Products

Technology — Home Improvement

PR April 2015

Pro's Pick: Improve Sales with RillaVoice AI Speech Analytics Tool

dbarto — Tue, 14 Mar 2023 14:54:27 +0000

Pro's Pick: Improve Sales with RillaVoice AI Speech Analytics Tool

dbarto Tue, 03/14/2023 - 09:54

Ian Foltz
Vice President
American Remodeling Enterprises
& Epoxy Floor Experts
Schuylkill Haven, Penn.
RillaVoice

I would recommend the Rilla app to all sales managers and home improvement professionals. It allows you to do a virtual ride-along with your sales reps by recording the entire sales presentation. You can hear the back-and-forth dialogue between homeowners and your salespersons for the entirety of sales demonstrations.

I have over 20 salespeople who report to me. I can't possibly ride along on every lead with them and help troubleshoot their demo delivery or adequately address a decline in their closing percentages. But with Rilla, I can listen to the recorded sales presentations every evening–or at any time I want to–and review every step of their process. This enables me to note things that my salesmen could have done better and quickly provide them with feedback.

Plus, Rilla allows you to upload your sales demonstration. If a salesman strays from it, you can get an automatic alert in real-time on your phone. You can listen to it and know that your process isn't being followed. This is all controlled by AI voice recognition technology.

A lot of companies continue to operate in an antiquated fashion. Many still have their weekly sales meetings or conference calls to discuss issues that occurred over the past week. I have those meetings every day after listening to the sales presentation recordings on the Rilla app. But only when I need to address an issue with an individual. This allows our sales team to run more leads every day because I don't need to bring everybody in to have a sales meeting on a daily or weekly basis.

Rilla has helped us maintain a high closing percentage because we can do quality assurance checks with our sales reps every single day.

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This Pro’s Pick allows home improvement sales managers to conduct virtual ride-alongs with sales reps

Ian Foltz

Sales — Home Improvement

Innovative Products: A Wine Cooler in a Drawer

cbroderick — Fri, 17 Feb 2023 15:09:15 +0000

Innovative Products: A Wine Cooler in a Drawer

cbroderick Fri, 02/17/2023 - 09:09

Swedish manufacturer Dometic is hoping to reinvent the understanding of what a wine cooler can be with its new DrawBar. Wine coolers may evoke imagery of freestanding or built-in stainless steel refrigerators with typical shelves and glass fronts. Though they get the job done, whether the appliance does it beautifully can be debated.

Dometic’s new DrawBar is designed to remove the bulk and the standard look of wine coolers and instead offer a compact, sleek, and hidden drawer wine cooler. The company calls it an industry first, and with recent data from the National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA) pointing toward wine storage as a top feature in kitchen islands, DrawBar’s flexibility makes the island feature that much more accessible.

Nearly 40% of designers surveyed by the NKBA listed wine storage as a growing and key feature for kitchen islands, only trailing behind products such as charging areas and multiple sinks.

“Wherever there is a drawer, there can now be a DrawBar. It fills a white space for compact wine cooling and brings endless installation possibilities to the residential sector,” said Dometic CEO Juan Vargues.

The appliance brings the same functionality as a full-size wine cooler, but in a smaller footprint fit for five wine bottles. DrawBar features a control panel with five preset temperatures for either red, white, or sparkling wines. The appliance also features a humidity tray that works to maintain optimal humidity inside, as well as a soft internal light.

DrawBar can be installed below or adjacent to 24-inch wide standard cabinetry with options of glass, stainless steel, or custom paneling face.

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A new kind of wine cooler hits the market, perfect for compact spaces

Kitchen & Bath

Kitchen & Bath Design

Kitchen

Innovative Products: A Kitchen Faucet... Hanging from the Ceiling?

cbroderick — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 15:55:24 +0000

Innovative Products: A Kitchen Faucet... Hanging from the Ceiling?

cbroderick Thu, 02/16/2023 - 09:55

Kohler is bringing kitchen faucets to where they’ve never been before—ceilings. The manufacturer has released its latest kitchen faucet innovation, Purist Suspend, a ceiling-mounted, minimalist faucet.

