Builders: Collaborate to Increase Your Referral Rate

Have you been asked to increase your buyer referral rate -- and not quite sure where to start?

Keeping Buyers Informed is Key

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

FieldCollaborate Is All About  Communication!

Not surprisingly, that Blog is one of our most frequently read as it kicks-off with Eliant CEO Bob Mirman's Builder and Developer article comments:  the single largest referral driver for homebuilders is how well the builder keeps buyers informed regarding the status of construction. 

Information Mitigates Stress

Mirman asks us to think of the homebuying process as similar to a hospital stay.  Both are stressful -- yet, the stress can be mitigated by information.  No one, in other words, feels comfortable in the dark.

The same applies to good experiences, suggests Mirman in June 2017 Builder and Developer. He notes the #1 driver of buyers' Willingess to Refer a Friend is the ability to keep them informed of their status.

Collaborating to Enhance Your Communication Process 

Importantly, Mirman notes, you don't need conversation -- just communication.

Buyer communication -- in an organized and consistent manner -- may be easier said than accomplished -- and that's where corporate collaboration can assist. Did you attend the Housing Leadership Summit in May 2018? A great session suggested collaboration is more than "working together"  as it involves a commitment to structural change involving both cultural and behavioral elements.

Information is Communication

We'd like to suggest adding software to provide the tools to enhance your current communication process. CPS' software Portals take information developed by Field Collaborate's construction users and WarrantyWatcher's customer service teams and make it available to buyers and home owners via the Internet.

No additional work required: the construction schedule is available for buyers to view. Warranty requests, status and appointments can be seen via mobile or desktop. In both cases, 24/7, anywhere/anytime!

Want to take things up a notch, become more user friendly? Go the extra step and take stage-of-construction photos and attach them to construction milestones. Add post-repair photos so your homeowner knows how things look before getting home after work.  After all, your buyers have Portal access 24/7 so they're up-to-speed as the work is completed!

Referrals Can Be Your Least Expensive Traffic Source

Referrals can be your least expensive source of traffic -- and the most rewarding.  Communication is a win-win as your team communicates results within the organization -- and they're easily viewable by your most important audience, your buyers.

New Home Construction Web Portals: 24/7 Access for Vendors & Buyers

Are you familiar with the concept of a web portal, sometimes referred to as a neutral platform in the cloud?  Portals provide users the ability to view — and sometimes update — information developed by one or more systems from a single web-based location.

Give Your Vendors 24/7 Access to Schedules & Punch

What would a construction portal do for your construction process — inside and outside the company, including vendors and home buyers?  Effective portals improve communication and collaboration by providing real-time data access to enterprise information.

Let's take a look at a real-world example: CPS' FieldCollaborate Portal allows a builder's vendors to log-in — any time, 24/7 — and view their construction schedules, punch items and safety assessments.  And, they're able to pull up builder documents and drawings, too.

Home buyers, on the other hand, login to the FieldCollaborate Portal to view their home's schedule and stage-of-construction photos.  The Portal keeps home buyers actively engaged throughout the home buying/construction cycle, which in many areas can take nine months from the time of contract acceptance to closing. Great for out-of-town buyers!

Home builders use the Portal, as well, to share information within their enterprise. When we consider the entire set of participants — the builder, vendors and homebuyers. 

Think about the number of phone calls, faxes, emails and misunderstandings that can be eliminated!

What's more disruptive than having multiple sources of information?  Your portal provides the same information to everyone (governed by access credentials, of course) — and it's all available 24/7, in real-time, via the cloud!

Portals improve communication and that makes the builder's entire enterprise more efficient and productive — resulting in more profit for both the builder and their vendors. Ask us how FieldCollaborate and Portals can improve your scheduling, communication and efficiency!

More on Toughest Job in Homebuilding

Scott Sedam's had some really great articles recently in Pro Builder; they include discussions on the current trade shortage (as in skilled trade personnel) and 12 fallacies held by many home builders (such as Design Centers are always a source of profit).

Toughest Job in a Builder's Organization?

