Opinion
opinion // Roger Cooper Hunt out your customers!
How much do you really know about your clients? Industry veteran Roger Cooper believes showrooms could be seriously missing a trick by not seeking out more info about potential customers around them…
A
s one of the business judges for the annual kbbreview Retail & Design Awards I look
very carefully at the marketing programmes that showrooms present as part of their submission. As a sceptic of the value of social media, I always look for a well-rounded plan of local marketing activity embracing advertising, social functions, post/ mail communications and support to groups such as child sporting activities. I do not believe that social media alone, however brilliantly executed, is enough to establish a strong presence. In the tough market conditions
that exist now, all showrooms need to be looking at what they can do to find business – there are potential customers that you can serve by increasing the level of awareness by a more direct approach. To do this, the showroom needs
to go out and find the customer rather than wait for the customer to find you. But how can the AI revolution help with this? Many years ago (over 35 years
to be precise!) I was in charge of one of the leading suppliers to the bathroom industry and I needed information that was not always
back to that how useful that data was and wondered how much CACI would have moved forward. I was stunned to see the detail they can provide right down to street level… not just which houses are owner- occupied, but also how old they are, their market value, and even estimates of household income.
Knowledge is power I recently read in the Sunday Times
I do not believe that social media alone,
however brilliantly executed, is enough to establish a strong presence
"
readily available at the time. We were looking to improve
the efficiency and coverage of the external sales team starting with a review of territory size and shape which had previously been planned on the reasonable mile coverage of each member of the team. I looked at the map and it was clear that this was simply not correct – what we needed to know was where our market opportunity
was. The hills and valleys of Wales and Scotland, for example, do not need to be covered, but we needed coverage where the houses were. Our sales team needed to be in the areas which offered the best opportunities. In 1990, this information was simply not available to us, but we found a company called CACI to provide the data. After reviewing the Award submissions this year, I thought
18 kbbreview
that Ordinance Survey is now in the market of providing exactly this kind of information and have developed tools to use AI so that your business can access this data about every street in the country and have even created “a map you can chat with”. I would urge every showroom
owner to find ways to bring data relevant to your business into your thinking and activity. Once you know where the opportunities are, then you can plan an appropriate direct approach. As a final comment, I am aware
that one major bathroom retailer already uses one of these sources to determine where to open their new showrooms. If they use this for showroom
location planning then it is only logical to think they will use it for local selling campaigns too!
kbbr
What do you think? We always want to hear your views and opinions, so email
editor@kbbreview.com to be featured in a future issue
August 2026
iStock.com // Nuthawut Somsuk
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