CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
Relationship Value in a Connected World
By Tim Bailey
"A bad system will beat a good person every time," according to quality guru W. Edwards Deming. Home building involves complicated systems and lengthy processes, which can often create barriers in the quest for customer satisfaction. Organizational "silos" frequently form in place of the holistic collaborations that are essential for creating exceptional customer experiences.
Understanding the Barriers
Home building combines a long cycle-time for production, a complex product, and an involved manufacturing process, which increases the risks of problems occurring. Functional units or departments are needed to provide expertise to each area of the home building process, however, barriers often form between these units. There are many reasons why barriers or organizational silos form including:
• Policies and attitudes: Leadership through to front-line are disconnected from ultimate objectives.
• Process shortcomings: Poorly defined or understood processes.
• System deficiencies: Lack of integrated systems to cultivate communication.
• Disconnected operational units: Departments working towards the interests of their respective unit.
• Misaligned incentives: Reward programs based on department performance.
• Location separation: Sales, décor, construction, warranty often operate from different locations.
A home buyer that is subjected to a process filled with bumpy hand-offs and interdepartmental inconsistencies will be much less likely to become an engaged promoter for the builder by the end of the process.
Silo Side Effects
The effects of operating in organizational silos are detrimental to any business. If a home building organization operates with a series of functional units that lack holistic collaboration, it will inevitably experience:
• Inefficiencies, duplications or errors
• Increased costs
• Poor communication
• Reduced employee satisfaction
• Reduced customer satisfaction
Attempting to overlay a "customer journey map" on top of a process filled with organizational silos and functional barriers quickly exposes the obstacles that will inhibit the customer experience.
Building the Bridges
The starting point in tearing down the barriers and building up the bridges lies in the ultimate vision. This vision must be lived and breathed by leadership and passionately believed by every person involved in the process-including trades and suppliers. Understanding the ultimate objectives is critical to designing processes and implementing systems, which then laser-target these goals.
The exercise of developing a detailed process map may be daunting, however, it provides an unrivaled opportunity for collaboration. Collaboration builds understanding and understanding acts as a wrecking ball to organizational silos. A well-defined process map highlights the critical hand-offs-or potential fumbles-illustrating exactly where strategic systems and metrics should be employed to form bridges across those areas. Process mapping will identify inefficiencies and waste, and uncover opportunities for savings and service improvement. Once developed, a process map illustrates how an organization can replace vertical separations with horizontal collaborations and this becomes the blueprint to build from.
Integrating the multitude of customer touch-points and transition points into the organizational process map allows each of these strategic points to be intimately understood and tailored to be as unique as each home buyer. The customer touch-points and transition points in the home building process are where builders can really lock in customer loyalty. Though high levels of customer service must be provided through the sales, construction, closing and warranty periods, it is at these key transition points where a builder can really make a difference and impact a homeowner's long-term loyalty.
Barrier-Free Benefits
Breaking down organizational silos and eliminating process barriers is a difficult endeavor and it requires passionate commitment and dedication. The investment does, however, come with significant returns including:
• Improved efficiencies
• Higher quality products
• Reduced costs
• Increased capacity to adapt & innovate
• Greater employee satisfaction
• Improved customer engagement
Powerful People and Processes
"Ninety-four per cent of all failure is a result of the system, not people," according to Deming. Systems and processes designed with meticulous precision provide the foundation for success in home building. Once in place, a collaborative team, working consistently towards a common vision, can build bridges instead of barriers on the path to creating profitable loyal homeowners.
Tim Bailey is Division President of Avid Ratings Canada, a leading provider of customer loyalty research and consulting to the home building industry. Through the Avid system, industry-leading clients improve referrals, reduce warranty costs, and strengthen their brand. He can be reached at tim.bailey@avidratings.ca.
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