 His most recent article, What's the Toughest Job in Home Building? is thought provoking as it reviews a typical builder's organization to develop a response.  Everyone, it seems, thinks their role is critical, "If you don't have lots, you can't build and you can't sell (and, parenthetically, there's no need for a warranty department, either!)" or "If we don't get the money lined up, nothing happens. Dead in the water."

All of those arguments, of course, have some validity. And, suggests Sedam, it could well be the warranty/customer service group that has the toughest job.  Generally, Sedam points out, this team gets little support and even less respect but has a significant impact on customer satisfaction.  And, there's Facebook and all sorts of other social media outlets ready and waiting to hear about the things that went wrong!

Sedam continues to run through the various builder departments: operations, purchasing/estimating, administrative support, even sales -- and for various reasons.  Each department's argument, of course, has merit.

Getting Everyone on the Same Page!

However, the most telling response might be the one from Eric Tiffin, "The toughest job in home building is getting everyone on the same page."

Have you had a chance to take a look at Troy Warr and Noelle Tarabulski's IBS 2016 presentation, Are the Best Builders the Best Schedulers? There's a copy here.

One concept made it's way throughout the presentation, Accountability, Accuracy and Consistency. Everyone in a builder's organization needs to have a single source of information -- and that is critical to getting everyone on the same page. 

CPS' FieldCollaborate offers construction scheduling tools (including reporting) as well as a web Portal for internal staff and vendors.  If anyone needs to know whether or not the flooring vendor completed the hardwood installation in Lot 26's kitchen, there's a single source to answer the question.  Whether you're in the accounting, operations or the sales department -- or you're the flooring vendor -- there's one source for the answer. That process goes a long way to getting everyone on the same page!

Builders: How to Improve Your Field Inspection Pass Rate

RealtorMag recently highlighted an alarming fact: About 45% of residential field inspections reveal a code violation. 

How does your construction process measure up?

Add Quality Inspections into your schedules!

Are you encountering improperly placed anchor bolts, missing blocking for braced wall panels or inadequately measured horizontal space planned for stairways?

These issues are identified as Top 10 code violations in the Journal Of Light Construction (in a Feb. 5, 2016 article, Top 10 Code Violations).

Do you have any idea about your Top 10?

We've been blogging about the interest in building quality in during the construction process. Did you know that construction scheduling software can help you identify issues before they get to the stage of a failed inspection?

Take a look at your construction schedule: do you have Quality Inspection tasks included in your task list?  Or, are you relying on someone "catching" an issue during a stage walk through -- when they're already busy or, even, overloaded with other tasks?  Or, do you wait until a failed inspection to repair? There goes efficiency on that job!

Or, worse,  does the organization wait for a problem to be caught by your home buyer during the walkthrough?  You need issue-free walkthroughs to generate buyer referrals! Facebook and other social media platforms are only too available to record issues and complaints.

Put Quality Inspection tasks into your construction schedule as the last item to satisfy a Milestone. Then, the schedule can't be considered on-time as the Milestone can't be completed until the Quality Inspection is processed.

CPS has been helping builders build in quality with FieldCollaborate since the 90's -- ask us to show you how FieldCollaborate will help you become more efficient with greater accuracy and happier homeowners!

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!

CPS' Troy Warr Providing IBS 2016 Construction Education Session

CPS' Troy Warr is presenting an IBS 2016 Education Session: Are the Best Builders the Best Schedulers?

Tuesday, 2pm: Are the Best Builders the Best Schedulers?

Are you still scheduling by pencil and paper, cell phone or fax?  Did you realize you're wasting time and money -- and potentially damaging your reputation with vendors and buyers?

Or, are you using automated scheduling software and wondering when you'll see some benefit -- fewer dry runs, more homes on schedule, improved vendor communications?

What about planning for the future? Do you see organizational excellence as one of your goals? If yes, what steps have you outlined?

Join us at IBS in Las Vegas on Tuesday, January 19th to get fresh insight into these topics and more! Troy is CPS' lead developer for FieldCollaborate -- a cloud-based, anywhere/anytime construction scheduling software system with a Portal for your vendors and buyers. He will be joined by Noelle Tarabulski, President of Builders Consulting Group.

Mark your Show Planner: Central Hall #9327; 2pm -- and CE credits are available!