We have some BIG news to share!
John Houston Homes and the JH Family of Companies have undergone a re-brand, and today we are launching with a new John Houston Homes logo!
The modern design with crisp new colors and fonts are inspired by our long-standing dedication to connecting with families and building lifelong relationships. What is not changing is our unwavering commitment to support families in search of Home.
Listen in to learn more about the re-branding journey we have been on, coming features, and check out our website for more ways we can help you find your way home!
S2 Ep5_The JHCH Rebrand & Coming Features (Hosts).mp3
Intro: [00:00:03] Welcome Home, a podcast brought to you by John Houston Custom Homes. Join hosts, Chelsi Frazier and Whitney Pryor, as they walk you through the exciting adventure of your home buying and building journey.
Whitney Pryor: [00:00:18] Hello, listeners, welcome back to this episode of the Welcome Home podcast. I've got Chelsi here with me and we've got some exciting stuff to talk about. Chelsi, what are we talking about?
Chelsi Frazier: [00:00:31] As you have probably seen, because we know you guys wake up first thing in the morning and go to the John Houston Homes website, we have a new logo and new brand colors! We have just reskinned our website with that look. If you see our employees out in the community, our shirts are different colors, it's a different logo. We are still John Houston Homes, but just a fresh, new, clean look. There's a lot behind it that we are going to talk about as we get into the episode. We are going to talk about whole brand promise that we went through with The Family of Companies. That's a little bit of what we're going to talk about today and also what's happening this year with the home buying experience. What kind of products are we going to have and what you can expect.
Whitney Pryor: [00:01:25] That is so exciting!
Whitney Pryor: [00:01:26] I know we've just launched this new fresh look today, but it's been some time in the in the works, right? We've been working on this behind the scenes for quite some time.
Chelsi Frazier: [00:01:39] Yeah, over a year. I think it's kind of all kicked off October of 2019, the very beginning.
Whitney Pryor: [00:01:46] Yeah, there's been a very big process going through rebranding and getting that new fresh look. Do you want to tell us kind of what we've been doing behind the scenes leading up to today?
Chelsi Frazier: [00:02:01] Sure, absolutely! We both work for John Houston Homes, but it's part of a larger organization. We've talked about that before in previous episodes. We've had John on, we've had Terry and we have had Trinity Oaks Mortgage on the podcast as well. Just to remind everybody, we're part of a family of companies and it's called the JH Family of Companies. Each company has their individual purpose, but we're part of the same overall mission and vision. We were kind of challenged with how do we make sure everyone that is in any company, in the Family of Companies, understands and knows what we have in common.
Whitney Pryor: [00:02:45] What is our story?
Chelsi Frazier: [00:02:47] Yeah, that's part of what started this process. Of course, there are other things, but for the sake of not talking for 3 hours about this, that's part of what started just going through a process with an agency on our brand promise. Who are we? What do we believe in? What do we offer and how are we helping people in their home buying experience, from John Houston Homes, Trinity Oaks Mortgage, JH Development, Keystone Home Design Studio and Geo Pro Environmental. That made us really take a look at our logo and our brand presence. Do we represent what we are believing and putting out there? Visually, does that compliment our brand promise? Now we've got a new logo, new colors, and of course, Trinity Oaks Mortgage does as well. We just launched that today with the new website, company apparel with more things to come, but that's just going to be the most apparent thing for now and kind of where we started on that journey.
Whitney Pryor: [00:04:00] That's really awesome to hear. It was, it was a long process. They looked at so many different things. Every point that we touch our customer, was really looked at in depth and interviews done with the entire company. Homebuyers were interviewed to really get a good idea of what our company is about, what our story is and really what we promise to the people that we work with every day.
Chelsi Frazier: [00:04:28] John Houston started 16 years ago in 2005 and so many things happened so quickly. Everybody just grew so fast. I think this is a really great opportunity for everybody to just re-evaluate, come together and be united again. I'm going to probably say that word a lot, but in our brand promise and just positioning ourselves for what's to come.
Whitney Pryor: [00:05:03] Will you tell us what our brand promise is?
Chelsi Frazier: [00:05:07] Yes, there's several things involved in it, but I would say, our vision is Helping People Find Their Way Home. That's a shared vision across all companies because Finding Your Way Home, there's so much more to that than just the house. There's developing the land, erosion control, getting the mortgage, financing to buy it, designing the house with our architecture team and then, of course, buying and building the home. You live in the home and find a sales manager to Help You Find Your Way Home. It's kind of it's a metaphor for holistically everything.
Whitney Pryor: [00:05:51] Yeah, absolutely. Then just as our people are just Helping You Find Your Way Home can mean so many different things to people. For us, it means really helping people find their way to where they need to be. We are people that love people, right?
Chelsi Frazier: [00:06:08] Yes.
Whitney Pryor: [00:06:09] That was another statement.
