posting plans that encapsulate more than one post type, ie: Stories, videos AND Feed posts.
Hint: Consistent Blog Posting is the perfect vehicle to connect with your customers and provide new content that search engines want.
Reason #3: The Marketing is Lacking
Targeting the correct audience is easier than ever with the amount of demographic and geographic data that every digital platform collects. When advertising on Google, Bing or social media, the success is in the details. If you are spending on digital advertising, you need to be guided by the reporting that shows the success rate by your audience demographics and geographical location. If your phone is not ringing, dig deeper into who exactly is being targeted to view the ads and adjust it accordingly.
Hint: Request reporting that shows the detail of the audience, the platforms the ads were shown on and the geographic locations.
A consistent brand identity provides consumers with the confidence of knowing the caliber of your products and the service associated with it. Does your social media brand mirror your website and printed collaterals? Does the customer experience stand up to the message? Are your employees educated on your brand identity? Having a solid, well-defined brand identity that clearly demonstrates your unique value is crucial. It ensures the customers are receiving the brand experience they expect.
Hint: Train your employees to ask customers qualifying questions. How did you find us? How was your first experience with us? How can we improve?
Savvy business owners view marketing as an extension of their business, and managing it with loyal partners and a staff that is accountable is a pathway to success. Trust your gut if there is any hesitation on your part and educate yourself with the help of third-party consulting when needed. Digital marketing is complex and is a powerful tool to grow your business, and make your phone ring. 
Denise Grothouse has an extensive background in international business, branding and marketing. She specializes in digital and social platforms and integrating them with traditional marketing and branding strategies. No stranger to the kitchen and bath industry, she is best known for her work as chief brand officer of Grothouse, Inc., and is the current president of the marketing firm Perfect Six.
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Nicholas Vanderhovel
An innovator not only because of his designs but in what it means to be a professional designer and how that translates into a design experience for clients, Nicholas Vanderhovel is one of the youngest designers in the country to have achieved his Certified Master Kitchen and Bath Designer from the NKBA. Vanderhovel, CMKBD, CAPS, CLIPP, the owner and designer of Kitchen NV, in Pinckney, MI, achieved the certification at age 32 and is said to be one of only a handful of people in Michigan with the title.
The designer is a purist when it comes to function and aesthetics and curating a space. He has worked on every side of design – from installation to drawing to material selection – in order to anticipate client needs and educate them.
Vanderhovel believes that luxury doesn’t have to be unobtainable. Rather, luxury has to do with how a person is treated and whether that person’s needs are met. He always wants a client to leave with that feeling, and that is what has led him on his quest for knowledge, reaching out to other leaders in the industry to learn more, and working with manufacturers to improve processes and products. He is dedicated to mentoring others, as well.
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Angela Poirrier
Angela Poirrier, CAPS, isn’t just a designer. According to her peers, Poirrier – owner and designer, Acadian House Design + Renovation, in Baton Rouge, LA – is a leader in an industry that is constantly evolving. She loves learning as well as passing along her expertise to others. From attending KBIS to more local NKBA and HBA meetings, she uses her insights to drive the industry forward. Among her initiatives are maintaining a regularly updated blog and hosting over 100 seminars to keep both peers and clients abreast of the latest trends and developments.
Within her own business, she has developed a system and process for every step along the project timeline. She then monitors and analyzes these processes to ensure they remain both effective and profitable for her team. Meanwhile, her marketing plan has allowed her to know the return on investment of every dollar spent and to forecast well into the future.
Although it may not come with a title, being recognized as a leader among her colleagues is among Poirrier’s proudest accomplishments. Through her own drive to learn and grow within the kitchen and bath industry, she has become a go-to for others seeking to understand everything from successful marketing and client relations to hiring employees and subcontractors.
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Earning Trust in a Skeptical World
The figures are shocking. Less than 25% of Americans trust the federal government to do the right thing, according to a recent Pew survey. And it’s not just Uncle Sam. Approximately a quarter of the U.S. population does not have a religious affiliation. One-third of Americans don’t trust the media to tell the truth, reaching a historic high, according to Gallup.
Can you blame people for being skeptical, weary and trust adverse? There have been monumental failures of leadership, deceptive practices, the use of “alternative facts” and outright deceit from brands, the government, public figures and media outlets that at one time offered a definitive perspective on the day’s news. Unfortunately, Walter Cronkite is not around any longer.
Becoming a Trusted Resource
How does a kitchen and bath showroom, in the midst of ongoing pandemic concerns, booming business volume and never-before-seen supply chain challenges, earn and maintain the trust of a skeptical customer base and market?
