What Does Friction Have to Do with A Builder Sales Office?

Why Are We Talking About Friction?

Actually, we're going to discuss the lack of friction -- meaning ease and less hassle during a transaction.

How Many Frictionless Features Do You See?

The term "frictionless" as it relates to customer experience has gone through several evolutions according to a recent retailcustomerexperience.com article by Sheryl McKenzie.

Today, the definition has moved beyond less hassle (everyone expects that now!) to greater personalization and wow! experiences. It also means anticipating -- not just meeting -- customer needs.

Customers Expect Great Experiences & Leave When Friction Appears

Consumer expectations regarding friction impact their level of engagement and their brand experience.

A recent Rules of NextGen Loyalty suggests consumers expect a great experience -- and will won't stick around a brand that doesn't deliver.

McKenzie suggests, "Consumers who encounter friction will run the other way fast, and second chances don't come easily."

What's Next?

McKenzie suggests brands need to create experiences that stay one step ahead of the consumer.

From a builder standpoint, Jonathan Wilhelm says in a recently BuilderOnline article, "builders have the opportunity to distinguish themselves in (today's) challenging period." 

One way, Wilhelm suggests is to stand out with a state-of-the-art sales center that can enhance the buying experience and make a lasting impression.

Isn't that the definition of frictionless!?

Let's Get Interactive!

Wilhelm goes on to say builders should create an experience that engages and informs home shoppers. He explains the necessity of detailed, visual and concise information, the value of interactive presentations, comfortable workstations, etc.

Take a look at the CPS SalesTouch interactive kiosk at a Minto sales center above. Home shoppers are able to review the community, select floorplans, drag 'n drop furniture, mix and match structural options -- basically, start dreaming about their new home and putting the pieces together to make it happen!

That's a competitive edge that helps you, the builder, make a frictionless homebuying experience! 

More? Look for CPS at IBS2019

CPS will be at IBS2019; contact us for an onsite demo.  If you're unable to attend, we can provide a one-on-one online demo, starting now!

Homeowner Customer Service: SST Preferences Change Quickly

Have you run across Urban Airship? They've just released 2019 Insights & Predictions into Customer Engagement (you can check it out here). 

Customer Engagement Strategies: There are Brand Impacts

Urban Airship suggests the new year is a good time to take a look at current strategies - and that we can never get too comfortable thinking we know what our customers want. Attitudes, preferences and expectations change quickly.

Self-service is one of those quickly evolving expectations.  Today, self-service is not only a solution but a preference for many. 

Urban Airship reports: 

"78% of customers say poor customer service makes them lose trust in a brand"

Take a Look at Mobile and Website Options

How does customer experience, self-service and a good brand image fit together?

Offering your customer mobile and website options, reports Urban Airship, provides an easily accessible solution for questions and support.  Your homeowners want access 24/7, anywhere, anytime!

Access means you're able to provide a more consistent and reliable brand image.  Gone are the missed calls and voicemail exchanges; now, you're communicating directly and resolving issues!

CPS WarrantyWatcher Provides Accessible, Personalized Access for Your Homeowners

Now, take a look at CPS' WarrantyWatcher Homeowner Portal and how it streamlines the builder's customer service process and provides the digital experience that today's homeowners want.

WarrantyWatcher: Accessible, Personalized, 24/7

24/7 access and personalization is critical! Your homeowners have a unique location to report a service issue, receive confirmation of the problem and and appointment for repair.  They're also able to view all previously reported issues and their resolution. All convenient; all 24/7; without any additional work for your customer service group.  In fact, probably less work!

Communication doesn't always have to mean conversation!

Looking to improve your brand image through enhanced digital experience?

Talk to us! CPS will be at IBS2019.  Not able to attend?  Let us know and we'll schedule a one-on-one demo to show you how CPS can provide you with a more efficient customer service process and an improved brand image! 

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.

Adding an Emotional Connection to Your Sales Office

There's a lot of details to take into consideration during the homebuying process: beds & baths, square footage, mortgage rates and a down payment. It's frequently your buyer's largest financial decision. Yet, there's an element of emotion to consider and kindle in every person's home shopping (and buying!) experience.

Imagine the conversations in front of this SalesTouch kiosk!

Jeff Shore notes in his book, Buying the Experience, that home buyers desperately long to be emotionally engaged with the home of their dreams.

Your mission: to maximize that engagement!