Chelsi Frazier: [00:06:11] Yeah, for sure. Home, it's not just your home that you live in. It's your your work home, your community, your people in your life, your friends and your family. There's just so much that goes into just that four letter word.
Whitney Pryor: [00:06:27] You'll notice that the website has new colors today and a new logo on it, but there is more coming, right?
Chelsi Frazier: [00:06:35] Yeah, also in this process, like you said earlier, we looked at the touch points, we reviewed so many things and every company's got goals. Some other things that will be new this year, other than just the look and feel of the brand, are going to be some website features and some interactive things that buyers can do to Help Them Find Their Way Home. Also ,just with how everybody has changed, how they shop. We've all been shopping online on Amazon forever, but who would have thought you would shop so much online for a home? We can just talk about some of those exciting things, starting with the website, which you have a huge piece in as well, especially with the online sale search.
Whitney Pryor: [00:07:23] It feel like this whole year it's changed for sure. I think most people were shopping online, like you said, but this year it became a necessity or last year actually it became a necessity, right? Really having to do all that research, most of the part online and then, coming in for the final part of actually purchasing the home. With that, people were looking on our website 24/7 and having features on there became very important. Luckily, we had just finished doing our 3D Floor Plans of all of our floor plans that we offer. We had those up on the website when the craziness of of COVID-19 hit. That was a huge help to our home buyers. They were extremely happy to see those up on the website and be able to tour those homes without having to go out in public and get out of the house and tour those. Now, it's just kind of become a way of of shopping and I think it will never go away. People will expect that on our website, those features of being able to really be comfortable with making that next step in the home buying journey just by looking at the website. With that in mind, I think that you've done a really great job of looking at some of the newer upcoming features that we can add to the website, that will help people become even more comfortable with making that decision.
Chelsi Frazier: [00:09:02] For sure, I think it's so funny because who would have thought 3D floor plans would now be so helpful. That was so new and exciting for us to do. We'd already been doing walk throughs with our model homes, but then to have that just to research this floor plan, now that's normal for us. That's just part of part of what we do. What's next?
Whitney Pryor: [00:09:02] We have to have it. What's next?
Chelsi Frazier: [00:09:02] Yes! I'm excited that we're launching visualizers. What that means is you online, you can select your brick and stone and paint colors for the exterior of your home, to see what that color combination could look like on the computer. We all know you can drive by to see brick and stone in person on a house and also in the design studio to get an in-person view. Being able to narrow down what you want a little bit on your own time is very helpful because like you're saying, people are on 24/7. I can't always work around when your model home is going to be open or when you have your design studio open.
Whitney Pryor: [00:10:06] Yeah, it's dark outside exactly 10 o'clock at night and I'm on my phone looking, right?
Chelsi Frazier: [00:10:11] Or in the Winter when it's 6 o'clock at night. Who has the time to do that, nobody!
Whitney Pryor: [00:10:20] The visualizer with be neat because it will actually have the product details on there, too, right?
Chelsi Frazier: [00:10:23] Yeah, you can share it, you can save it, you can print it off, bring it in with you and say, "hey, sales manager, can you tell me 2 or 3 addresses that have this stone? I want to go see what it looks like in person compared to on my screen."
Whitney Pryor: [00:10:36] Oh, that's going to be a huge help because I think a lot of people drive around our communities and they see home that they like the brick and stone combination. They call us and they're like, "hey, I need to know at this address what the brick and stone combination is." Not that that's a bad way to do it, it's just the only way we've had for so long, so having this visualizer will allow them that extra step of being able to do most of the research online. Then whenever they feel comfortable, get out in the community, drive around and make sure that that's the right combination they want. That's awesome!
Chelsi Frazier: [00:11:13] Yeah, it's window color, it's some stains and roof. It's more than just brick ad stone, it's also your trim, that's just the exteriors. Also coming soon, I don't want to put any dates on it, but we're working on having an interior visualizer of the kitchen because that's another really big room with lots of things.
Whitney Pryor: [00:11:38] That's another huge part of the design process is the kitchen, right? That'll be even better when that comes. I think that people just want to see the different color combinations. The only time you get to do that really is in the design studio, but then you feel pressured with time. You only have one day. Being able to explore or discover those different options, you might stumble across something that you didn't even know was an option. Maybe people don't know that getting black windows instead of the almond colored windows is an option. Once they see it on the visualizer, they know that they can ask about it and that it's an option that we offer, so that's neat.
Chelsi Frazier: [00:12:28] You mentioned the design studio, Summer before last, when we launched the open houses in the design studio. We had to stop doing that because of COVID. At some point we will bring that back. That is your in-person opportunity to say, "okay, I really liked this online, let me see it in person." We're kind of trying to cover all the bases by having the content on the website that you can look at and play around with, have the opportunities to come in a model home and to come to the design studio when we're able to bring that back. Then for the buyers, they still have the buyer browses in the studio where they can come in.
