I was in the meeting room in front of the 65-inch TV, speaking through the microphone with the clients. We in Spain, they in another country, thousands of miles away. Beside me, the architect shared the plans and infographics on the screen with AirPlay from his MacBook.
In front of a Webcam, sitting in the living room of their home, the couple had been riddling us with questions about their future home on the Alicante coast.
We had been in a conference for a long time and, after giving us a few minutes of rest and recharging our batteries with a coffee, it was time to talk about facilities. It was my moment.
I got closer to the camera as far as I could from that comfortable office chair and introduced myself again, in case they no longer remembered my name or my roles in his work. I spoke slowly, smiling, as if starting a conversation between acquaintances (we were not, obviously) who meet again after a while and curious to know more about each other.
Gesturing and raising my voice a little, trying at all times to generate trust and even empathize through the screen, I spoke slowly and ending all my sentences with a question.
– “Your current home is big, right? I imagine that you also feel very comfortable and safe in it … do you have an alarm installed? And cameras?
Within a few minutes they were openly telling me what day-to-day life was like in their home and that they hoped to be able to maintain most of their customs when they came to their new home on the coast, on vacation. I constantly nodded and took notes on my tablet.
People have habits that, when traveling and arriving at a new destination, automatically adapt as much as possible wherever we are. We seek to have the same level of light watching television, the same feeling of comfort due to the temperature of the room and immediately access the WiFi from any corner and at any time, to give a few examples.
If we are fortunate enough to be able to build your dreamhouse, the normal thing is that we like to feel involved in its construction. More than the fact of directing “our project”, because we do not want to fail and have things left in the pipeline. We need to make sure that they understand us and that it is going to be done to our liking, starting from the reference of what we already enjoy in our home.
Additionally, either because technology has evolved, because we have seen it in a decoration store or because someone we know already enjoys it in their home, we want to add more design, more features and services.
Knowing the habits and customs of clients, visualizing their expectations and finding the technological elements that will allow them to enjoy them in their new home is, perhaps, the most important part of my job.
