RBDC Design Center
A design center offers home buyers a unique, valuable experience. Essential to that experience is a clear understanding of products, easy concentration on the choices at hand, and an atmosphere that inspires creativity.
A showroom vignette satisfies both right-brain and left-brain decision-making, according to Daniel Pink in his book, A Whole New Mind.
It’s a Place to See and Touch
The RBDC Design Center is an inspiring, intimate place. From traditional touches and details to contemporary clean lines, there is something for everyone.
A shopper’s preference to feel a product plays a huge part in their decision-making. Unlike online research, when home buyers visit a design center they can actually touch and compare options. They can see how they will look in a space, even touch the textured exterior of the wood grain.
During a design center appointment, it’s best to come prepared. Bring pages from magazines and catalogs, and tear out fabric swatches to make your discussion with your designer more productive. It also helps to have a list of questions and ideas you want to discuss with your designer. This will save time and ensure every question is addressed.
It’s a Place to Compare
A good design center offers a wide range of options, including flooring, cabinets and more. Home buyers can compare and contrast different products to make the best decisions.
For example, if you’re purchasing a sofa, you might compare the charcoal-toned upholstery fabric with an espresso-colored option to see how they look. It’s this ability to compare that makes designer showrooms such a powerful resource.
Builders recognize that the design center experience can be overwhelming for many buyers. They’re working to make the process as transparent as possible to help home buyers prioritize their options and move through it quickly. For example, Fulton Homes provides a checklist for home buyers to use before their design center visit that helps them separate needs from wants and prioritize their options. This helps them know what to focus on at the design center — options they can bake into their mortgage versus those that would require an additional renovation loan.
It’s a Place to Make Selections
As home buyers research and choose customizations, they need to see how options look together. That’s why design centers exist. They enable home buyers to explore and compare products — from siding and shingles to door and window styles, cabinet styles and quality, flooring materials and colors, carpeting and padding, and light fixtures and ceiling fans.
Buyers are able to focus on the choices they’ll be making and are encouraged to invest in the process with their designers, all while staying within budget and getting their dream home built as quickly as possible. It’s important that home builders provide a well-designed, customer-focused experience.
The key to success is a clear understanding of the products, ease of concentration, a comfortable and productive atmosphere, and moving through the process as efficiently as possible. This approach will help to make the design center a viable and valuable resource for today’s home buyer.
It’s a place to learn
Rather than simply providing an opportunity to select materials and colors, a design center should teach homeowners how to make decisions. This is why many of these showrooms offer educational programs and lectures for designers and consumers alike.
Home buyers need to be able to concentrate on the choices they are making and move through the decision process as efficiently as possible. This means separating their needs from their wants, helping them understand the products that are standard versus those that can be upgraded, and offering checklists that they can use before they go to their local design center.
To help you get the most out of DesignCenter, be sure to set your standards folder as your home location, and put all your templates in that folder for quick access. You can also right-click on a template file and choose “Set as Home.” This will give you easy access to any design files you use regularly.