In her new book Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap, Margot Bloomstein provides a process for becoming a trusted resource for a showroom’s client base. That road map has three parts: voice, volume and vulnerability.
Voice refers to the consistent and familiar way in which a brand engages with its market both verbally and visually. A brand’s voice elevates a showroom or design-build organization’s most important qualities and characteristics.
Volume refers to the amount of information that a brand produces and determining how much content is enough. If you review kitchen and bath showroom websites, most will feature a portrait or project gallery with lots of kitchen images. Where this use of imagery falls short is that there typically are only images without explanation of anything. It’s volume for volume’s sake, and too often it’s mind-numbing. Do you really believe that posting pictures of 50 different kitchens shouts to your customer base, “trust us”?
Showroom customers want and need affirmation. They want to feel confident in their knowledge and ability to make the right decisions for their project. They need for showrooms to make them smarter. Showrooms can earn trust by teaching their customers to trust themselves by providing information and resources that make decision making and working with a showroom easier.
At TraVek (Scottsdale, AZ), teaching customers to trust themselves begins and ends with strong communication and education. The showroom establishes trust with its market by offering monthly remodeling seminars in the showroom, sharing dinner with a crowd on average of 20 to 25 homeowners and explaining what’s involved in the renovation process, information that they need to know, expectations, timelines, how to interview and evaluate contractors and price points to consider.
TraVek’s Susan Raisanen explains that trust building begins with an initial meeting with a client at their home with all decision makers required to attend. Timelines are explained and agreed to, which is especially important in today’s environment when many showrooms may not be able to supply product or start projects for four to six months from the time a contract is signed. TraVek continues to communicate with every client that is waiting weekly with a phone call, email or text depending on how the customer prefers to receive messages. “Even if the message is nothing has changed, reaching out and having a weekly touch point says to the customer ‘you have not been forgotten, we still care about you,’ and that helps to reinforce the trust factor with our showroom,” Raisanen said.
At Murphy Bros. Design, Build, Remodel (Blaine, MN), the new supply chain paradigm has changed the sales approach. John Murphy explains, “We are completely transparent with customers, especially at initial meetings. Realistic timelines are presented, goals are established and market conditions are shared. We’ve even modified our proposals to highlight in the project scope the potential for delays at the start, in the middle and even before a project can be completed. We found that if we set expectations at the front end of projects, clients understand and they realize that other industries are experiencing similar challenges.”
Murphy Bros. also encourages its clients to select a plan B for each product type in case there are unexpected production delays and steers clients away from products that it knows can’t meet deadlines. The company also created a small woodshop in the back of its facility and retained a full-time woodworker to build custom cabinets if product is needed immediately that cannot be obtained through traditional channels.
Vulnerability refers to the uncertainty that comes from exposing your business to risk and criticism in the hope of improving, finding support or connecting with those who share similar values. Bloomstein claims that vulnerability is a corporate strength. It trades the safety of sure bets and certainty, such as three-week lead times, for choices that open the organization to risk, such as we can’t tell you definitively when your cabinets will arrive, that results in potentially greater rewards because you are being honest and setting realistic expectations.
Vulnerability is how a business makes its values visible, how it owns mistakes, how it deals with the unexpected and how values are expressed and why.
Richard Campbell (Bath, Kitchen & Tile Center with three showrooms in Delaware and one in Maryland) did not receive a positive reception from his builder clientele when he informed them of product delays and unidentifiable delivery dates. “Almost all of our major builder clients told us they were walking away, only to find that other destinations had the same problems that we were experiencing. We understand what our builders’ priorities are and started crafting solutions to meet them, such as ordering cabinets before a house is framed and working with the builder to adjust the framing to accommodate cabinet dimensions.”
Bath, Kitchen and Tile has crafted stronger partnerships with its builder clientele by working together to develop supply chain solutions. “You build trust by recognizing and explaining to clients that we are in this together. Let’s develop solutions and provide options that work, when others in the industry are resigning themselves to the belief that there is nothing they can do,” Campbell stated.
Tom Caruso (Caruso Cabinets, Avon, OH) shifted his business model to take advantage of the surge in new home construction. He, too, is ordering cabinets before a home is framed and ordering truckloads of product weekly. This has provided Caruso the flexibility to pivot when necessary and supply product based on the progress of a project, client needs and highest priorities.
Bellmont Hardware showrooms in the San Francisco Bay area have personalized communication with customers by moving to appointment only. “This enables our sales team to provide undivided attention that results in more credibility and trust with customers,” related company general manager who also happens to be named Rich Campbell.
