Dennis Webb, vice president of operations for Fulton Homes in Phoenix, began preparing for a slowdown in the housing market more than two years ago.

Webb, along with other company execs, knew that the housing boom could not sustain itself forever, so the company took steps way back in 2005 to prepare. Today, Fulton Homes is weathering the storm of the housing slowdown probably much better than some of its competitors, with results that include a 61 percent increase in options revenue that have "blown away" expectations.

What did the company do? First, the company did not open a new community in 2006, but instead concentrated on internal efficiencies, including bringing on new product lines, putting in a new back-office system and shutting down its separate sales and design centers serving its dozen or so communities and, instead, constructing a single, lavish 13,000-square-foot design center manned by eight expert design associates, plus individual experts from three partner contractors in specific fields (home technology, appliances and window coverings). Now, all homebuyers are funneled through the single, private showroom to select their 70+ options (on average). Fulton uses the expertise of New Home Interiors Inc. to set up and manage the design center.

Second, the design center is tied hand-in-hand with the Envision automated options selection software system from Builder Homesite Inc. The software, which is managed by CIO Patrick Hindall, created a product category-by-category and room-by-room options sales "checklist" that Fulton follows with its customers onsite.

Homebuyers are given access to the online selection system via the MyFultonHome portal prior to their design appointment and allowed to create a "wish list" that minimizes their appointment time (usually about 3 hours long) while providing them with more background information to help them make their selections. Plus, the system links directly to Fulton's back-office systems. The company has been able to reduce its contracts department from a staff of seven to a staff of two.

How Fulton Did It
The Fulton success story did not happen by accident. The company founder is Ira Felton, who parlayed a successful chain of clothing stores in Los Angeles into a homebuilding company. Today, Fulton guides the company under the mantra, "Give people the best value, customer service and product within the industry, and you will always be the best." His personal motto is "Do it now," and the company abided by the philosophy when revamping its options system.

In 2005, Fulton constructed and sold more than 2,200 homes. In 2006, the company sold about half that many. It was selling half of its options out of its remote sales offices with no visual displays.

"We knew in 2005 that we needed to prepare for the future," says Webb. "By 2006, things were getting pretty tough, so we decided to retool. We could not have done it in 2005 at the torrid pace we were building homes. It would have been impossible. So in 2006, we built a new design center, revamped our Web site, brought on six brand new product lines and generally repositioned ourselves for the future. We did not open a new community in 2006. We opened 12 communities in 2007. We also put in a new back office system."

Indeed, the complete MyFultonHome suite of products consists of nine off the shelf and exclusive products that are incorporated onto a single log-in portal on the Fulton Homes Web site. With all of the products in one place, with one password protected log-in, all with a similar look and feel, the cohesiveness of the system provides for an outstanding customer experience.

The main portals of the system include:

• Community Documents — Including documents relating to a specific community like Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions (CC&Rs), landscape guidelines, articles of incorporation, bylaws, rules and regulations, and public reports. This saves 1 million pages of copies every year.
• Construction Status — The construction activity schedule from software provider FAST that tells the buyer on what date a given activity has taken place on their home under construction. It does not give future dates or projections.
• Exterior Paint Colors — If the buyer needs to re-paint their home in the future, they can refer to this.
• View My Floorplan — Where the floorplan, with all the options and room configurations that MediaLab produces, can be selected. This is used for both marketing as well as construction, as all the vendors and project managers have access to the section.
• View My Contract Documents — The Documentum system that includes all of the homeowner's contract pages and addendums. These pages are scanned in the sales office with a bar code and immediately appear on MyFultonHome. Lenders and title companies also have access to this. The company no longer has to send copies of the contract to buyers, lender's title companies, Realtors or appraisers. According to Webb, Fulton's document division once had seven employees. Now it only has two.
• Prepare for My Design Appointment — The series of videos produced by Bridgeway Media Group includes what to expect at Fulton Homes design center, and also includes sections on product knowledge, lifestyle quizzes, style quizzes, product disclaimers and care of product information. Designers receive the answer to the quizzes prior to the buyer coming in for their appointment. This button disappears when the buyer has signed off for all of the options at the design center.
• Fulton Homes Design Online/View Options — With the Envision platform from Builder Homesite Inc., buyers see all of the options available for their specific floorplan, including pricing (even what the monthly cost is), pictures, product specifications, installation instructions and warranty information. The buyer also has a wish list, where they can save options. The designers see those saved options prior to their appointment. All of the options are grouped by category and sub-category and, when the designer closes out each category, only the options selected appear on the buyer's site.
• Learn about the Construction Process — A series of videos produced by Bridgeway, that have four sections, "Contract to Design Center," "Stages of Construction to How your Home Works," "Orientation to Customer Care" and "Warranty and Information Manual." This button appears only when the buyer has signed off on all of the options at the design center.
• Warranty Requests — This product ties into the FAST system, tracking all appointments and work orders for the customer care department. Over 95 percent of the company's service requests come in through the Web site.

