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| Heather McCune 630.288.8190 hmccune@reedbusiness.com |
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The claim to fame of custom builders centers of two business fundamentals: the quality each brings to the craft of building one-of-a-kind homes and the connections forged with customers throughout the process. During the design phase, builder, buyer and architect learn one another and through this discovery process map a working relationship that results in a profitable project and a satisfied home buyer months or years later.
The challenge for the builder — and the tool for building future business — comes in quantifying customer satisfaction. I know my customers are happy with their homes, you say, because we're face to face each week, each day. You're probably right, but understanding the science of customer satisfaction can do more to build your business and your bottom lines than you might think.
Look at brothers Joe and Barry Barone of Barone Homes. These two-time winners of the NRS Award in Customer Satisfaction leave little to chance in both ensuring satisfied customers and knowing what creates them. Through post-closing surveys, they measure buyer satisfaction with every aspect of the home building process. They know through data analysis of past customers where in the process home buyers feel anxious and will benefit from an extra phone call from one of the principals. They know how much handholding helps buyers through the difficult material selection part of the process. They know that responding to requests for warranty service rapidly — responding not actually doing the work — makes their customer feel cared for even if the requested work can't be completed for another few days or weeks.
What does all this data do to build business for Barone Homes? More than might be obvious on the surface. Consider what consumers experience about home building and home builders in the general media — articles and exposes about faulty construction, unscrupulous companies and hassles and hurdles too numerous to mention. However, in that first meeting with a new customer, Joe and Barry can paint a different experience about building a home with Barone. They tell of the process to ensure that each home is delivered on time, 100% complete and provide evidence of past customer experiences to prove it.
The customer satisfaction insights Barone Homes gets from surveying its customers delivers two times — in delivering the data to develop the processes to manage through customer hot spots and in supplying the evidence to win customers in the future.
Cement your knowledge of your customer's home building experience with your organization. For a small investment of dollars and time your business can reap rewards that will payoff in a better customer connection for years to come.
630-288-8190, hmccune@reedbusiness.com