Bath Kitchen & Tile, TraVek, Caruso Cabinets, Murphy Bros., Bellmont and others all are advising their customers not to start demolition until all product has been delivered. Most customers have resigned themselves to the longer timelines and to be patient. Bath Kitchen & Tile has been promoting a financing option to its clients that has been well received because payment does not begin until products are delivered. The company also is developing an automated communication system that updates clients on the status of their project every two to three weeks with varying messages that keep enthusiasm high, telling customers how important they are and encouraging outreach to the showroom if there are questions. The message is that Bath Kitchen & Tile wants to hear from its clients and talk to them during the wait period.
You can’t have too many touchpoints in this environment, claims Brendon Murphy (Charleston Cabinetry & Countertops, LLC). At initial client meetings, he explains the 10 stages of a project from the initial design consultation to customer sign off at the end. “Reviewing each stage of the product sends the message that we want our customers to understand what is involved and demonstrates that our approach is well organized and thoughtful, which helps to build trust,” Murphy said.
Many showrooms have found that there is a silver lining to the supply chain’s dark cloud. Tom Caruso explained, “Because of lead times, our attention to detail has never been stronger. We check and double check every order to eliminate mistakes because if there is a problem, it may take four months or longer to resolve.”
Brendon Murphy sends the message to his clients that he needs their help to get them what they want. At initial meetings, he asks clients how much they want to invest in their property and explains that, at the end of the day, his goal is to add more value to their home than the amount of their investment.
Kitchen and bath showrooms can build trust with consumers by effectively managing customer expectations, by using their voice in the right volume, making it easy to do business with them at every stage in the customer journey and to allow themselves to be vulnerable by explaining how they are addressing challenges and responding to problems with transparency and honesty. And the entire industry can benefit from the sage advice of Mark Twain, who said, “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” 
Tom Cohn serves as the exec. v.p. of the Bath & Kitchen Business Group and president of Cohn Communications, Inc., a full-service strategic marketing and public relations agency headquartered in Bethesda, MD.
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Ginger Rabe
Taking pride in custom designing each kitchen so that each has its own identity, Ginger Rabe, founder of Ginger Rabe Designs, LLC, in Carlsbad, CA, focuses on current trends as well as what is timeless.
With a Master’s Degree in architectural building within sustainable design from Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Rabe is now a professor of the Master’s program at the Design Institute of San Diego. This position allows her to share her knowledge of the kitchen and bath industry and sustainable design.
Rabe is on the board of the NKBA of Southern California chapter, and is also on the speakers bureau for the San Diego Green Building Council and the advisory council for Palomar College Interior Design Department. In addition, she gives master classes on kitchen design, and is a TedX speaker on healthy spaces.
In 2020, she received the Power Business Woman Award, and in 2021 received an award for the San Diego Favorite in Kitchen Design and Construction.
Proficient in design-build, Rabe reports that she will be getting her general contractor’s license this year, as her firm also builds custom homes. Her furniture line includes five unique pieces – each named after someone in her family – that pair perfectly with her cabinet designs.
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2022 KBIS, IBS Health & Safety Guidelines Updated
HACKETTSTOWN, NJ — A revised set of health and safety protocols, including COVID-19 vaccination requirements and/or proof of a negative coronavirus test result, have been issued for the 2022 Design & Construction Week (DCW), the annual three-day event that encompasses the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show (KBIS) and the International Builders’ Show (IBS).
The National Kitchen & Bath Association, which owns KBIS, and the National Association of Home Builders, owner of IBS, last month released the revised protocols for DCW, scheduled for Feb. 8-10 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL. The guidelines apply to attendee and exhibitor registrants for both KBIS and IBS, and are subject to revision, event sponsors noted.
“The safety and wellbeing of our attendees, partners, exhibitors, site workers and staff remains our top priority, said DCW organizers, adding that they are “working with our vendors, partners and the Orange County Convention Center to … deliver a safe and productive environment in which to conduct business.”
“As we get closer to returning to an in-person event, we continue to update our health and safety policies based upon current recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the state of Florida and local Orlando health authorities, event organizers added. “We will continue to monitor their recommendations and will update relevant information as needed.”
Guidance related to large gatherings relative to COVID-19 and associated variants continues to change, DCW organizers said. “What will remain constant,” show officials said, “is the commitment of the NAHB International Builders’ Show (IBS) and NKBA’s Kitchen & Bath Industry Show (KBIS) and to the health and safety of attendees, exhibitors, partners and staff at our shows.”