It was not any one of those nine changes that achieved the jump in options revenue, but all of them cumulatively.

Design Process Flows
"The customer gets a real strong sense that exactly what he sees at home on the Internet is exactly what he sees in the sales center and is exactly what he sees in the design center. We have consistency of message across the board. That's the idea behind it," says Hindall, who has been CIO for the past seven years.

One of the keys to merging all the changes seamlessly was the creation of "the checklist," or an identical sales guide used by staff in the design center and used by the customer online. The checklist is not haphazard, but a logical progression that helps the homebuyer make decisions methodically, while also helping Fulton Homes maximize revenues.

According to Webb, two-thirds of all options dollars spent involve cabinets and flooring. So, of course, that's where the sales process starts, both at home online and in the design center. Appliances are selected, then cabinet configurations. From there, stain colors and wood types are selected, which help determine the floor materials. When the buyer arrives at the design center, the hope is that most of his 70 or so options selections have been made.

Upon arrival, customers are greeted by one of the eight design center specialists on site. That person will stay with the buyers from beginning to end, and escort them to meet one at a time with Fulton's three supplemental product partner specialists (appliances, home electronics and window coverings).

From there, home technology is on the menu. Steve Stiers, general manager for Guardian Home Technologies, oversees the low-voltage technology area in the design center.

Guardian staffs the design center with its own salespeople to guide homebuyers through structured wiring, security systems (Honeywell), multiroom audio and home theater selections. In the design center, there are four flat-panel setups (three of which are mounted above fireplaces). According to Stiers, the flat-panel-over-the-fireplace is a "real winner" among buyers.

Consultation stations with large flat-panel displays for the computers are located throughout the design center. The Fulton design center specialist merely has to log the customers choices in at one of the workstations as they move throughout the facility.

The appointment itself is not scripted, with the exception of following the checklist. Homebuyers must "confirm" each selection in the system in order to move on to the next category. When that confirmation button is clicked, it automatically inputs Fulton's back-office product ordering and scheduling systems.

"Most of the time is spent in the design center touching, feeling, coordinating," says Patrick J. Crowley, vice president of sales for New Home Interiors Inc., which helped plan the design and now staffs it for Fulton.

Melissa Morman, COO of Builder Homesite Inc., says the Envision system helps with "the flow" of the appointment. "You don't have the buyer sitting there for a long period while the designer is writing down on paper, or trying to work a system. They are literally doing what they do best with the buyers. Then they just have to sit down and make a few clicks, confirm it and they're done," she says.

Results and Revisions
Since starting this total revamp in the way it sells options, Fulton Homes has shattered every goal.

So far, Fulton has seen revenue spikes in appliances, ceiling fans, lighting, structured wiring, sinks and countertops. The design center income is up 61 percent (in dollars per house) for the 300 or so buyers sent through the system.