Women at WIRC: Liza Hausman on AI, Trends, and Building Better Client Relationships

In this episode of Women at WIRC (the official podcast of the Women in Residential Construction conference), Pro Builder's associate editor Catherine Sweeney interviews Liza Hausman, Vice President of Industry Marketing at Houzz.

They discuss how Houzz Pro software helps remodelers and designers manage projects, the changing expectations of today’s clients, and how referrals drive most new business. The conversation also covers current industry trends, the balance between client emotions and project transparency, and how AI and new technologies are shaping the future of residential construction.

Listeners will learn practical ways to improve client experience, win more projects, and stay competitive.

TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome back to Women at WIRC, where our editors from sister media brands—Pro Builder, Pro Remodeler, and Custom Builder—sit down with standout women across home building, remodeling, and design. We share their stories and business insights, and explore how women are reshaping the residential building industry.

I am joined today by Liza Hausman. Liza is the Vice President of Industry Marketing at Houzz, an innovative residential building and design platform and community, including the cloud-based, AI-powered project management and design software for industry professionals, Houzz Pro. Liza, thank you so much for joining us today.

For those who might be unfamiliar with you and what you do at Houzz, can you tell us a bit more about your work, your background, and what you’re doing now?

Liza: Sure—happy to be here, Catherine. Thanks for having me on the podcast. For those less familiar, Houzz is the leading platform for construction and design. A lot of people know the homeowner side, but our mission is simple: provide industry professionals and homeowners with the tools—much of it technology—they need to make projects successful. There’s a lot of pain and difficulty on both sides, and when Houzz started 15 years ago, the goal was to improve the process for everyone involved.

As VP of Industry Marketing, I focus on the pro community at Houzz—our customers and the broader community—ensuring we’re developing the right tools and products for both. A little history on how Houzz started: our founders were renovating their own home and found it tough to find the right people and resources. They thought, wouldn’t it be great if there were one place where homeowners could easily connect with designers, architects, builders, and remodelers?

How Houzz Pro software was developed

As more pros joined, they told us they wanted to reach homeowners in their local areas, so we created branding and advertising programs to help them showcase their work. Then those pros said, we need tools to manage all these leads and our projects without juggling a bunch of expensive, disconnected software. That’s how we built Houzz Pro—an all-in-one platform to cover needs from first lead to final payment and keep everything flowing smoothly.

Because we’re a technology company, we focus on adding cutting-edge tools that set pros apart—whether that’s AI to streamline tasks or 3D models to help clients visualize the final solution. I primarily focus on that software.

Catherine: One reason I was excited to talk to you is we discuss building quality and design quality, but you can’t get there until you have the client. That’s a good place to start. Where is today’s client—how are they beginning their search? If you could pick a few things they’re looking for—whether it’s an architect or a builder—what are they looking for today?

Liza: Referrals are the number one source for builders, remodelers, designers, and architects. We do an annual State of the Industry report that surveys those professionals, and 83% of their business is driven by referrals and 75% by repeat customers. It’s about showing how you’ll provide a great client experience and delivering on that experience.

You mentioned building and construction quality. A lot of that is tied to having a repeatable workflow. With the software, yes, we want pros to bring clients in and help them win business, but we also give them tools to run their businesses so they deliver a consistent client experience and manage projects in a way that leads to a quality result.

Client expectations have changed

Catherine: Two questions to piggyback on that. Based on your experience, how has the way clients interact with housing pros changed in the past five or ten years? And looking at the industry today, what are the biggest trends impacting how clients interact with professionals? Is it AI, technology, or something else?

Liza: Several things. First, my friend Mark Richardson likes to say your competition is everything. Clients can spend their money or time on other things. You need to make them confident they’ll have a good experience, or they’ll spend that time and money elsewhere—take a vacation, do something more pleasant. If they think this will be painful, they’ll opt out. So, competition as “everything” is one trend.

Second, even if people are financially okay, overall economic uncertainty makes them less confident. They may selectively splurge but also pull back. People buy emotionally and then rationalize logically. Pros need to help clients be more confident—provide data, advice, and visibility into choices. Our selections tool, for example, creates a collaborative process with visibility into selections, approvals, and budget impact.