Details regarding the health and safety policies for Design and Construction Week can be found at: http://www.designandconstructionweek.com/healthsafety.html.
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U.S. Action Urged on Supply Chain Bottlenecks, Tariffs
WASHINGTON, DC — A pair of prominent industry-related trade associations have issued pleas for Congress and the Biden administration to help ease global supply chain bottlenecks that are stunting housing affordability and hindering the availability of key products used in new construction and residential remodeling.
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) last month each issued separate calls for government policymakers to eliminate current trade barriers and seek solutions to port congestion and major delays in truck and rail transportation.
Testifying before the House Small Business Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Regulations, NAHB Chairman Chuck Fowke told government lawmakers that disruptions in the building materials supply chain exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic are having “a disproportionate” impact on smaller homebuilding firms.
“Without large economies of scale, small businesses generally cannot negotiate bulk discounts on lumber and other key building materials,” said Fowke. “The effects of this uncertainty trickle all the way to the (prospective) homebuyer, many of whom have balked at projects due to unexpected price increases.”
According to the Washington, DC-based NAHB, historically high lumber and building materials prices continue to serve as “headwinds” for the U.S. housing sector, significantly impeding housing affordability.
“From steel mill products and plastic piping to cooper pipe and wood windows and doors, prices are up dramatically year-to-date and are exacerbating the growing housing affordability crisis,” Fowke said. “Until a long-term solution can be reached, Congress and the administration should temporarily suspend duties on a wide array of imported building materials and goods, from Canadian softwood lumber to Chinese steel and aluminum.”
In addition, “policymakers must continue to aggressively explore solutions to ease building material supply chain disruptions that are causing project delays and putting upward pressure on home prices,” Fowke added.
Days before Fowke’s plea, AHAM joined several other trade associations in telling Congress that ongoing supply chain challenges “are hurting the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturers, stalling the economic recovery (and resulting in) unprecedented damage to the global product supply chain.”
“The ability to produce and deliver home appliances to consumers has been dramatically hindered by the COVID-19 pandemic and other supply-related issues, creating hardships for consumers and businesses at every step in the supply chain,” said Joseph McGuire, AHAM president and CEO. “The result is ongoing shortages of products, materials, components and labor, leading to delays and increased costs.”
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NAHB Urges White House Action on Lumber Prices
WASHINGTON, DC — With builders continuing to grapple with lumber price swings and supply chain disruptions, the National Association of Home Builders has once again appealed to the White House to redouble its efforts to address lumber price volatility and address supply chain bottlenecks for lumber and other building materials.
The Washington, DC-based NAHB this week sent a letter to President Biden, requesting that government officials address three key issues that, if unaddressed, “will severely hamper the ability to provide affordable housing and provide jobs to strengthen the economy,” said the association, which has already conducted several meetings on the subject with top administration officials.
“While lumber prices have fallen precipitously since peaking in mid-May, prices have been moving upward over the past month,” said the 140,000-member NAHB, urging the Biden administration “to make it an important priority to address lumber and building material supply chain issues that are contributing to price volatility and harming housing affordability.”
The NAHB urged U.S. officials address the current congestion at the ports and to “return to the negotiating table with Canada and develop a new softwood lumber agreement that will end tariffs on lumber shipments into the U.S.”
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NKBA Cites ‘Thirty Under Thirty’ Class of 2022
HACKETTSTOWN, NJ — The National Kitchen & Bath Association has unveiled its Thirty Under 30 Class of 2022.
The program, currently in its tenth year, recognizes talented kitchen and bath professionals under the age of 30. Nominees were evaluated on their career or educational achievements, commitment to excellence in the kitchen and bath industry and leadership within their organizations, according to the NKBA.
The 2022 Class includes: Jessica Bolles, Oasis Showroom/APR Supply, York, PA; Michael Boone, Green Forest Cabinetry, Chesapeake, VA; Andrew Converse, Moen, Cleveland, OH; Alex Dickson, PK Brand Management, Kelowna, BC, Canada; Darla Duncan, Prime Cabinetry, Kennesaw, GA; Hannah Guilford, Heart & Hammer Homes, Fryeburg, ME; Cara Hansen, Triple Dot Design Studio, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Jesse Jarrett, Jarrett Design LLC, Emmaus, PA; Becky Leu, Leu Interiors, Des Moines, IA; Andrea Liston-Jones, Liston Design Build, St. Charles, MO; James McDonald, McDonald Contracting, Arlington, MA; Madelaine Millholland, CASE Design/Remodeling, Bethesda, MD; Basia M’Pinda, Kohler/Williams & Associates, Winnipeg, MB, Canada; Antoinette Nunez, CKBD, F&J Builders, Wilmington, DE; Hannah Pregont, Superior Marketing, Brooklyn, NY; Megan Reed, AKBD, CLIPP, Beyond the Box Inc., Billings, MT. and Kelsey Richter, BDA & Associates, Fishers, IN.
