Sales: “$1,100 for cleaning—who is she kidding?”
Owner: “I have a problem giving a homeowner cash. But it sounds like we really dropped the ball here.”
Superintendent: “We should do something—we let them down.”
Warranty: “They’re too picky.”
Owner: “I agree with the super: We need to do something. I don’t want to set a precedent of paying off homeowners with cash in situations like this. Carol, what do you think?”
I was hoping they’d ask.
This exchange occurred at the end of a seminar on delivery strategies, when I asked if there were any questions. First up: “What should we do with this letter from a homeowner who claims she had to clean up after drywall repairs and wants to be paid for her time?” When I asked for background details, the discussion that followed demonstrated how emotions can influence decisions. But it also showed that the super was ready to accept responsibility. The owner vacillated, but he came around by the end of our meeting.
In this case, sales and warranty were reacting to the amount of work these “picky” homeowners caused them; their comments reveal defensiveness, anger, and frustration. Rather than focusing on company systems that failed and how to improve them, they zeroed in on the personality of the homeowners—especially the wife.
Separating emotions from the facts for a moment, we were left with bad drywall, a poorly managed repair process, and cleaning personnel whose passion for their work apparently didn’t impress the homeowner.
To imply that because the homeowner is difficult, the company’s errors should be excused rationalizes these events. Poor performance by the builder isn’t canceled out by a challenging customer. In this case, the company re-examined its procedures for preparing homes for delivery. And warranty tightened its oversight of repairs.
After 20 minutes of debate, the builder decided to give the clients a $1,200 gift certificate to a furniture retailer. The owner and superintendent met with them to apologize for the inconvenience and to outline steps they were taking to prevent a recurrence. The clients had expected their letter to be ignored, they said, and were enthusiastic in their appreciation.
Whether the company regained enough homeowner confidence to get referrals remains to be seen. But at least they put a stop to any negative word of mouth. And this chain of events won’t happen again. The $1,200 was tuition for a lesson well-learned.—Carol Smith offers customer service assessment, consulting, and training programs for home builders. She can be reached at csmithhomeaddress@att.net.