Third, technology. The pandemic accelerated homeowner expectations. When I speak about AI and 3D, I hear from firms that projects they used to win now go to firms that show clients the technology they’ll use—3D visualizations, client dashboards. That’s becoming standard, and it’s an advantage. More firms include a slide in their proposal about the technologies they use, and clients are very interested in that slide.

Catherine: I’m curious about the interaction between the emotional side and the technological side. How can a business satisfy both needs?

Liza: Emotional needs include feeling excited and confident you’ll get what you want; logical needs cover knowing costs, choices, and avoiding surprises. Use technology to do both. Show great visuals—walk through 3D models, produce photorealistic renderings. That can inspire clients to move forward and even upsell. Then pair it with transparent processes: sign-offs on selections, clear invoicing, access to past bills, visibility into schedule. Share what gets them excited and marry it with financial and communication pieces that build confidence throughout the project.

Visibility and transparency in client communications

Catherine: You mentioned transparency. How important is that to clients today? How involved are they?

Liza: I sometimes use “visibility” rather than “transparency.” We want pros to share what clients need, not necessarily everything happening behind the scenes. Provide the visibility they need. We are seeing more contractors move to cost-plus models, being very transparent to protect themselves and make clients comfortable—they understand why something costs what it does.

There’s also a generational difference. Older clients still want phone calls and in-person meetings. Younger clients want that only when necessary but still want all the information—accessible in the cloud, on demand. We all need to serve different personalities. I spoke to a designer who uses ChatGPT to infer client personality from initial communications—who needs more handholding, who needs frequent budget updates, who prefers high-level summaries—and then customizes communication. Whether generational or personality-based, making information available self-serve helps deliver a good experience for everyone.

Practical applications of AI in remodeling

Catherine Sweeney: Let’s talk about AI. For human-facing interactions, what steps can builders and designers take to integrate AI into current systems while keeping it human-centered?

Liza: We just released a study called the State of AI in Construction and Design, surveying contractors and, separately, designers. AI-powered work isn’t always client-facing in creation, but the output often is. For example, using AI to pull together a summary report you deliver to the client: you spend less time preparing it, but the result is client-facing. The same for drafting emails—summarize a meeting and send it to the client.

AI is also used to create social posts and other marketing—public and client-facing. And it can create visuals: give clients an idea of the finished space early in the project, which is a competitive advantage.

Four main buckets of AI use

We see four main buckets of AI use:

1. Admin work and project management (note-taking, formatting, editing, meeting summaries)

2. Sales and marketing (social content, advertising, lead management)

3. Planning and design (visualizations, floor plans, takeoffs)

4. Project and client management (estimating, invoicing, task tracking)

Catherine: How broadly are businesses using AI for these tasks—broadly or still narrow?

Liza: Surprisingly broad—especially for admin and project management. We saw 62% using AI for admin work, 55% for sales and marketing, and 42% for planning and design. Larger firms (10+ people) use it more broadly because division of labor allows experimentation, but even small firms see big benefits. Saving three-plus hours a week per person adds up and impacts the bottom line.

Catherine: How do you see these applications evolving over the next five to ten years?

Liza: Adoption will deepen as people get comfortable and become more aware of what AI can do and how to train it on their business. Most pros in our survey said AI will be pervasive in five years and they’ll use it more deeply. The key is removing learning curves by building AI directly into tools pros already use—automatic reports generated from existing activity. The more software integrates this functionality, the faster adoption will be.

Advice for pros using AI and serving clients

Catherine: Any takeaways or tips—about AI or working with clients in general?

Liza: For AI: pick one task you find tedious and try it. Don’t be overwhelmed. Also, think about how it helps deliver a great client experience and win more projects. Visualization tools and 3D plans can help you win. Build technology into your proposal and sales deck. Show clients what you can do with tech and how it saves them money by saving you time, while improving their experience. Those two steps can accelerate businesses.

Thanks for listening to Women at WIRC. This podcast is a spinoff of our annual Women in Residential Construction Conference, which we’ve hosted since 2016. You can learn more about the conference and see when we’ll be in your area by visiting womensconstructionconference.com. 

Women at WIRC is a production of Endeavor Business Media, a division of Endeavor B2B. Until next time, keep up the good work.