Builders are navigating a host of challenges in today’s market, and increasingly informed buyers are adding another layer of complexity. Today’s home buyers have access to more information and often engage with builders much further along in the decision-making process.
“They have researched communities, compared builders, looked at floor plans, and considered financing before they ever speak with us,” says Steve Garza, president and chairman of Impression Homes. “At the same time, having more information does not necessarily make buying a home feel less intimidating.”
Against this backdrop, Texas-based Impression Homes, the No. 123 company on Builder’s Next 100 list, began the process of launching a new website, one designed to better serve today’s buyers while also supporting the company’s continued growth across the Dallas-Fort Worth metro.
“Buyers expect to be able to quickly understand where we build, what homes are available, what they can afford, and what their next step should be, often before they ever speak with a salesperson,” Garza tells BUILDER. “Technology has evolved and our previous website no longer supported that experience at the level we wanted. We saw an opportunity to create a faster, easier, and more intuitive digital experience that better reflects Impression Homes today while giving buyers greater confidence and control as they begin their home search.”
Garza says redesign allowed Impression Homes to better transmit the quality and value of its brand while also improving the home shopping process for customers. When designing the new website, Impression Homes prioritized tools to allow buyers to make informed decisions. Features such as interactive community mapping, mortgage tools, home buying resources, and improved home search offer a more seamless customer experience while improving the sales process.
“We also know that purchasing a home can feel overwhelming, particularly for first-time buyers, so education was equally important,” Garza says. “The goal is to give customers enough information to explore comfortably on their own while making it very easy to connect with our New Home Concierge and sales teams when they are ready.”
The redesign also reflects a fundamental shift in how buyers are interacting with builders online. Five or 10 years ago, a builder’s site could primarily function as a static source of information. Today, the website is an active part of the home shopping process. The more readily buyers can access information on inventory, plans, financing, and community details, the more informed they can be in their decision making. With more than 80% of its web traffic coming from smartphone users, Garza said the new website also had to deliver the same high-level experience regardless of what device was used to access it.
“We approached the redesign less from the standpoint of what we could add and more from what would make the experience simpler,” Garza says. “If something did not help a buyer discover a home, understand our communities, learn about the process, or connect with our team, we challenged whether it needed to be there. The objective was not to create a website with more features. It was to create a better home shopping experience.”
Impression Homes developed a new Homebuying Guide for its website to provide educational resources to buyers who may be unfamiliar with the new-home purchasing process. This resource was particularly important for Impression Homes given the number of first-time buyers entering the housing market.
“For many buyers, the home buying journey now begins well before they visit a model home,” Garza adds. “They are researching communities, looking into school districts, comparing builders, looking at floor plans, evaluating monthly payments, and checking inventory from their phone or computer. Our website needs to support that entire discovery process.”
The emphasis on a seamless digital experience is not meant to replace the personal component of buying a home, but instead to allow interactions to be more productive.
“Technology will continue to play a larger role in how people shop for homes, but it will not replace the personal experience,” Garza says. “The best customer journey combines the convenience of digital with the expertise and care of our people.”
The new website brings the entire Impression Homes portfolio into a single resource, allowing buyers to discover the builder on their own terms. Then, when customers are ready for personal guidance, the Impression Homes New Home Concierge and sales team can build on the research customers have already done rather than asking them to start over.
The success of the new platform will be measured not simply by website traffic, but by how effectively it helps buyers move through the sales journey. Garza says the company will monitor engagement with communities, floor plans, and inventory, as well as the usage of its home buying tools and resources, lead conversion, and connections between qualified buyers and its sales teams.
The new website launch also provided Impression Homes with the foundation for its next stage of growth. The builder is preparing to introduce its move-up product Parkmont Series. The website will give prospective buyers an opportunity to learn about the series as part of the broader digital home shopping experience.
For Garza, the investments being made in customer experience are an extension of the company’s core values: heritage, ownership, meaning, excellence, and service.
“Our values are ultimately about how we treat people and how we approach building homes,” Garza says. “The website gives us another opportunity to demonstrate those values before a customer ever walks into one of our model homes. The technology may be new, but the principles behind the experience are the same ones that have guided Impression Homes for more than 17 years.”