Your Sales Office is Often the Start of  the Journey

Emotions are part of our nature -- and it's worth considering, analyzing and evaluating how to add an emotional component into your marketing propositon as sales/leasing offices are frequently the first place visitors encounter the full range of your brand and product.

Storytelling Initiates Emotional Connections

Storytelling is one of the best content strategies for creating an emotional connection. Stories are tactile and create a visual picture. 

No doubt you've heard stories and imagined yourself within that context.  That's what makes a good story: it pulls listeners in and actually makes them a co-creator of the message. Stories make content more interesting and more memorable. 

Stories can also open up the discovery process to address the "why" your home shopper is in your sales office!

Incorporate Social Proof

We've mentioned, in previous Solutions Blogs, collaborative consumption when discussing today's consumers.  Home shoppers like company -- just like always: friends, relatives, work buddies. But, today, in many cases, they're "cloud" friends! These advisors are available through social media -- giving feedback, offering reviews, providing info as to sales and trends.

Your story needs to be part of this social cloud.  One of the easiest ways to provide social proof, if you aren't displaying social media on-site, is to incorporate testimonials. 

Get Interactive

Scroll back to the top -- emotion is tactile.  Take a look at Cornerstone Communities' interactive touchscreen kiosk: can you imagine the conversations when home shoppers walk into the sales office and see it? Wow! What a gorgeous view! I used to run but...I could get back into it with that path! 

Interactive touch presentations encourage emotional connections.  Did you know using touch generates entirely different (and more positive) brain activity than using a mouse? Take a look at Bob Musa's book, Creating Customers with Interactive Touch Screen Digital Signage, for more on the power of touch!

IBS Gives You the Opportunity to Touch!

CPS will be at IBS2019 the week of February 18th; we're in Booth SU631. Not going to be able to make it but interested in the power of touch as a sales tool? We can schedule an online demo here!

Customer Service 2019: A New Paradigm for Builders

Customer Service is Now the Customer Experience

No doubt you've heard: business is moving faster than ever -- and the customer experience is becoming more of a top priority for all types of businesses.

But...what does that mean for you as a builder?

There seem to be 2 important components to today's customer service concept:

1. Customer service is critical to competing effectively.  It's not all about price, in other words. Check Yelp or Google restaurant comments if that doesn't resonate. 
2. The customer process has expanded to be the customer experience -- not just service after the sale.  That means every touch point from prior to the sale, during the sales process and post-sale. 

What Makes a Great Customer Experience?

How "convenient" is your sales center?

Shep Hyken just released The Convenience Revolution and is recognized for helping businesses deliver great customer experiences. Ideas include:

1. A quick response time can help generate that remarkable WOW! moment you wish every customer experiences with your business.
2. There are many ways to be convenient for your customer.  Think about your sales center, as an example: are the hours convenient to your buyer demographic? Is there seating? Is it comfortable? How available is your team to answer questions; address issues? After hours?
3. Digital transformation is personalizing; too many think it is static.

Using Personalized Technology to Enhance the Customer Experience

You might be asking yourself: so....they're telling me that customer service needs to be quick, convenient and personal? How does that play out for a home builder?

1. Provide convenience -- from the website to sales center to sales process, closing and post-sale. Innovative ways include: interactive kiosks to engage and inform your home shoppers as soon as they walk into the door. Use e-brochures; keep the paper weight down!
2. Self-service is not only acceptable; it's expected. Your buyers want information -- and they want it now! Add web-based Portals to disseminate information about their home, your process and status updates. Self-service reduces friction -- providing the desired convenience, as well!
3. Make your operation consistent and predictable.  Let home shoppers, buyers and homeowners know what to expect -- and deliver to that expectation. Home shoppers and buyers gets anxious about the unknown; letting people know what is happening is critical; use web Portals to deliver construction and customer service information that's already available in your organization. You're not doing more work; just making access more convenient!

Interested in Enhancing Your Customer Experience?

CPS will be at IBS2019 in Las Vegas the week of February 18; visit us at Booth SU631 -- or start your journey now! Or, use our contact form and we'll schedule a demo that fits your schedule.

What Can Builders Do to Up Their Productivity?

Productivity Issues Are Long-Standing and Complex

One of this year's "hot" topics has actually been a topic for a number of years -- in 2017, for example, MarketWatch noted, "the construction industry has a chronic productivity problem."

Use Technology to Manage the Details

The reasons are many and the impact is considerable on the global, national and local levels -- as well as individual homebuilder profitability.

Technology Offers Help at the Builder Level!

