Author: Chris Heiler
--- IMPORTANT UPDATE 7/29/2016: We've been contacted by multiple VisionScape users over the past two months inquiring about the software company. From what we've been told by these users it sounds like the company has been non-responsive to users while the software no longer seems to be working. Landscape Leadership has no affiliation with VisionScape. We have not heard from them so really don't know what the story is and don't want to speculate. ----
This is a special guest post from our friends at VisionScape. When we first viewed a demo of this professional landscape design software about a year and a half ago, we were honestly blown away. We were impressed with the realism of the designs, the ease of use, and most intriguing to us, the social sharing tools.
It’s no secret that more and more homeowners are turning to social media when planning their next landscape and outdoor living projects. We’ve all worked with a customer who has a design idea they saw on Pinterest or called you because they polled their Facebook friends for contractor recommendations (and if you haven’t, then we bet you will soon).
VisionScape Interactive, LLC. is a company that recognizes this growing trend and is bridging the gap between the standard landscape design/sales process and social sharing by empowering the everyday landscape professional to create exciting 3D sales presentations that can be shared online.
The magic behind VisionScape is its 3D landscape design and sales software, Virtual Property Architect™. The software allows you to easily create true-to-life 3D designs and 2D plans from a catalogue of the same products you’re used to working with every day. But what truly sets VisionScape apart from other professional landscape design software, is its presentation capabilities.
Presenting Your Landscape Story
When it comes time to present your landscape design to the customer, how you present it can be just as important as the design itself.
With competing companies vying for the bid, you need to be able to tell your customer the story of the project—the story of exactly what they can expect and why they should pick you to get them there. VisionScape helps you tell that story.
Every design created in VisionScape’s landscape design software is saved online and automatically organized into an interactive presentation for your customers. You can take screenshots and high-definition walkthrough videos directly in the software and upload them to the online presentation. You can also upload the 2D plan and any site photos to create a “before and after” effect for the proposed landscape project.
Everything is saved under your very own VisionScape Professional Profile, which you can customize with your landscape company’s information, upload a logo and link to your company’s website as well as social media sites for a branded presentation.
(View a sample Professional Profile here)
Whether you choose to present in-person or remotely, the entire experience immerses the customer in the project and allows you to show them exactly what they can expect it to look and feel like, right in their own backyard, and before a shovel even strikes the ground. That’s pretty powerful.
The Social Effect
Since everything is hosted online, it’s easy to share a single design or your entire profile by simply sharing its link (just as you would share the link to any website). This comes in handy when you want to send a landscape design to a customer during the revision process but don’t want to go back and forth between their house and the office.
It also means you can send your profile to prospective customers as an interactive portfolio of your work or link back to your profile on any advertising/marketing efforts.
The social features don’t stop there.
All VisionScape online designs and profiles have full social media integration with Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest for easy sharing. Any videos you upload are also embeddable so you can post them on a company website, blog or other site.
Not only can you promote your business by sharing your designs on your social networks but, more importantly, your customers can too.
We’ve all (hopefully) benefited from a satisfied customer’s recommendations and are very much aware how important word-of-mouth is. Now, your satisfied customers will be able to show off to their Facebook friends the beautiful new backyard you’ve created for them, tweet about how excited they are for BBQ season now that their landscape project is complete or pin their project as a design idea to their followers on Pinterest.
When someone shares one of your landscape designs, it links right back to your company’s profile so you can draw in more business and create buzz around your brand—and it’s all for work that you’re doing for your landscape design and sales process already!
As homeowners increasingly rely on social media communities for help in planning landscape and outdoor living projects, why wouldn’t you, “Fish where the fishes are”?
VisionScape is a complete business solution that merges the power of the 3D landscape design experience with the tools you need to present, sell and, ultimately, grow your business.
To learn more about VisionScape’s professional landscape design software and tools, go to www.visionscape.com or contact them via email at: support@visionscape.com or by phone: (800) 655 - 1834.