Purist Suspend hangs best from 8 to 10-foot ceilings and can be adjusted in height. The faucet, which has the appearance of a pendant light, offers 180-degree rotation. Kohler says this allows for easy and convenient placement over a sink.

Despite the generous rotation ability and suspended nature, the faucet’s weighted spray head keeps it from swaying and spraying water, according to company officials. Spray options include the powerful Sweep Spray, fast Boost, and, when homeowners need to swivel the faucet briefly, Pause.

Paired with Purist is Suspend, its wireless, battery-operated control puck. The puck can be placed anywhere in the kitchen and still control the faucet. While chargeable, the puck offers a one-month battery life.

The faucet is available in polished chrome, stainless steel, matte black, and brushed moderne brass.

RELATED: The Latest Innovative Products

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Just when you thought you had seen everything a faucet could do, Purist Suspend enters

Kitchen & Bath

Kitchen & Bath Design

Kitchen

5 Standout Energy-Efficient Products Spotted at IBS 2023

cbroderick — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 18:06:56 +0000

5 Standout Energy-Efficient Products Spotted at IBS 2023

cbroderick Wed, 02/15/2023 - 12:06

Pro Remodeler and Symbi Homes CEO Nicole Tysvaer hit the show floor at the National Association of Home Builders' International Builders' Show 2023 to find share-worthy green products.

Tysvaer, a green home builder and remodeler based in Maryland, shares five standout energy-efficient products at IBS, plus shares a few fast tips for viewers.

Transcript:

A lot of homeowners are thinking about energy efficiencies. It's a hot topic, so we're going to go inside and I'm going to take a look at some of the products.

CertainTeed has a brand new design on their solar shingles. It integrates right into their asphalt shingle system. It looks very sleek, very cool.

A high quality spray foam insulation can be so beneficial if you're trying to tighten up your house, and this is the John Mansville Corbond IV product. It's Greenguard Gold-certified.

And if you want a really quick efficient, wonderful solution for sealing up all the tiny little nooks and crannies on the outside of your home, Aerobarrier is the way to go.

As we're tightening up our homes, we have to think a lot about ventilation and dehumidification, and sometimes, humidification and doing all that mechanically. AprilAire is leading the way with so many cool products right now.

Also filtration, they have this UVC light that's killing 99% of the mold on your A coil. They have these unbelievable accordion filters that just capture everything. We also have fresh air ventilation, dehumidifier here, and a new radon system too.

And when we're talking about home efficiency, here's the star player of the show, one of our Mitsubishi heat pumps. Absolutely wonderful, works great, and you'll save a ton of money too.

Okay, that's just the tip of the iceberg when we're talking about retrofits and energy-efficient improvements, but we gotta go! There's more for me to see in there.

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See what this green remodeler recommends from the show floor

NAHB

Green Design

Insulation & Air Sealing

Pro's Pick: A Better Tool for Window Installs

cbroderick — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 14:53:57 +0000

Pro's Pick: A Better Tool for Window Installs

cbroderick Mon, 02/13/2023 - 08:53

Jeff Blank

Energy Swing Windows

Murrysville, Penn.

Makita Cordless Oscillating Multi-Tool

We started using the Makita Cordless Oscillating Multi-Tool eight years ago when we switched from wood shims to composite shims on window installations. We cut wood shims with knives, but the composite shims are a bit harder. So, we purchased the oscillating tool for all of our installers to use when cutting composite shims.

While that was the initial reason for investing in this tool, we’ve found that there are several ways to use it that help to speed up the installation process and make the final product better for our customers.

One example is when we’re installing replacement doors. When we go to install the casing, sometimes the baseboard is in the way. We used to remove the baseboard from the wall, take it outside, cut it on a circular saw, and then reinstall it. Now, we can use the oscillating tool to cut it without having to take it off of the wall, saving us time on each opening.

