The unwanted towel bars
and mangled eavestroughs are not the problem. It's the four voice mails, three
e-mails, two faxes and one nasty letter that the frustrated customer had to
send while waiting seven weeks to hear back from the builder. That is the
problem.
It's all about communication.
One way or another, everything builders, site crews, trades, management or
labourers say or don't say, do or don't do, is communication. This communication
can be either customer relationship-boosting or customer relationship-busting.
Some builders are stuck in a risky customer relations rut. They hand out very
nice brochures, choose a model, upsell the upgrades, sign the offer, cash
the deposit cheque and hand over the keys at closing. Talk about communications
and builders point to cell phones, Mike messaging, Blackberry's, e-mail, faxes
and voice mail.
The savvy builders, however, recognize the value of parlaying communication
into valuable rapport with their customers.
Builder-customer communication invariably breaks down at the beginning. The
primary miscommunication is "builder shoptalk" vs. "customer
speak". The builder calls it a house. The buyer calls it home. The builders
refers to a job site. The buyer thinks of it as "my home in progress".
Today's purchasers are not only wiser consumers but they are also more interested,
involved and curious about their under-construction new home. This means that,
despite insurance liability rules and formally posted health and safety regulations,
they insist on dropping by the job site at all hours and weekends, eagerly
watching their new home being finished. Usually they have constructive comments:
"This is not the tile we picked out."
"Those pot lights are in the wrong place."
"There should only be a half-wall where that wall is!"
"The phone jacks and cable outlets are not where we marked them on the
locate sheet." "There's still water pooled in the basement."
They notice, and they get confused, concerned and anxious. They expect and
deserve answers. The controlled but chaotic construction process is a scary
place for the lay customer. It heightens his or her already-frazzled purchaser
anxieties. Site crews are busy, trades are gruff, customer patience levels
are low and nerves are frayed. This is not the best time to test builder communication
skills.
Some builders are in denial, pretending impromptu site-visits shouldn't and
don't happen, so they foolishly shrug-off construction-stage customer questions
and concerns as nuisance interference. The good news? More and more customer
relations-savvy builders accept customer involvement, deal with it, and often
turn it into positive communication opportunities for valuable customer rapport.
Customer Service is a department. Communication and customer relations are
an attitude. Although most builders provide some degree of service contact
with customers, service call contacts only kick-in after closing, after the
homeowner has moved in and after the miscommunication damage has been done.
The pre-closing customer doesn't yet qualify for service. They just want to
know the builder knows and cares about their concerns. They need attention
and some factual, straight and reassuring builder communication. No patronizing:
"Don't worry. It will be fine." Communication matters, maybe even
more than other builder rituals such as staying on schedule and juggling cash
flow. Good or bad communications can make or break a builder's reputation.
All the splashy four-colour ads, site plans, renderings and glossy brochure
kits aside, word of mouth is a builder's ultimate marketing tool. Some builders
just don't get it. They insist they're "too busy to worry about public
relations" and shrug off the damaging word-of-mouth they cause for themselves.
Beware the mistakenly overlooked but crucial housewarming stage of customer
communications. The first few months of friend-and-family housewarming visits
to a new home are extremely potent word-of-mouth opportunities. New homeowners
will and do tell friends everything during those initial housewarming visits.
What they tell family and friends is entirely up to the builder. The payback
of effective customer communication is positive customer word-of-mouth messages
about the builder.
Top 10 list of smart builder communications
1. Communicating with
customers, answering their questions or soothing their anxieties isn't necessarily
a nuisance-consumer waste of time!
2. No response is also communication.
3. Listening is sometimes more important than speaking.
4. Use the golden rule of professional communicators: know your audience.
Make sure your letters, notices, manuals and other customer communications
speak your customer's language - not your lawyer's!
5. Communications require customer empathy. At the builder's end, it's construction:
scheduling, work orders, contracts, specs, codes and timing. For the customer,
it's mostly emotions: enthusiasm, anticipation, worry, frustration, anger
and anxiety.
6. One-on-one communication (after-dinner phone calls work well) is ideal.
E-mail is adequate; faxes and letters are cold; backside-covering and official
voice mails are borderline rude and largely pointless.
7. How you communicate is not nearly as important as what you communicate.
8. "He said/she said" doesn't work. Nothing verbal. Accept only
"in-writing" and direct your customer communications tasks to properly
trained staff who are good communicators.
9. Pro-active communication is not only easier but often more effective than
re-active crisis management.
10 Customer communication equals rapport and positive word of mouth.
John Hardy is a Customer
Relations and Corporate Communications professional in Burlington, Ontario.
He has consulted a diverse range of clients, including several Southern Ontario
home builders, and has served on the marketing and community relations committees
of the Hamilton and Halton Home Builders Association. Contact Hardy at jch@sympatico.ca