Whitney Pryor: [00:13:08] That's where they come in after they've contracted, but before their official design studio appointment. They get to come in for a couple of hours and actually just look at the design studio. They get to see what options there are, write down notes about what things they like and then that way they feel better prepared at their design studio appointment when they're making an actual decision.
Chelsi Frazier: [00:13:30] Right.
Whitney Pryor: [00:13:31] Got it.
Chelsi Frazier: [00:13:31] That's the visualizers.
Whitney Pryor: [00:13:34] That's really exciting.
Chelsi Frazier: [00:13:36] Yeah, for sure! We've seen some builders do it, but not a lot of people are doing it, so we feel like it's definitely the next best thing. We'll always be looking for more and what else we can do, such as interactive plat maps. I know you've come across those, so we hope at some point we're going to release one of those this year. You know a little bit more about what those can do.
Whitney Pryor: [00:13:57] Yes, interactive plat maps. To start, a plat map is a map of the community. Whenever you move into the new community, you need a map to show which home sites are actually available, so that's what a plat map is. It basically shows the different lots that are available for us to build on with the streets and everything in there. An interactive plat map is actually where we would have that displayed on our website and it would show kind of a live update of what is actually available in that community, as far as homesites go. We get that question quite a bit of, I want to build in this community, but I want a lot that faces South where I don't want the afternoon sun in my backyard. This would allow you to see which lots in the community are available to build on that face the direction that you want. Maybe you want a cul de sac lot, a corner lot or a larger lot. It would allow you to see on our website whether we have one of those available.
Chelsi Frazier: [00:15:08] On your own time.
Whitney Pryor: [00:15:09] On your own time.
Chelsi Frazier: [00:15:09] We always want to see you and talk to you, but if it's 10 o'clock at night and that's when you're able to look, we want you to have that chance.
Whitney Pryor: [00:15:16] Yes, we definitely encourage people, always, to come into our model home. We love to to meet people, we love to find out your story, what you do want, what you don't want with your home. We're always going to be there to get you to that next step of making a decision. we want to help you through that process. we also know that most of the time people are on their phones at 10 o'clock at night and looking at their hopes and dreams for the future. We want to make sure that we have that content there for whenever your shopping and at your convenience. The interactive plat maps would be one way to have that. Right now, we have them in our model homes. You can come in, speak with the sales rep, get a picture or take a picture and see the plat map in person. We hope to have it on our website so that you can look at it whenever you're doing your browsing late at night or early in the morning.
Chelsi Frazier: [00:16:16] Yeah, for sure.
Whitney Pryor: [00:16:18] What are some other things that we might expect on the website or new features that we might see?
Chelsi Frazier: [00:16:25] Interactive floor plans too. We talked about the visualizers, but there's also the inside, the footprint of your home. When you go into the model home or you look online right now and you see a floor plan that is one image. With the interactive floor plan, you can select from checkboxes what you want to see that's offered on that floor plan.
Whitney Pryor: [00:16:52] The different options?
Chelsi Frazier: [00:16:53] Yes, for instance, if you want to see what the 2-story looks like, you can just check that button and it changes on your screen. It adds the stairs to the second story and then add your second story. Then, as we all know, on the second story, you can add another powder full bath or full bedroom, so those options are on screen. When you check that box with your mouse, then it changes instantly and then you can see that. Again, you can save it, you can print it out and you can put it on your vision board and you can send it to your spouse as a nice hint.
Whitney Pryor: [00:17:33] That's so neat, though, because we get that question all the time. What would this floor plan look like without stairs or with stairs or that third car garage? Or how does it change if I turn this to a side entry garage, where does the entry change? That's really awesome because adding stairs or removing stairs can change the space drastically, especially when you're looking at closets, powder baths and things like that. It's important to see where that storage space changes whenever you add or remove those stairs.
Chelsi Frazier: [00:18:06] Yeah, for sure. Other things on the website, I think we'll just evolve around the experience and search features because we've talked a lot about what do people ask for in when they're trying to narrow down? Having those little search buttons that we currently have, but just enhancing those and adding more flexibility on our Available Homes Page or Communities Pages.
Whitney Pryor: [00:18:30] Yeah, I think adding more gallery images too. There's just so many little things that we plan to add for usability with the new website that is so exciting. I think we have several people that have researched for not just months, but even for going on a year for new homes. They're just waiting for that perfect thing. I think that people that are continuously researching on our website, will really appreciate this new website and new usability.
Chelsi Frazier: [00:19:05] Stay tuned, there are lots of exciting things coming, new features, ways to search for your home, shop online and all of the things.
Whitney Pryor: [00:19:14] Awesome, thank you so much for updating us, Chelsi, on the new features that are our home buyers can expect. If you want more information about our website or would like to see the new logo and design, feel free to join us at jhoustonhomes.com. You can also email us with questions at info@jhoustonhomes.com or give us a call at 866-251-0910. Feel free to join the conversation on our social media channels, on Facebook and Instagram. Thank you for joining us today.
Chelsi Frazier and Whitney Pryor: [00:19:53] Welcome Home.