Another example is that we use this tool to cut out old vinyl windows. We can get into a lot more tight spaces with it than we can with a Sawzall. We can also use it to cut off pieces of drywall. Plus, it comes with attachments, including one that we use to clean off caulking from brick.

It’s a small tool that you might not think you need, but once you have it you can’t imagine going into a window or door installation without it. If I took it away from my installers, they might quit. That’s how much they like it.

This oscillating tool has become the most versatile tool in our tool bag. It’s replaced a lot of other tools. And Makita is a brand we trust.

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This pro's pick is a big help for window and door installers

Jeff Blank

Windows & Doors

Tools & Equipment

Pro's Picks: Say Goodbye to Paper Time Sheets

cbroderick — Thu, 09 Feb 2023 14:50:17 +0000

Pro's Picks: Say Goodbye to Paper Time Sheets

cbroderick Thu, 02/09/2023 - 08:50

Hilary Moore

Martha's Vineyard Construction Company

Edgartown, Mass.

QuickBooks Time

Up until five or six years ago, we had paper time cards that were faxed to the office, then entered manually into a spreadsheet. As you can imagine, it was very time consuming. Then we began using TSheets, which is now QuickBooks Time.

It’s a timekeeping system for all in-house employees, and we recently integrated it with our QuickBooks accounting software. We operate solely on a cost-plus basis, we don’t do fixed price work, so now we can track job costs live rather than waiting to do a payment application each month for the client.

And it integrates with a variety of payroll and accounting software beyond QuickBooks. That allows you to quickly and easily export all the hours worked for your payroll if you’re invoicing a job, or trying to do job costing for a budget update or change order.

You can also track your employees if someone’s out of reach. It gives you a live GPS report of where your people are. And it doesn’t let you save hours until you add a note, so it’s also our hourly narrative. It’s all captured in a simplified report with each day, each hour they worked and description of the work, and we’re able to export that and give it to our clients.

I would say the only con is that sometimes people can have a hard time getting in the habit of switching time from job to job. And you really have to be diligent about switching jobs because it’s as accurate as it can be if you use it correctly, but if you don’t, then it could be wildly inaccurate. Which is why the GPS helps as well because you can always go back and see where you were at that certain time and then switch it if needed.

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This pro's time tracking software helps ensure accurate financial records and ease of use

Innovative Products: GAF Energy Timberline Solar Shingles

cbroderick — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 18:19:20 +0000

Innovative Products: GAF Energy Timberline Solar Shingles

cbroderick Thu, 01/19/2023 - 12:19

If you haven’t heard of GAF Energy’s Timberline Solar shingles—it may be time to catch up.

The nailable solar shingles are an industry first, and have garnered plenty of attention with accolades such as a Best of Innovation winner at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES); the National Association of Home Builders’ Best of IBS - Most Innovative Construction Tool; and Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas, among others.

According to GAF Energy officials, the Timberline Solar shingles are integrated into a traditional roofing install, utilizing the same materials and processes. Aesthetically, the shingles are flat and feature less than a quarter inch of depth, allowing the panels to create a seamless, sleek appearance on the roof.

Photo courtesy GAF Energy

The installation also helps minimize holes drilled into the roofing membrane, improving the durability and strength of a roof, say company officials.

“Solar roofs are the future of clean energy, and Timberline Solar is the game-changing innovation that will get us there,” said Martin DeBono, president of GAF Energy. “At GAF Energy, we have the capacity to scale this technology like no one else through GAF, bringing an integrated solar product that is weatherproof, affordable, and design-minded to homeowners across the country. We’re excited to lead the next generation of clean energy adoption.”

Timberline has been recognized as the first UL-certified product for both the categories of roofing and solar energy. The product comes from years of research between leading roofing manufacturer GAF and the US Department of Energy’s research and development lab, Sandia National Laboratories.

Released to the market in January 2022, GAF Energy now sells Timberline shingles in New York, Pennsylvania, California, West Virginia, Maryland, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Texas, Colorado, Washington, DC, Virginia, New Jersey, and Hawaii.

