News

Reimarkt Webinar Report:
One-Stop-Shop

06/11/2020

Introduction

On November 6th, 2020, during the Day 2 of the EUROPA Kick-off Meeting, Josien Kruizinga, CEO of Reimarkt, led an online workshop on “Setting up an OSS”. The goal of the workshop was to acknowledge the lessons learned to define the first steps to make to set up a One-Stop Shop (OSS); to understand the main target groups; and to get inspired on how to start a proper OSS. The workshop was carried out embracing both a bottom-up, user-centric approach and a top-down, supplier-centric approach.

Understanding Home-owners

During the first session “Understanding home-owners”, all the participants were asked to identify the following:

  1. The key tasks and activities to fulfill to renovate a house;
  2. The gains of the renovation experience (what makes home-owners happy about their renovation journey); and
  3. The pains of the renovation experience (what makes home-owners unhappy about their renovation journey).

The discussion of the aforementioned points took place in breakout sessions, with additional information provided in plenary presentations and subsequent exchange. The main outcomes of the first session highlighted the technical, financial and bureaucratic challenges of the renovation process, as well as the need to adequately coordinate key tasks and activities and make the right decisions. From the discussion, it also emerged the importance of efficient and effective communication to raise awareness of the long-term benefits of deep building renovation, such as more thermal comfort, more safety, better home aesthetics, increased pride, energy savings, money savings, and improved environmental responsibility.

Understanding Suppliers

The second session on “Understanding Suppliers” observed the same structure of the first session and included the analysis of the following:

  1. The key tasks and activities that suppliers need to fulfill to renovate a house;
  2. The gains of the renovation process (what makes suppliers happy about the renovation process); and
  3. The pains of the renovation process (what makes suppliers unhappy about the renovation process).

The analysis of the points above emphasized the financial and time-consuming burdens of the renovation process for suppliers. In fact, all participants agreed on the existing disproportion between the house visits/offers that suppliers make and the deals that they close, which usually include a price reduction due to the multiple negotiations with home-owners.

Lessons Learned – Reimarkt

The online workshop continued with the identification of the best practises and challenges that Reimarkt faced in setting up and establishing an OSS in The Netherlands. The aim of this session was to recognize the lessons learned in starting up an OSS to ensure that the best practises are adopted and the challenges are mitigated or avoided in the set up of OSS for the EUROPA project. Based on Reimarkt’s experience with the independent shop, Mijn Woningplan, the main lessons learned can be summed up as follow:

  1. Make the OSS simple: include products and prices, which is challenging in the building sector (3 times higher impact);
  2. Activate home-owners with offers (independent advice);
  3. Digitalize the OSS (40% more efficient);
  4. Make the OSS user-centric (home-owners compose renovation, select suppliers based on selected criteria, and receive a 80% insight in investment, incentives, and products);
  5. Support the online OSS with offline activities with higher impact (2 times higher than consultation).

1 sept. 2020: The independent shop: Mij Woningplan

  • Independent advice: for home-owners (even online)
  • Hoge conversion to renovation, home-owner makes its first 80% offer
  • Independent products: home-owners chooses from local suppliers based on quality criteria 
  • Local implementation per authority: improving impact of existing initiatives

Setting-up an OSS

Before concluding the workshop, relevant reflections were made to determine some essential factors for the setting-up of an OSS. Among the most important ones, there are:

  1. The involvement of local authorities;
  2. The need to develop a hybrid system to fund the OSS that includes the collaboration of home-owners, suppliers, local authorities, and housing corporations;
  3. The need to offer a standardized service with customizable components based on the target audience, their needs and their expectations to increase scalability;
  4. The attitude of home-owners to postpone renovation and the need to ease and facilitate their renovation journey;
  5. The need to identify renovation triggers to reach and activate the right target groups;
  6. . The promotion of in-person energy consultancy to activate home-owners and establish trust;
  7. The involvement of ambassadors to become more effective.

Final Remarks

The online workshop that took place during the EUROPA Kick-off Meeting by Reimarkt represented the first online meeting on the mutual learning activities that the EUROPA project includes. The online workshop on how to set up an OSS, as well as the expertise of Reimarkt in the field, is crucial to ensure the success of the EUROPA OSS, its components, functionalities, and roles in easing and coordinating the renovation journey of home-owners and the renovation process of suppliers.

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Disclaimer

This publication does not necessarily represent the opinion of the European Community and the European Community is not responsible for any use that might be made of data appearing therein. Access to and use of the contents in this publication is at the user‘s own risk. Damage and warranty claims arising from missing or incorrect data are excluded. The authors bear no responsibility or liability for damage of any kind, also for indirect or consequential damages resulting from access to or use of this publication.

Project number
956649
Country
Netherlands
Lead contractor
Funding For Future B.V.
Date
December 23rd , 2020
Authors