Smart Ways to Use Ideabooks for Communicating With Clients
Here are all the ways this online Houzz tool can help your project run smoothly, whether in person or remotely
Not using Ideabooks to collaborate on a project with your client yet? Check out how this clever tool can enhance communication with your client, helping you with everything from getting a handle on their vision at the outset to nailing the finishing details and conveying complex information.
At what stage in a project can I use Ideabooks?
At any stage! Ideabooks are an invaluable resource for professionals at the very earliest stages of contact with a homeowner. Get potential clients to create one for their renovation to help you to get a clear sense of their vision.
As a project progresses, Ideabooks are also a practical tool for collaborating on details, as well as being a fantastic way to keep projects moving remotely.
At any stage! Ideabooks are an invaluable resource for professionals at the very earliest stages of contact with a homeowner. Get potential clients to create one for their renovation to help you to get a clear sense of their vision.
As a project progresses, Ideabooks are also a practical tool for collaborating on details, as well as being a fantastic way to keep projects moving remotely.
Interior designer Clare Crabtree of ClaranDesign made great use of Ideabooks when redesigning the kitchen of her client, Sue Mould.
“Houzz made it easy for us to collaborate on the project,” says Crabtree. “You can create an Ideabook and post and edit the ideas… I’ll post a picture [and say]: ‘Sue, I’ve just seen this in somebody’s house. Do you like it?’”
Mould agrees that sharing Ideabooks helped the project along. “Clare would save images, so I could have a look and then respond according to whether it was something I liked or not. It’s been a great way to share ideas.”
Watch now: See a video tour of the kitchen Crabtree designed for Mould and check out their Ideabooks in action
“Houzz made it easy for us to collaborate on the project,” says Crabtree. “You can create an Ideabook and post and edit the ideas… I’ll post a picture [and say]: ‘Sue, I’ve just seen this in somebody’s house. Do you like it?’”
Mould agrees that sharing Ideabooks helped the project along. “Clare would save images, so I could have a look and then respond according to whether it was something I liked or not. It’s been a great way to share ideas.”
Watch now: See a video tour of the kitchen Crabtree designed for Mould and check out their Ideabooks in action
4 Ways to Use Ideabooks
1. Understand homeowner’s tastes
This is often the first way in which a professional will make use of an Ideabook for a client project.
Before you even have a detailed chat about the proposed work, get your client – or potential client – to collect some images from across Houzz that illustrate their style and ideas. Encourage them to leave notes under pictures where relevant, highlighting the details they like or want to show you.
It’s a fantastic way to get onto your client’s wavelength.
1. Understand homeowner’s tastes
This is often the first way in which a professional will make use of an Ideabook for a client project.
Before you even have a detailed chat about the proposed work, get your client – or potential client – to collect some images from across Houzz that illustrate their style and ideas. Encourage them to leave notes under pictures where relevant, highlighting the details they like or want to show you.
It’s a fantastic way to get onto your client’s wavelength.
“We ask our clients to create Ideabooks on Houzz so we can collaborate on the project,” says Juliet Marsh, interior designer of Marsh + Wiesenfeld. “This is the easiest way for them to share photos they like and to give their feedback through comments. It really helps us to understand their vision.”
Marsh recalls a project where the firm redesigned a family house. With this renovation, it was important for the homeowners that the two children were involved in the design of their bedrooms. They were given a lesson on using Houzz by Marsh and her business partner, Judy Wiesenfeld, and were then tasked with creating their own Ideabooks. “This was very important, as they could show us what they wanted when they didn’t know how to describe it,” says Marsh.
Are you up-to-date with practical advice about running your business? Read Houzz’s stories for pros and find out
Marsh recalls a project where the firm redesigned a family house. With this renovation, it was important for the homeowners that the two children were involved in the design of their bedrooms. They were given a lesson on using Houzz by Marsh and her business partner, Judy Wiesenfeld, and were then tasked with creating their own Ideabooks. “This was very important, as they could show us what they wanted when they didn’t know how to describe it,” says Marsh.
Are you up-to-date with practical advice about running your business? Read Houzz’s stories for pros and find out
2. Communicate style suggestions visually as a project progresses
The best way to help your client visualise what you have in mind in terms of furniture, fixtures and finishes will often be with photos.
