Customer Service: Expand Beyond Vanilla!!

Chip Bell Talks Out of the Box About Customer Service

Chip Bell, a well-known authority on customer loyalty and service innovation, has some interesting thoughts regarding customer service:

Outside the box customer service = retention, referrals!

Make Service Neopolitan, Not Vanilla!

Bell suggests: Walk on the wild side with your customers! In other words, provide a customer experience that is not only good but innovative -- which translates to meet customer expectations and then go for the unexpected!

Innovative Service Brings Rewards

What's interesting about customer service, from Bell's perspective, is a quality service experience will be met with customer loyalty and Tweets, referrals and all sorts of positive items for the organization.

Homebuilder Opportunities to Deliver More

How can you step out of that Vanilla box? 

1. Key customer service terms: quick, consistent and measurable! Do you know the average age of your homeowner warranty request? Can you drill down and find out how many times broken windows were installed in your community? Information (or, data) is key to being able to provide consistent, quality service.
2. Make your warranty process frictionless! Does your homeowner need to call between 8-5? Or, submit a written list of issues? How many times does your team trade voicemail messages? Do they know what's scheduled? Keeping homeowners informed is the single best way to obtain referrals!
3. Keep your vendors in the loop, 24/7 -- and make that process as easy as possible. Typically, vendors have their own processes and you can't really customize yours for each of theirs so make sure your vendors have everything they need anywhere/anytime, 24/7. Work orders, drawings, photos, contact info.

Software Will Help!

Homebuilder customer service is a day-in/day-out process. You'll want to have tools to expedite the heavy lifting so it's possible to move beyond vanilla!

Frictionless is 24/7 Homeowner Access!

CPS WarrantyWatcher provides cloud-based warranty management that's available 24/7 on all platforms (tablet, phone, desktop) so your team and vendors are able to respond quickly. And, your homeowners get a seamless process, too with 24/7 access to submit and monitor their requests!

Visit CPS at PCBC 2019

We'll be showcasing WarrantyWatcher at PCBC 2019 May 30-31; visit us at Booth 141! Or, reach out to us and we'll schedule a one-on-one demo.

Builders: Do You Share These Pain Points?

Interesting recent BuilderOnline article by John McManus noting that the benefits of the current recovery in homebuilding appear slanted towards the very large, production homebuilders.

CPS FieldCollaborate:
Cycle-time Improvements Start Quickly

Market Gains Aren't Equal Across the Builder Landscape

Today, smaller builders, says McManus, are working harder and have a bunch of "math basics" working against them.  Larger builders are able to optimize finance structures as well as relationships with land sellers, vendors and distribution networks.

In many cases, the result, for smaller builders, is a profit squeeze. Labor and material costs are increasing and builders report usable lots aren't as available and are more expensive.

Technology Investment as a Tool

Are these some of your pain points? There's a few more: McManus goes on to say that many of the "smaller builder positives" such as local land knowledge, long-standing vendor relationships and local homeowner referrals don't hold as much sway as previously.  And, there is the Millennial home buyer with all sorts of different objectives, priorities and shopping patterns.

Add to that, larger builders have invested in sales, marketing and operations-focused technology -- and the results are making for a much more competitive marketplace.

Interactive Technology lets you eliminate static displays

Dial-up Your Motivation to Locate Solutions

One solution, McManus suggests, is locating capital partners to achieve better margins. That's certainly an option for some.

Another is reviewing and evaluating current operations. Are you still operating with pen/pencil on the operations side? There are relatively inexpensive, easy-to-use construction management software products such as CPS' 2018 Constructech award-winning, cloud-based FieldCollaborate that can be implemented quickly and start paying off in decreased cycle times and increased communications with vendors and buyers. Buyer referrals still resonate -- grab them as a result of technology use! Available anywhere/anytime for field managers, vendors, home buyers, corporate users.

Take the opportunity to examine how well you are telling your home shopper's story, as well. Step away from tired, static displays and utilize an interactive presentation -- consider an iPad or Surface tablet  if a larger display isn't feasible.

Upgraded marketing tools create an environment appealing to the ever-growing Millennial buyer and responding to their need for new ideas, designs and uses -- and, interactive technology is the way they're used to purchasing.  Adding interactive technology doesn't need to be an incremental increase in cost -- you're able to eliminate the wall-mounted floorplans and pre-printed brochures with products such as CPS' SalesTouch. 

Homebuilder Vendor & Buyer Portals Improve Efficiency & Productivity

Are you familiar with the concept of a Portal -- sometimes referred to as a neutral platform in the cloud?

Portals provide users with the ability to view -- and sometimes update -- information developed by a variety of systems and managed by different organizations in a single location. Typically, they're accessible via the Internet and available, anytime/anywhere.

What can a construction Portal do for your organization, vendors and/or buyers? An effective Portal provides data access, governed by credentials, to all appropriate stakeholders.