Other Class of 2022 members include: Caitlin Ryan, Fisher & Paykel | DCS Experience Center, New York, NY; Grace Sheehan, CLIPP, Kitchen Doctors, Midlothian, VA; Justyna Skolasinski, AKBD, Crystal Lumber, Crystal Falls, MI.; Amanda Slattery, Artistic Cabinetry, Jackson Lake, NE; Benjamin Stoler, Delta Faucet Co., Indianapolis, IN; AJ Tentler, Delta Faucet Co., Indianapolis, IN; Summerlyn Travis, Strohmaier Construction, Spokane, WA; Hannah Triebel, Sunnyfields Cabinetry, Baltimore, MD; Austin Waldhauser, Kenwood Kitchens, Columbia, MD; Emily-Anne Walker, Ferguson Enterprises, Williamsburg, VA; Patience Whipple, Chariot Plumbing Supply Design, Sandy, UT; Pip Wu, D.I.D, Ferguson/Wolseley, Burnaby, BC, Canada and Shantelle Yablonski, Superior Cabinets, Saskatoon, SK, Canada.
The incoming class will be formally inducted during KBIS 2022 in Orlando, FL, according to the NKBA.
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‘Strong Growth’ Foreseen for Remodeling Through 2022
CAMBRIDGE, MA — “Strong growth” in home improvement and maintenance expenditures is expected to continue over the coming year, according to the Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA), released last month by the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.
The LIRA projects year-over-year gains in annual improvement and repair spending will reach 9% in the fourth quarter of this year and maintain that pace into 2022. Annual improvement and repair expenditures by homeowners could reach $400 billion by the third quarter of 2022, according to the Joint Center, which warned that “several headwinds” – including the rising costs of labor and building materials, as well as increasing interest rates – “could still taper expected growth.”
“Residential remodeling continues to benefit from a strong housing market with elevated home construction and sales activity and immense house price appreciation in markets across the country,” said Carlos Martín, project director of the Remodeling Futures Program at the Cambridge, MA-based Joint Center. “The rapid expansion of owners’ equity is likely to fuel demand for more and larger remodeling projects into next year.”
In related remodeling market news:
n The U.S. building products market will continue building on its “exponential growth” of the past two years, gaining an additional 2.9% from 2023 through 2025, with the professional sector increasing by 4.6%, according to a newly released forecast by the Home Improvement Research Institute (HIRI). The Indianapolis-based HIRI predicted that the total U.S. building products market will increase by 13% in 2021 over the previous year, with the professional sector growing by 18.2%. The total building products market is forecast to grow an additional 2.3% in 2022, with the professional sector growing by 7.1%, HIRI added.
n Businesses in the residential construction and remodeling sectors anticipate “strong activity” through the balance of 2021, although many companies report steady increases in backlogs since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, along with wait times of nearly three months before new projects can begin, according to the Q4 2021 Houzz Renovation Barometer, a quarterly gauge that tracks market expectations, project backlogs and recent activity among U.S businesses in the construction and architectural/design services sectors. Results of the survey were released last month by Houzz Inc., the Palo Alto, CA-based online platform for home remodeling and design.
“Confidence prevails across the industry through year-end,” said Marine Sargsyan, Houzz senior economist. “We’ve seen some settling of home renovation and design activity following record high performance earlier in the year, yet many businesses are struggling to catch up with heightened demand as they navigate supply chain challenges and labor availability, leading to record-long backlogs.”
n Demand for remodeling remains strong, and remodelers “are doing quite well as long as they can adequately deal with material and labor shortages,” according to the latest Remodeling Market Index (RMI) compiled by the National Association of Home Builders. The NAHB last month released its NAHB/Royal Building Products Remodeling Market Index (RMI) for the third quarter of 2020, posting a reading of 87, up five points from the third quarter of 2020. The finding “is a signal of residential remodelers’ confidence in their markets, for projects of all sizes,” the NAHB said.
“We are seeing strong demand and continued optimism in the residential remodeling market, despite the fact that supply constraints are severe and widespread,” said NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz.
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