On Houzz, you can search through more than 21,000,000 images for examples of colours, layouts, structural elements, tiles, flooring, garden planting styles, fences and much more, and save your selection to any number of Ideabooks.
Browse Houzz’s image archives for stunning homes and designs from around the world
The best way to help your client visualise what you have in mind in terms of furniture, fixtures and finishes will often be with photos.
On Houzz, you can search through more than 21,000,000 images for examples of colours, layouts, structural elements, tiles, flooring, garden planting styles, fences and much more, and save your selection to any number of Ideabooks.
Browse Houzz’s image archives for stunning homes and designs from around the world
3. Educate and inform clients
It’s not just photos you can share in Ideabooks; you can also save useful stories you’d like your client to read in order to fully understand a topic before making a decision.
The Stories tab on Houzz contains a vast archive of invaluable renovation advice, inspiration and information. Saving some of this useful reading material to the Ideabook you’re sharing with your client can be a helpful way to get to the heart of an issue more quickly when you do communicate directly.
It’s not just photos you can share in Ideabooks; you can also save useful stories you’d like your client to read in order to fully understand a topic before making a decision.
The Stories tab on Houzz contains a vast archive of invaluable renovation advice, inspiration and information. Saving some of this useful reading material to the Ideabook you’re sharing with your client can be a helpful way to get to the heart of an issue more quickly when you do communicate directly.
For example, you might want to share a story you’d like them to read before the project is even confirmed, so they fully understand the stages or costs involved:
- How Much Does a Kitchen Benchtop Cost?
- Renovation Education: The Costs Per Item of a Classic Kitchen
- The True Costs of Renovating a Bathroom
Or you might be keen to explain something complex in a simple format:
It can also be useful to browse the Houzz Tour stories, Before and Afters and Project of the Week articles to share ways in which the project you’re working on together has been successfully tackled in similar properties.
- Expert Eye: Everything You Need to Know About Underfloor Heating
- Is Craning in Your Prefab Extension a New, Easier Way to Build?
It can also be useful to browse the Houzz Tour stories, Before and Afters and Project of the Week articles to share ways in which the project you’re working on together has been successfully tackled in similar properties.
4. Bookmark other design and building professionals
You will almost certainly already have a bulging little black book of builders, sub-contractors and specialist design professionals, but if you’re collecting some new experts, you can save their profiles into an Ideabook, too, then refer back to them to go through their own photos and client reviews.
And remember to click Follow when you like other professionals’ work on Houzz to stay up-to-date with their new projects.
You will almost certainly already have a bulging little black book of builders, sub-contractors and specialist design professionals, but if you’re collecting some new experts, you can save their profiles into an Ideabook, too, then refer back to them to go through their own photos and client reviews.
And remember to click Follow when you like other professionals’ work on Houzz to stay up-to-date with their new projects.
Your turn
How have you used Houzz Ideabooks for your projects and do you have any questions about how else you can utilise them in your business? We’d love to hear from you, so tell us in the Comments below, like this story and share it with other professionals.
More
Are you making the most of Houzz’s other free design tools to help run your business? Read up on How Houzz Tools Can Help You Work Remotely
How have you used Houzz Ideabooks for your projects and do you have any questions about how else you can utilise them in your business? We’d love to hear from you, so tell us in the Comments below, like this story and share it with other professionals.
More
Are you making the most of Houzz’s other free design tools to help run your business? Read up on How Houzz Tools Can Help You Work Remotely
An Ideabook is Houzz’s virtual and interactive tool for saving and sharing photos, ideas, notes, useful Houzz stories and favourite profiles from the platform with your client or for your own reference.
You can also create Ideabooks full of photos and information you want to refer back to. It’s simple to label your Ideabooks clearly – say ‘dark-painted living rooms’ or ‘extension window seat ideas’ – so your research is easy to file and find.
One of the most popular ways to use Ideabooks is when working with clients. You can share your Ideabooks with them, they can create ones to share with you – and you can also collaborate on Ideabooks together, adding notes for each other to the images or stories you share.
Houzz News: Now You Can Save All Your Ideas in One Place!