The four classic steps of responding to change include denial, resistance, exploration, and commitment. Too often all of us get stuck in one of the first two stages, wallowing in old habits long after they serve us well.
Denial is a state of mind wherein people are aware of new information but convince themselves that it doesn’t apply to them. In resistance, the same folks recognize the change but don’t like it and refuse to apply the information with much enthusiasm, constantly looking for any reason to resort to former methods. Whether through lack of confidence or resistance to extra work, change fails to occur.
One of the best places to observe this is in builder procedures for working with home buyers. In spite of the tens of thousands of words that I’ve written about “delighting” customers rather than merely “satisfying” them, many companies persist in following tired, outdated methods.
Excuses abound: “Well, we don’t do it that way,” or “We’ve always done it like this.” Another favorite is “Our paperwork says …”
Specific examples are readily available. For instance, the builder who continues to refer to the home orientation as a “walk-through” when education and celebration are the points of new-home delivery. In other words, you want to delight buyers rather then run them (and yourself) through an exhaustive and nit-picky tour of the home.
Another example can be found in the warranty procedures of many companies. Perhaps these companies think that the conclusions reached by research on earning referrals from homeowners do not apply to them. Consider this dreary approach: About two months after move-in, homeowners are asked to submit a list of items at 60 days and if they miss this time frame, the builder will “assume” they don’t have any warranty items and file the matter as closed.
Maybe the owners are busy. Maybe they are on vacation after all the work of moving. Maybe they have company, are having a baby, or simply don’t want to be bothered right now. In any event, their right to warranty attention is neither reduced nor affected by their failure to comply with procedures developed mainly for the convenience of builder staff and trades.
