How to choose the best kitchen design software for your business

When it comes to deciding on kitchen design software, the best thing you can do is choose the right software for your business, the next best thing is to choose the wrong software and the worst thing you can do is to get so overwhelmed by the options that you end up choosing no software at all.

Or, at least that’s probably what Teddy Roosevelt would have said if he were advising your interior design business.

Choosing the best kitchen design software for your kitchen design company is one of the most important decisions you can make. The right software can help you increase sales, save time, boost communication and, above all else, improve your bottom line. Having professional software in place isn’t so much about getting ahead of the competition as it is merely keeping up.

Roughly 85 percent of designers in a recent survey conducted by Kitchen & Bath Design News said that technology – including software – enables them to “better help clients visualize projects.” A further 70 percent of the nearly 250 kitchen and bath dealerships, design/build remodeling firms and related businesses polled said it “provides better communication capabilities.” A similar number also said “it saves time and enables greater efficiency.” According to the survey’s summary, many others said software “gives their company greater reach and makes it easier to work with clients remotely.”

With all these benefits in the balance, it’s worth going over the pros and cons of your options, looking at how a software’s features match your needs and considering what price options fit your budget. In order to figure these things out, there are several questions you should ask before you invest in the software that best suits your business.

It’s immensely easier to convince a potential customer to commit to a remodeling or design project when they can see exactly what their kitchen space will look like. If you’re looking for the best kitchen design software with the most advanced rendering technologies, you have to invest in a professional software robust enough to meet (and exceed) the expectations of the modern customer.

In this day and age, 2D plans just aren’t enough. A basic 3D rendering is the industry standard that any software you’re considering must offer at a bare minimum. Software like 2020 Design Live makes this process easy with our proprietary rendering engine, EZ Render. No more adding and adjusting lighting to get a realistic rendering. EZ Render automatically applies and calibrates the highest-quality lighting and true material finishes in a fraction of the time. To go above and beyond, and provide that all-important wow-factor to prospective clients, you might also want to consider software, like 2020 Design Live, that offers 3D panoramic experiences and the ability to see designs through Virtual Reality glasses.

For more on the importance of presentations in winning sales, check out our eBook on the subject.

Instead of importing generic products into your designs and manually finding prices for each later on, the best kitchen design software will allow you to import branded products into your designs. Not only does this show potential customers exactly what they’ll be using in their new kitchen, but it also generates a shopping list with accurate pricing, allowing you to provide your clients with realistic quotes instantly.

To do this, you need a software that has a range of manufacturer catalogs already built in. Whether it’s cabinets, appliances or hardware, 2020 Design Live has the largest selection of manufacturer catalogs in the industry, all with pricing and product lists kept up to date directly from the manufacturer’s cloud server.

One of the biggest struggles among kitchen remodelers and designers is catering to all the changes your clients want to make to the designs. It can become tedious to make changes at your office and send images of those changes back and forth by email. If this is an issue you’re struggling with, you need a kitchen design software that allows you to make changes quickly and communicate those changes to your client.

2020 Design Live makes this kind of collaboration easy. With the software’s Live Share feature, you can share your designs and adaptations with customers in real-time from anywhere at any time. This gives your clients the feeling of a hands-on approach while saving you time by being able to make changes on the fly.

The best kitchen design software for your business should do more than help you win sales through great renderings, accurate products and easy changes. It should help you streamline your entire operation to maximize efficiency. That means having a time tracking feature that calculates the amount of time spent on each project, to ensure your quotes and invoices are always correct. The right software should also provide pricing reports and installation lists that not only give customers the right project estimates, but allow you to track costs from project to project.

We began this post by saying that when it comes to deciding on kitchen design software for your business, the best thing you can do is choose the right software. After asking yourself the four questions we listed above, there should be no need in even considering what the second best thing or worst thing would be.

2020 Design Live is made to be the best possible software choice for kitchen designers, full of the best kitchen design tools, proven to help you win sales, improve communication, run your business more efficiently and increase your revenue while minimizing costs. We believe in it, and we want you to believe in it, too. That’s why we want to make the right choice as easy as possible for you, by offering a free trial for an entire month.

Try it, experience the benefits and never look back.