Have You Asked: What's Our Home Buyer Experience Gap?

Just a couple of Solution Blogs ago, we talked about the how the concept of customer service has transitioned into customer experience -- you can read it here.

Let's focus this Blog on your buyer -- after the time of purchase.

Information Reduces the Gap!

What is a Buyer Experience Gap?

Ask yourself:

• What would you consider to be a great buyer experience after the Purchase Agreement is signed?
• What is the actual buyer experience today in your organization?
• The difference is your buyer experience gap!
  

Is Communication Part of Your Gap?

Did you see our Solutions Blog: Homebuilder #1 Referral Driver: Keeping Buyers Informed? You can read it here.

That Blog is one of our most frequently read! It starts with Eliant CEO Bob Mirman's statement in Builder and Developer: the single largest referral driver for homebuilders is how well the builder keeps buyers informed regarding the status of construction.

Lack of Information Creates Buyer Stress

Mirman asks us to think of the homebuying process as similar to a hospital stay.  No question: both are stressful! 

Yet, the stress can be mitigated by information. 

No one, in other words, feels comfortable in the dark. Mirman notes the #1 reason for buyers' Willingess to Refer a Friend is the builder's ability to keep the buyer informed of their status.

Communication Doesn't Need to be Complicated

Mirman points out, You don't need conversation -- just communication.

That's How Technology Can Decrease that Experience Gap

We'd like to suggest technology will provide the tools necessary to improve your communications -- and reduce the gap! CPS' web Portals take information already developed by FieldCollaborate's construction users and WarrantyWatcher's customer service teams and make it available to buyers and homeowners via the Internet.

No additional work required: the construction schedule can be set as viewable for your buyers. Warranty requests, status updates and appointments are available via mobile or desktop. In both cases, 24/7, anywhere/anytime.

Want to up your game, decrease the gap even further? Go the extra step and take stage-of-construction photos and attach them to your construction milestones. Your buyer knows what's happening, fewer trips to the job site, fewer calls --- and your internal team can view them, as well.

How about adding post-repair photos so your homeowner knows how things look before getting home from work? After all, you buyers have Portal access 24/7 so they're up-to-speed as the work is completed.

Referrals are the Result of a Great Buyer Experience

Referrals can be your least expensive source of traffic -- and the most rewarding. Enhanced communications is a win-win as your team communicates results internally and they're viewable by your most important audience: the buyer.

Builders: Get Proactive, Increase Referrals with Mobile Customer Experience Moments!

Let's take an earlier Solutions Blog: How to Improve Your "Refer a Friend" Rate (read it here) with Eliant's Bob Mirman thoughts regarding the referral impact associated with keeping customers informed - and add Full Story's Scott Voight's thoughts, "You can win on customer experience" and "Excellent customer service can largely be distilled in two words, speed and convenience."  

Have you adopted  "proactive customer service" -- that is, not waiting for an event to offer specific, customer-focused attention.

Get Mobile and Create Proactive Customer Service moments!

A recent Innovative Retail Technologies article sparked a new thought: the value of mobile relative to proactive. 

There's a "First Dibs Opportunity" study suggesting 46% of mobile usage sessions start with no real aim! Author Christine Kern also mentions 70% of respondents use their mobile devices to "kill time." 

The study concludes "if smart phones were smart, they'd do a better job of giving us something useful!"

Software can help builders turn mobile time into proactive customer service moments! Your homebuyers can grab a minute or two, while waiting in line at the store, to check out stage of construction photos. And, can't you see your buyer getting excited to see a just-installed countertop and turning to the next shopper and saying, "Check this out! My new home's kitchen was just finished!"

That's a refer a friend moment! Or, how about the impact of a homeowner browsing their warranty service requests while getting a hair cut and seeing a completed request with a photo?  Wouldn't that be a "Wow! My builder is on top of things!" moment?

CPS' FieldCollaborate and WarrantyWatcher Portals can help you easily create these proactive customer service events -- and do it quickly and conveniently. Customer experience will improve and your referral rate will jump!

CPS will be exhibiting at #IBSOrlando next week -- drop by for a demo at Booth W5583.  Or, contact us at info@cpsusa.com and we'll schedule a demo for you!

We're All in the Customer Service Business!

Not that long ago, many organizations didn't necessarily think they were in the customer service business. Doctors, for example.  They treated illness, set bones and the like. Home builders, possibly.  Their business: homebuilding.

Get Proactive! Offer 24/7 communication channels

Today, with the advent of social media and culture changes, interaction with customers needs to be top of every organization's mind. Whether its Twitter, Facebook or an organization's own web page, customers have plenty of opportunities to speak their mind about product, service, followup... just about everything!

And, satisfying expectations for "good service" has expanded, as well.  It used to be a "thank you" card was considered thoughtful and enough.

Today, a continued conversation needs to accompany a homebuyer from purchase to closing and throughout the warranty period. BuilderIQ notes that buyers "start to regret" the purchase when they don't hear from their builder during the post-sale process. That's a fairly radical thought!

One solution: get proactive! Setup processes and systems that enable your buyers (and homeowners) to engage with you in a consistent, straightforward manner. Timing is everything: when an item is top of mind, people want to be able to communicate!  And, communication doesn't have to mean conversation.

Take a look at CPS' FieldCollaborate and WarrantyWatcher Portals as examples of proactive and effective customer service. Are you a homebuyer that doesn't live in the immediate area but is interested in seeing the latest stage of construction images? How about a schedule summary or a list of selected options? It's all there -- available via desktop, phone, tablet!

Maybe you're a homeowner with a disturbing leak, leak, leak in the master bathroom shower. No need to wait until 8am, Monday to contact your builder's customer service department. Log-on Sunday night and submit your warranty request -- and then check status on Monday when the office opens.

And, remember: the primary driver of new home buyer referrals is a homebuyer satisfied with their builder's communication process!