Is Your Home Improvement Business Ready for Millennials?

Before you answer, you might want to find out some of the interesting generational trends connected to this influential demographic. While there are many generalizations made about the young adults in their 20s and 30s, I want to focus specifically on their size, shopping and spending habits, and buying power. Why should you care? Simply put, Millennials are vastly different from previous generations and ignoring their unique characterizations could be a costly mistake.

Are you aware that in the United States, there are 92 million Millennials? That’s a number worth repeating, 92 million! This generation makes up 25% of the population and represents the largest growing segment of consumers. Millennials are highly diverse, tech savvy, optimistic, social, and well educated. As a matter of fact, this group of young adults is the best educated generation in U.S. history. They are forging new paths, sharing innovative ideas and setting trends.

Buying Power

Let’s talk numbers. How does $600 billion sound? That’s not a typo, it’s actually the amount spent annually by Millennials. Now let me throw another number at you, 1.4 trillion. By the year 2020, $1.4 trillion is the estimated annual spending by this generation. Want one more number? You got it, $30 billion is the amount predicted that Millennials will inherit from Baby Boomers in the coming years. I’d say there is some serious cash being spent now and predicted to be spent in the future, but as I said before, Millennials differ from Gen Xers and Baby Boomers, so you need to adjust your business strategies now if you haven’t already done so.

Shopping & Spending Habits

In order to make the changes necessary to cater to Millennials, you must first have a clear understanding of this groups habits when it comes to shopping and spending. Millennials, aka the digital generation, are particularly active online and the available data indicates that they are more likely to shop via the Internet than any other generation. This in itself is good news; however, these young adults tend to be frugal and diligently do their homework.

Prior to making a purchase, whether it is a product or a service, Millennials will conduct a thorough search on the Internet for reviews and ratings to gain valuable insight. Although having a good reputation with positive customer feedback is important, it isn’t the only thing they are looking for or taking into consideration. What tops their list and carries the most weight on their decision is price followed by quality. They are a generation sensitive to price and will go to great lengths to find what they consider to be an enticing deal.

This behavior of window shopping and careful spending has been dubbed “fauxsumerism” by The Intelligence Group. Call it fauxsumerism or something else, it’s name doesn’t really matter. What does matter is whether or not you have what these influential shoppers are looking for. To recap, Millennials are savvy shoppers who are willing to go on a painstaking quest to find the best bargain for whatever it is that they are considering buying. If they can’t find it on your website, it’s a good bet that they are moving on.

ServiceWhale

If you’re a home improvement contractor, the rules of the game are no different. Do you want a piece of the hundreds of billions of dollars being spent each year? Of course you do. The National Association of Home Builders has predicted that there will be a gradual rise in new homeownership and home repairs this year due in part to Millennials who are now at the peak of their home-buying years. If you’re not delivering on the expectations and desires of Millennials, you’ll lose them altogether and become just another kicked tire.

What’s that? You have a 5 star rating and offer extremely competitive rates? Awesome, but do you provide upfront prices on your website for your visitors to see? No? Uh-oh, your website’s bounce rate just skyrocketed because Millennials are going elsewhere to look. To convert lookers into buyers, you need a way to deliver on demand quotes for your services.

ServiceWhale is the solution. Using an innovative consumer facing quoting widget, homeowners can get custom quotes from you in minutes without an onsite visit. You just preload your pricing and let technology do the rest. Interested parties will merely answer a few simple questions about their project, input their contact information and voilà, they get exactly what they wanted! They’re happy and you just got a really terrific lead.

Both contractors and homeowners have expressed a high degree of satisfaction with ServiceWhale. Homeowners of every generation can find local contractors, reviews and a price, all within minutes and at no cost to them. The ease of comparing multiple quotes and hiring a great contractor without having to invite them to your home is extremely efficient and enticing. Everyone saves time and everyone wins.

For more information on ServiceWhale and the various options available for our contractors, please visit our website.