Let's take a look at a real-world example: vendors log into CPS' FieldCollaborate Portal to view or print their construction schedules, punch items, and safety assessments.  In addition, they're able to view the latest builder documents and drawings.

Home buyers, on the other hand, log into the FieldCollaborate Portal and find their home's schedule as well as stage-of-construction photos.

If we consider just this set of participants, can you think of the reduced number of phone calls, faxes, emails and misunderstandings? Portals make the entire enterprise more efficient and productive!  Home buyers feel empowered and their satisfaction levels improve, as well.

Home builders use Portals to share information internally, as well.  What's more disruptive than having multiple sources for information?  A well-managed Portal provides the same information to everyone (governed by access credentials, of course) -- and it's all available anywhere, anytime via the cloud!

How to: Build in Quality in New Home Construction

 A recent Carl Seville blog, Desperately Seeking Quality, was featured in Green Building Advisor.

Associate QI with task to achieve Milestone

Great title!

Seville bemoans a shortage of skilled labor and current high volume of work combining to create knowledge and communications gaps in the field.

Seville asks: "Where is the quality control?" He says inspectors are finding a significant amount of deficient work and that field superintendents tend to rely on their subcontractors to monitor their own work.

Most would agree: quality needs to start early in the process. While it can be reviewed or measured at the end of a job, that's really too late to be effective.  At that point, quality problems mean rework is the solution -- and that's both costly and inefficient.

Having your home buyers walk their new home to discover problems doesn't build the type of relationship home builders need in today's market.   Facebook is only too happy to post photos and comments submitted by unhappy homeowners.  And, referrals are too good of a source for future business to ignore.

One effective way to build in quality is to develop Quality Inspection measures at meaningful points throughout the construction process.  Don't wait for a  builder walk check list, in other words! Your Quality Inspections don't need to measure at every milestone although that might be a reasonable initial starting point.

QI templates drill down for specifics

Are you using automated scheduling software? Make a Quality Inspection the last task of a milestone in the schedule.  In other words, the milestone can't be complete until every task -- including the Quality Inspection -- is complete. That way, your superintendent or field manager is reviewing work in a timely manner and schedules stuck at a milestone with an open QI task are easily identified within schedule progress.

CPS offers construction scheduling software providing Quality Inspection processes -- contact us and see how FieldCollaborate lets you build in quality during the construction process! And, you'll be doing it on the jobsite, in real-time with results available for your vendors, anywhere/anytime, using the Vendor Portal.

Construction Data Portals: Immediate Collaboration

Are you familiar with the concept of a Portal -- sometimes referred to as a neutral platform in the cloud?

Portals provide users with the ability to view -- and sometimes update -- information developed by a variety of systems and managed by different organizations in a single location. Typically, they're accessible via the Internet.

What could a construction Portal do for you, your organization, vendors and/or buyers? An effective Portal provides data access, governed by credentials, to all appropriate stakeholders.

Construction Portals facilitate Collaboration

Let's take a look at a real-world example. Vendors can log into CPS' Field Collaborate Portal and view or print their construction schedules, punch items, and safety assessments.  In addition, they are able to view builder documents and drawings.

Home buyers, on the other hand, log into the Field Collaborate Portal and find their home's schedule as well as stage-of-construction photos.

If we considered just this set of participants, can you think of the reduced number of phone calls, faxes, emails and misunderstandings? Portals make the entire enterprise more productive!

Home builders use Portals to share information internally, as well.  What's more disruptive than having multiple sources for information?  A well-managed Portal provides the same information to everyone (governed by access credentials, of course) -- and it's all available anywhere, anytime via the cloud!

Mobility: What Benefits Are Available for Construction Operations

Did you see last week's blog highlighting the value of mobility tools to the construction industry?

Nile Lars suggested, in an Insights.Wired article, that mobility solutions add real value to the construction process.  Generally, construction-related businesses are managing multiple projects, in a variety of locations, with most staff working remote -- and all participants have a need to communicate status, results and financials.  Depending on the project, you might also want to add in vendors to the mix, as well.

FieldCollaborate Mobile:  Anywhere/anytime schedule access

Lars suggests several key benefits available throughout the entire construction life cycle:

-- Improved communications as mobility keeps the field and corporate office connected.  Easy sharing of data and images as everyone has anywhere/anytime access.

-- Better workflow processes as a result of real time data.  Field managers, for example, can indicate a task has been completed and approved for payment and, using mobile devices and an integrated system, accounting can issue payment.

-- Increased productivity.  Think improved efficiency, no more double data entry, missed phone calls, lost faxes and the like!

-- Ability to integrate systems and outside staff. Now that field managers and corporate staff have anywhere/anytime access to data, why not offer access to your vendors?

And, mobile tablets and smart phones offer the ability to go beyond data: field managers, for example, can capture onsite images, videos and audios to back-up activities onsite as well as distribute to corporate staff.  Document sharing is becoming more and more popular, as well.

Mobility enables  field staff  and vendors to be active participants throughout the enterprise -- saving time, enhancing communications and strengthening workflow processes.