Wachter Customer Journey

When Wachter Technologies, a leading nationwide systems integrator, decided to undergo a massive renovation in 2022 to their Customer Experience Center in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey, they knew that creating an immersive space for customers would be critical to their business development approach.  

With Nelson Worldwide at the design helm, Wachter integrated our lighting technologies across their entire 31,000 sq. ft. facility. The results were nothing short of spectacular. In fact, when we sat down with the Vice President of Strategic Innovation and Business Development at Wachter, Matt Tyler, he reported that the building leads customers to feel “shock and awe,” which is no easy feat.

The Assignment

We understood the assignment. Wachter wanted to offer a unique experience to visitors and employees alike, different from a traditional office space. 

With the collaboration of our lighting team and the design experts at Nelson, we set out to meet the mandate.   

The requirements that emerged during the design process were

• to have an immediate first impression on visitors

• to have the ability to tailor the space to the customer visiting 

• and, to have a secure lighting controls system for protected & optimized operations. 

From the moment you walk in, Wachter personalizes the experience. “It’s positively overwhelming for customers to see digital signage and welcome boards all tied into the lights, seeing the colors match their brand throughout the facility,” Tyler added. 

The curated experience at Wachter leverages the many lighting solutions and technologies that we’ve developed. From RGB color with Color Kinetics (CK), used for holiday schedules and themed lighting palates to custom 3D printed luminaires, embossed with the Wachter logo, every detail is accounted for; “I think we’ve really captured a truly inspiring theme walking through the front door, from the illuminated, live green wall to the color changing lights throughout the office,” Tyler adds. 

The customers aren’t just feeling it – they’re saying it, too. Wachter has never received anything less than a 5-star review on a customer exit survey, with customers specifically praising the lighting and the way it makes them feel connected back to their brand. 

In this article, we've decided to spotlight some of the areas at Wachter that we’re most proud of and share what makes them so special. 

Grow Lights 

To enhance Wachter’s office environment, their design team chose to include living plants throughout the facility. Although Color Kinetics luminaires are not originally intended for use to grow plants – like Signify’s many Horticultural lighting solutions, they have been tremendously successful for the office as grow lights.  

Fun fact, the Wachter plant vendor asked them to tone down the intensity of the lights because the living plants under their care were reacting so well that they were outgrowing the vendor’s service maintenance intervals. When set at 100%, the lights were far too bright. Wachter was advised to dim to 25% for optimal performance and additional energy savings. 

Wachter’s creative application of Color Kinetics to illuminate their facade, interior walls, and grow living plants speaks to their continuous innovation.  

3D Printed Lights

3D printed luminaires offer Wachter three major benefits according to Tyler, “Having the 3D luminaires [installed] are not only one, cool - but two, they allow us to print luminaires on demand in the color palettes our customers are requesting, and three, we can really customize."  

That customization is on display across the Wachter office.  

Network Access with Lighting 

Wachter offers a Stage/Config center where they apply images, IP addresses and an array of custom imaging to their devices. This facility is where assets are managed and where devices are configured to their customers’ environments. 

Wachter also allows customers to access the center through network and video technology so they can perform proprietary configurations without Wachter ever touching the process. 

For many systems integrators, quality network access is standard. But Wachter differentiates itself with video accessibility so employees can demonstrate a strong chain of custody for their customers. 

Wachter installed Signify’s Ledalite ModiFly in a honeycomb pattern across their Stage/Config center to achieve low-shadow, consistent output. Under ModiFly's illumination, customers can securely log in, view, and configure their products live.

ModiFly is connected to our IoT lighting system wirelessly by means of a Zigbee network, which uses a 128-bit AES encryption. GLS is the first lighting company to certify development lifecycle processes against IEC62443-4-1, the international standard for security of industrial control systems and operational technology. Our cloud solutions are certified ISO27001.  

NatureConnect 

In a windowless conference room, Wachter has “the ability to...really trick a lot of [their] guests coming into this space”. Customers often think it’s a real skylight bringing natural light into the meeting space, demonstrating the realism of the lighting with NatureConnect by Ledalite.

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Tyler reflected on their own customer journey from specification and design to installation and commissioning saying,

“Working with Signify has been pretty awesome, riding on the Philips hardware and the legacy. We haven't had a single reason for preventative maintenance or maintenance...There haven’t been any glitches or anything that we need to worry about from the software perspective. The integration seemed to work flawlessly once they'd been stood up, so it's been great for us. We don't have a facilities manager to worry about it.” 

With technological innovations and system integrations from Signify, Wachter delivers on performance and shapes the customer experience while saving energy.  

#WalkintoWachter