Rather than looking at the issue globally, however, let's focus on what you, as a homebuilder, construction manager or superintendent, can put your arms around to up your productivity -- which will improvide profitability.

First, however, we'll take note of a MarketWatch comment: there's been an underinvestment, in the construction industry, in technology.

Homebuilding is the Sum of Many, Many Details

Yet, there are relatively inexpensive and highly effective digital solutions that will have an immediate impact on your business -- as they'll help you organize, manage, evaluate and report on the many details surrounding every job.  For example, are you able to immediately answer these questions:

• Which of my vendors consistently meets my objectives for starting and completing a job on time? How can they access that schedule? What about when things change?
• Which vendor delivers work that meets my published standards and drawings? Do I have published standards? Are they readily accessible? How do vendors access the latest drawings?
• How much rework did my plumbing vendor have to do at the Estates community?
• Were all those homeowner roofing complaints related to this year's heavy rain, manufacturing issues or poor installation?
• Are punch issues resolved prior to walkthrough? Do I have a way to keep track of the punch items from the walkthrough?

Generate and Track Your Punch Items

Technology for the desktop and mobile devices (software such as CPS' FieldCollaborate construction scheduling and WarrantyWatcher customer service management) will help you create and distribute schedules to your vendors and track performance so you're able to address some of those questions. Consistent, easily available, measurable schedules -- along with all of the supporting details such as standards, drawings and easy access -- are key to getting your arms around some of those details.

Portals, Dashboards, Reports: They're Available & Will Up Your Game!

Being able to analyze which vendors are effective, the reasons behind rework and how punch items are addressed enables your organization to make huge gains in productivity as you use data to make sure you're laser focused on key issues based on facts, not commentary.  Use on-screen dashboards or generate reports detailing past-due punch items, find out which happen over and over, utilize Quality Inspection checklists to catch problems at the task level before your walkthroughs.  That's how technology helps you manage the details!

IBS2019 Before & After!

CPS will be demonstrating these easy-to-use and powerful solutions at IBS2019 in Las Vegas from February 19-21 (you can grab free passes to the exhibit floor here):

https://www.buildersshow.com/ComputerPresentationSystemsInc

Can't make it to Vegas or don't want to wait to up your productivity? Schedule a demo here and we'll be in touch asap!

Home Builders: Delivering the Warranty Service Your Buyers Expect!

Home Buyers Want Convenient & Quick Warranty Service

Today, in the age of Amazon and 2-hour shipping, consumers have sky-high expectations regarding customer service.  And, that's regardless of industry says a recent Radial article.  Customer service is now a key differentiator at time of purchase as well as for after-sale referrals. 

Home Buyers Look For Personalized Customer Service

Home buyers aren't any different than other consumers when thinking about their post-closing warranty service.  Gone are the days of handwritten forms, snail mail and slow turnaround.

Your buyers want convenience and quick problem resolution -- in addition to an environment that is proactive with personalized service.

Self-Service Functionality Is Today's Customer Service Hit!

Self-service is reported as one of the hottest trends in customer care. Consumers love the idea of being able to quickly and easily meet their objectives -- from submitting a warranty request to checking status to being able to review the history of a service item.

Technology Enables Builders To Meet Buyer Expectations

Technology innovations and advancements enable builders to meet these home buyer expectations.  Take a  look at CPS' WarrantyWatcher software -- particularly the Portal -- as an example.  Watch the video here: https://vimeo.com/296088297.

Homeowners are able to access the Portal via the builder's website -- 24/7, anywhere/anytime, to submit requests.  No more waiting until Monday morning or someone is off the phone or ….! And, homeowners are able to check request status at any time -- no more calling for info, back and forth voicemail, or missed calls.

The same self-service Portal is available for subcontractors.  Although formal work orders can still be sent via email, it's always possible to log-in to the Portal, download work orders, check associated drawings/photos and confirm availability. 

Self-service channels consistently outperform other channels in terms of consumer satisfaction. Your homeowners love self-service because it reduces friction and provides immediate and consistent answers.

Put Omnichannel in Place!

A builder website-based Portal provides for a personalized, omnichannel experience. That is, the Portal can fit into your business operations seamlessly.  Make it available from your website main page, skin it with your logo and colors, personalize it with team member photos.  It's all about winning and sustaining loyalty!

When Service Exceeds Expectations, Referrals Jump!

Remember: the #1 reason for homeowner referrals is keeping buyers informed during construction and post-closing!