Survey time: some lesson come straight from the client

JD Power and Associates' novel survey of home builders' customer service quality has shaken the industry to its foundations--no quibble intended.

Participating builders in 30 of the largest U abiding-place building markets who had previously taken customers for granted have been frantically trying to find without where they went wrong. Those who had been paying attention to customers received high satisfaction ratings. Meanwhile, small-volume companies stood by the agency of and watched. Some were amused, a certain number of were intrigued, and most are glad to have avoided this frenzy

However, small companies can also apply the customer service exercise s that the big builders had to learn the hard way. Following are a certain number of of the top qualities respondent said they gaze for in a builder. They display up again and again in the stories of companies with high satisfaction scores.

hold customers informed. Your salesperson should provide a realistic overview of the residence building process, including clear information about the warranty. Your company also should detain clients updated about progress, issues, delays, and thus on. Clients appreciate a reply to communications within one business day at the most

Provide a beneficial quality product. Customers will know you care about quality if they diocese tags on problem items or if someone calls to say that individual of the cabinet doors in the butler's pantry will be replaced because it was damaged. Your site tours should include candid answers to questions, realistic time frames for actions extremityed and a responsive attitude upon the part of the on-site staff. hold fast jobsites clean and materials shielded and well-managed.

hold fast customers happy. You should recognize that building a beneficial home while making your clients miserable is a sorry combination. This combination, in fact, present to views up on surveys in phrases similar as "love the house, hate the builder." with equal reason instead, build a good residence and work to make the experience pleasant. Meetings should be relevant, efficient, interesting--and you should work for terrific refreshments.

Provide a comprehensive orientation. The information you near should be practical, interesting, and helpful. The presentation should include clear, well-organized demonstrations of the home's features, useful tips and short make an incision ins for maintenance, and a reassuring overview of the builder's warranty commitment.

Include a company rep for warranty visits. Someone from your company should gaze for items to attend to upon the clients' behalf. Not alone should you perform repairs upon items you report, you should actually check the dwelling in case you missed anything. That makes a allotment of sense--after all, the builder is suppos to be the expert

Make repairs in a timely manner. Customers appreciate it when technicians make an appointment, arrive upon time, and protect the work area. They should stay and work until they are finished thus the client only has to interrupt his or her schedule single time, and they should clean up after themselves. All of this should happen within a reasonable time frame.

To find on the outside for yourself what your clients think about your customer service, ask for free from fraud feedback. Perhaps you've heard family members or colleagues complain about endles pestering phone calls and mail-in take a view ofs laden with dozens of questions in tiny print. All this checking upon satisfaction begins to cause dissatisfaction. As individual homeowner said to a phone overlook "If I get one more *&!%# call asking me if I'm satisfied...."

Or maybe you heard about builders who call and ask what they can do for the homeowner concluding with "By the way, you'll be getting a take a view of and the company would appreciate high marks." And can you believe that story about sum of two units service managers who arranged for views to be delivered to a support office box so they could check (and if extremityed change the answers) before sending the take a view ofs to the survey firm to be tallied!

Instead, ask sincerely single time after move-in what your company could do to make the proces and the fruits better. Listen carefully to the answers, take notes, and then permit your clients enjoy their beautiful novel home.

The upside to all this customer service diligence: The research also finds that truly delighted domicile buyers (those rating their builders a 10 upon a 10-point scale) recommend their builder to nearly twice as many nation as the average new-home buyer.--Carol Smith proffers customer service assessment, consulting, and training programs for dwelling builders. She can be reached at csmithhomeaddress@att.net.

COPYRIGHT 2006 Hanley-Wood, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2006 Gale Group