Case Study
Tri Pointe Homes
Creating a stellar search experience for a nationwide home-building brand
01
The Challenge
Update and improve the most critical feature on the Tri Pointe Homes website: search.
02
The Approach
Radically redesign the search and discovery experience and implement Algolia to improve functionality.
03
The Outcome
A search function that delivers more accurate and usable results in a fraction of the time.
Client Introduction
A Different Kind of Homebuilder
Tri Pointe Homes is among the nation’s largest homebuilders. They craft homes and neighborhoods for a premium lifestyle at any price point or life stage. As local specialists on a national scale, the company prioritizes customer satisfaction, sustainable practices, and enduring craftsmanship. Beyond simply building homes, Tri Pointe Homes emphasizes community through strategic locations and commitments to social responsibility.
Project at a Glance
What Our Team Provided
Solutions
- Search & Discovery
- Websites
How it Started
Creating a first-class search experience
Tri Pointe Homes relies on its website to get its home listings in front of potential buyers. That means its search functionality is incredibly important for the business. Knowing that their current search set-up left much to be desired, Tri Pointe Homes reached out to Foster Made to create a new search experience powered by search industry leaders Algolia.
research and discovery
Identifying pain points
We started by documenting customer search journeys to help us better understand how people were using search. During this process we identified several issues that were impacting usability. One problem was that the search was meant to be location-based – if you want to buy a house in Virginia then you don’t want to see houses for sale in California – but in practice, it took a lot of trial and error for users to get the results they wanted. The filtering options were also limited, and the UI layout for search results made scanning harder for users. And, the way their existing search was set up also ran the risk of generating zero results more often than it should.
ux strategy & design
User-friendly updates
With that information, we were then able to zero in on what was needed to deliver a truly exceptional search experience to Tri Pointe’s customers. We rebuilt the mapping feature and implemented geolocation, so searches were automatically narrowed down to the most likely location. This saves users from the wasted time and frustration of being served no results or irrelevant results. We also adjusted the scale and proportion of the UI, making search results much more digestible. Additional filters were also added to help potential home buyers get to their dream listing as quickly as possible.
search
A better baseline + industry-leading features
Knowing that search was critical to Tri Pointe Homes’ business, we worked with their team to reimagine the search experience for home buyers. We implemented Algolia to provide faster, more relevant searches, quickly gaining the many out-of-the-box benefits of a modern search platform. Building from this baseline, we leveraged Algolia’s intent detection features to help users quickly find the results most relevant to them. For example, leveraging Algolia’s query rules to adjust and rewrite user queries to promote better results. The implementation of ‘searchandising’ features such as in-search promo banners lets Tri Pointe Homes achieve meaningful contextual marketing directly within search results. For example, someone searching for homes in a particular neighborhood might see a promo banner that offers additional info about that neighborhood.
Analytics
Integrating analytics and powering AI
It was important that Tri Pointe Homes be able to adjust and fine-tune their search experience over time. We know that it can be difficult to maintain momentum to fully realize the benefits of a search. To that end, we integrated search analytics to provide an ongoing way to understand user activity. Not only does this give Tri Pointe Homes insight into how the site is being used, it also helps them better understand the ROI of their investment.
Search analytics are also the key to unlocking many of Algolia’s powerful AI features. With the proper baseline in place, Tri Pointe Homes is well-positioned to leverage Algolia’s AI search features such as Dynamic Re-Ranking, Recommend, and AI Personalization. The features, and the continued advancements in the AI-based search market, are critical to improving user experience and business outcomes.
Maintenance
Constantly improving the experience
Since implementing Algolia and improving the overall UX we have continued to maintain and build upon Tri Pointe Homes’ search functionality. One important project is to automate the ingress of data from Salesforce into the main website.
Not only does this automation save Tri Pointe time and money, it allows regional content teams to focus on the marketing copy for home listings while ensuring that core data always remains consistent.
the end result
A website that sells homes
The result of our efforts is a website with lightning-fast results, a much more user-friendly UI, and far fewer searches where no results or unusable results are returned.
Now, potential homebuyers can pinpoint the right listings with minimal effort, ensuring that Tri Pointe Homes’ website serves as the marketing and sales tool it was intended to be.
Client Testimonials
"I couldn’t live without Foster Made. They really understand what our needs are, and can anticipate what our needs will be. They’ve taken our vision and made it better, made it more intuitive."
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