Our phone conversation continues for nearly an hour. I suggest solutions, such as documenting every change order and obtaining a signature before making a change. I tell the caller to always include the number of days the change will add to the schedule. “Well, we try but we just can’t always do that. Some of these are agreed to in the field and the work is already in progress. If we stopped to do paperwork it would slow things down,” she said.
The choice is tough: pausing work long enough to document the change or suffering unpaid change orders and arguments about details and delays. Behaviors produce results. If you want to change the results, you must change the behavior—your behavior. Customers are not going to stop asking for changes. Manage them effectively. The industry has figured this out; why not apply the knowledge?
Be Proactive. My caller notes that in spite of her company’s monumental efforts to keep clients happy, customer satisfaction dropped 11 percent last year, as measured by in-house surveys. She believes her business would grow even more if she could capture referrals, but she’s gotten only one in the past 12 months. This drop in satisfaction (and consequent missed opportunity for referrals) is all too common. It is most often due to buyer abandonment: Homeowners believe—rightfully so—that their builder has turned its back on them now that the home is paid for.
I urge her to consider proactive warranty service, which begins by setting an appointment for a warranty visit at the end of the orientation. I tell her to confirm the appointment a few days prior and arrive with a checklist of items to inspect on behalf of the homeowner. “Oh, we can’t do that,” she counters. “We don’t have the manpower for that level of attention.”
Everything I suggest is somehow similarly impossible: The problem is in the buyers. This builder has a good heart and good intentions but her reasoning is misguided. “How can we fix the customers who are so far out of line?” Why don’t I have an answer for that? At this point, following the advice of industry sage Al Trellis, I give up and provide the name and number of another consultant.
Most customer service problems are the fault of poorly conceived or inconsistently applied policies. In other words, builders are often their own worst enemy. The good news is that if builders are causing their own problems, builders can fix them. You control your systems; you can change them to make dramatic improvements. Most are quick, easy, cost little, and require no extra personnel: better habits, more self-discipline, and a recognition that the ubiquitous “best practices” have earned that title for a reason. The new concepts work, but only if you apply them.
Carol Smith offers customer service assessment, consulting, and training programs for home builders. She can be reached at csmithhomeaddress@att.net.
