Elevating your Customer Experience

The experience you create for your customers is now more important than the products you supply. It’s critical to understand your customers' triggers and then map out and continually improve your knowledge and the experience you’re creating.

Upgrading to solar energy: two homeowner experiences

Through 2034, the U.S. government is offering households a tax credit to cover up to 30 percent of the cost of installing rooftop solar and battery storage. It’s called the Residential Clean Energy Credit, and two of our Interrupt team members took advantage of the policy to transform their respective homes’ power sources from gas and electric to solar. Hear their personal insights into the selection and installation process.

AI is here to stay. Are you ready to leverage it?

The building materials industry is at a unique crossroads: customers want more personalized service than ever before. And AI may lend itself best to the needs of the building materials industry to deliver that. Executive Creative Director and Brand Strategist Anita Holman explores how this game-changing tool could enhance every brand’s ability to develop personalized advice in ways that were never humanly possible before.

When the brand is you: two companies that made our individuality their success

The strength of your “fan following” is also the strength of your brand. And one powerful way to build that loyalty is to allow your customers’ creativity to shine through in your marketing. Associate creative director Erin Kunz explores the brands that shaped her adolescence and how embracing user-generated content helped them build an even stronger identity.

One House, Multiple Families: Why America Needs Multigenerational Housing for the Masses

The sandwich generation isn’t just a social problem; it’s an innovation problem, too. At some point in our lives, many of us become filling for the so-called sandwich—caring for our own children and our aging parents at the same time. Or we experience transition, in our jobs, relationships, or health, and need to live with family or friends to bridge the gap. This need for multigenerational housing is in direct opposition to our current priority building single-family, nuclear homes in the U.S. Here’s why one writer believes that needs to change, and why it’s an untapped opportunity for the construction and design industries.

Space Mountain and the Power of Curiosity

A Disney coaster experience was just one test case for our strategic insights manager Stephanie Gries. As a market researcher, she’s logged hundreds of hours in conversation with your potential customers. (And as a mother, even more hours with her own family.) Collectively, all those talks taught her the power of developing more curiosity in both our professional and personal lives—and she says it all starts with one easy-to-ask question.

The Problem with a Conversions-First Mindset

An online advertising strategy that’s focused solely on calls to action may be working against your marketing goals in ways you don’t realize. While results matter, you can’t produce them without the right approach. Just like you wouldn’t ask someone to purchase something right when they walk through the doors of a brick and mortar store, your online messaging should take customers on a journey that’s more than transactional.

Go beyond the straight sales pitch

Taking the lead in your category involves more than just creating a superior product. It also requires becoming your customer’s go-to authority on the subject, with content, tools or support that show you’re as invested in their project as they are. Learn how we helped MoistureShield composite decking build an outdoor planning resource that does more than deliver a simple sales pitch, earning customer trust and reinforcing their reputation.

How Technology Impacts Customer Engagement

Is technology changing to meet consumers’ evolving needs or are consumers changing as a result of what technology enables? Like the chicken and the egg, it really doesn’t matter which came first. Consumer expectations and technology will keep changing, and if your brand is too chicken to keep up, you may be left with egg on your face (pun intended). Read on to learn why sharpening your digital CX is essential to your business survival.

How to Build Influence on Social Media Without Millions of Followers (or Millions of Dollars)

You’re proud of your product—and your customer reviews prove you’re right. How do you leverage those positive experiences into organic social media influence for your brand? We asked senior copywriter Ernest Turner to share how he and the rest of our SPAX team turned a community of customers into a small but mighty army of social media micro-influencers. (To see a full visual breakdown of the campaign, view our case study.)

How Building Materials Brands Can Do Better For New Homeowners (From Two First-Time Homeowners)

Building materials brands need to pay attention to the unique needs and problems of millennial homeowners. It’s a key factor to understanding your target audience, or the end-enjoyer. Yes, Millennials are turning 40 and they own homes. Take a note from two brand new homeowners on the Interrupt team—Aly and Ernest. From power tools to apps, get two insights from people living the dream right now.

How to Engage Today’s Contractor

Providing a good customer experience starts with understanding your customer. Taking the time to recognize how contractors operate and what they need to provide better service to their customers allows you to better serve contractors. Working to show a contractor how to best use your products to improve their business can mean better service and increased profits for both of you.

the online experience: key focus areas for big box retailers

As online shopping continues to gain traction, the overall retail experience is becoming more critical to the success of big box retailers. Online product research now plays a huge role regardless of where the purchase ultimately occurs. Whether buying online or in-store, the consumer shopping journey often begins long before the final sale, challenging all retailers (especially big box) to more carefully craft the sales path from beginning to end.