CHALLENGE
As customer expectations across the building supply industry continued to evolve, a nationwide building supplier recognized growing pressure to modernize its digital experience. Contractors and residential and commercial buyers increasingly expected the same convenience, speed, and self-service functionality they experienced in other industries.
At the same time, our client faced a common challenge for large distributors: balancing traditional relationship-driven sales with rising demand for digital convenience. Leadership also lacked clear visibility into how customer expectations compared to competitors across the industry. Without direct customer feedback and competitive insight, it was difficult to confidently prioritize future digital investments, identify the highest-impact opportunities, or understand where the company risked falling behind more digitally mature competitors.
SOLUTION
Fratzke partnered with this leading nationwide building materials brand to conduct a comprehensive customer research and digital experience study focused on identifying both customer expectations and competitive market gaps.
Key areas of focus included:
- Conducting customer surveys and market research to better understand evolving buyer expectations
- Benchmarking the digital capabilities of leading industry competitors
- Evaluating opportunities to improve customer experience and digital engagement
- Identifying strategic gaps across digital services and experiences
- Analyzing customer feedback, purchasing behaviors, and growth opportunities
- Developing a prioritized roadmap to support long-term digital transformation and business growth
Rather than focusing solely on technology features, the engagement centered on understanding how digital experiences could support broader business goals. Fratzke aligned recommendations around improving customer retention, increasing operational efficiency, and supporting long-term revenue growth across both existing and new customer segments.
RESULTS
Our market research provided our client with significantly clearer insight into how customer expectations were evolving across the building supply market. The research identified key growth opportunities, emerging digital expectations, and areas where the customer experience could be strengthened to better support long-term engagement and retention.
The competitive analysis also helped clarify broader industry trends shaping the future of digital customer experience. Fratzke’s recommendations helped leadership prioritize the highest-impact opportunities while balancing digital modernization with the relationship-driven service experience that remained central to the business.
Beyond the immediate findings, our partnership established a stronger strategic foundation for future decision-making. Leadership gained a clearer understanding of market expectations, competitive positioning, and the digital capabilities most likely to support scalable growth and long-term customer value.
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