Photo courtesy GAF Energy

To meet the growing demand for Timberline, GAF Energy opened its second manufacturing facility in Texas this past summer. The facility will increase capacity by 500%, reaching 300 megawatts annually, according to officials, making GAF Energy the largest producer of solar roofing in the world.

“We launched Timberline Solar because we believed that more consumers would choose solar if they had a more reliable, durable, and attractive option,” said DeBono. “The market has confirmed our belief—now we’re turning that belief into reality and building the future of clean energy here in the US.”

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GAF Energy’s latest innovation has taken the solar world by storm

Caroline Broderick

Green Design

Roofing & Siding

Pro's Pick: Jasper AI

cbroderick — Wed, 23 Nov 2022 15:17:48 +0000

Pro's Pick: Jasper AI

cbroderick Wed, 11/23/2022 - 09:17

Bobby Vickers

Partner, Doorvana

Fort Worth, Texas

Jasper AI

The biggest thing we’re trying to do right now to attract homeowners at Doorvana is to generate awareness through content marketing. That means creating content and publishing it to our website and social media networks as quickly as possible. I’m a big believer that volume and velocity win over nitpicking and waiting for perfection to get content out there.

The tool that I really love right now is Jasper AI. Jasper helps us quickly create optimized, easy-to-read content. It has lowered our production costs while increasing quality and volume, saving us thousands of dollars. We can now publish three to four times the content for the same price.

To start, tell Jasper what you want to write about and it produces an intro paragraph, outline, and a conclusion. It’s really good for short-tail keywords. For example, pick a topic like “popular window types” and Jasper will help you create paragraphs about vinyl windows, wood windows, and even branded search terms. Like any tool, it requires some oversight, but it does a lot of the leg work.

We take the blog articles from Jasper and copy them over to a Google Doc. From there, we publish them on our website and use Zapier to share the content across our social networks including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Distribution is often overlooked because so much focus is on creating content. A proper distribution strategy is key to getting more out of your content.

Our goal is to publish evergreen content to generate qualified leads for years to come. Every replacement contractor needs to answer sales questions online in written and video form. Jasper AI is a shortcut to lowering the barrier to getting started.

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This pro’s pick writes SEO-optimized content for you

November/December 2022

Pro's Picks: Calendly

cbroderick — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 14:28:31 +0000

Pro's Picks: Calendly

cbroderick Tue, 11/08/2022 - 08:28

Donella Olson

Two Island Design Build

Minneapolis, Minn.

Calendly

I began using Calendly, a call scheduling app, about four years ago at a previous employer. There were three designers, and we were trying to figure out more efficient ways to get to that first phone call with a lead.

We found that sometimes a lead would disintegrate if there was too much back and forth trying to connect. Phone tag is an annoyance, a huge waste of time, and can be a turn-off to prospective clients. Calendly connects to your calendar, so leads, clients, and trade partners can schedule a call or a meeting depending on your availability and theirs without playing phone or email tag.

The contact form on my website is even through Calendly. It has my logo, calendar, lead intake form, and looks just like my branding. It also integrates with Hubspot and other CRM and workflow apps.

You can set up workflows directly through Calendly. The basic workflow I have set is a confirmation that you set your appointment, then reconfirmation 24 hours before that call so I know I won’t have no-shows. You can also set up automatic follow-ups and email campaigns. I use Calendly for everything from lead intake to scheduling design meetings, trade walkthroughs, preconstruction meetings, jobsite meetings, and even coffee with colleagues.

Not everybody loves Calendly, but I absolutely do. Some people are technology averse, and many folks working in the field just like to pick up the phone and call. Every time I send a bid request to my trade partners, I also include a link to schedule phone calls. It helps my partners get their questions answered before their bids are due and allows me to focus on my own deep work without phone interruptions. Those that are good with it schedule a call and say, “Wow, that was really cool. Tell me more about Calendly.”

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This pro's pick makes the process of getting a lead on the phone more efficient