Buz and the other presidents hold some interesting views on what CSM has brought to their businesses, and I'll be writing about that in detail next month. However, on two things they agree: 1) Leadership from the top and the involvement of all employees in finding solutions is absolutely vital if you want to succeed.
2) They couldn't have got where they are today without continuous help and guidance from Woodland O'Brien, a company specialising in CSM for housebuilders.
Wide client base
John Woodland (a Brit by birth) and his partner Keith O'Brien have worked for more than 100 housebuilders since they became established some 13 years ago.
They currently have 50 clients on the go – few leave because of the benefit they get in having continuous satisfaction monitoring and feedback. To quote Buz, "they have brought an incredible awareness into our business – our people live and die for the results."
Over the years, John and Keith have established a well-tried and tested technique and built up formidable experience of all the problems their client companies are likely to encounter. To date, some 140 000 homeowners have returned their questionnaires.
The questionnaire itself covers in detail every stage of the choosing, buying and initial owning experience.
"Buying a home is like riding a rollercoaster," says John. "At certain times the customer is on an emotional high – such as when they have paid the deposit and when they get the keys. At other times, they can be on an emotional low – such as when they are trying to arrange the mortgage. The more you can understand and measure the various points, the more you can help to smooth the ride for the customer.
"If you get it right, your customers will believe that they couldn't have done it without you, and this creates a powerful feeling of loyalty towards the builder."
Representative response
The mailshot questionnaire achieves a staggering 65% average response rate – a tremendous figure, especially in the USA, where the volume of junk mail and questionnaires are at epidemic levels.
"With this kind of response, we are highly confident that the results are representative of what all the client's customers are thinking," adds Keith.
Every customer is mailed about one month after move-in. "Any sooner than that is a waste of time because the customer is emotionally too unstable to give rational feedback - the results you get are absolutely useless," says John.
What sets Woodland O'Brien apart from its competitors is that the company offers much more than a questionnaire-mailing and analysis system.
Face-to-face meetings
At regular intervals, detailed reports are prepared and John or Keith will sit down with the client management and customer facing teams to discuss the results.
"The onus is on the client teams to come up with their own solutions based on the feedback they receive from us," says Keith. "This helps to create buy-in. We don't own their businesses and we don't set their strategies.
"The fact that we don't set strategy is the reason that we are able to work with so many clients at the same time without conflict of interest," he adds.
"It's our job to keep providing them with feedback and encouragement to go forward. It is not unusual to see dramatic change take place in a very short period of time.
"One of our current clients has gone from average to bullet-proof in just eight quarters - we're really proud of them. We will admit, though, that with some clients the progress has been painfully slow, even nonexistent. At the end of the day, the client has got to want to change." I was impressed, especially after I had spoken to some of Woodland O'Brien's clients. Their comments, which I will deal with next month, make very interesting reading indeed. John, Keith and I are now investigating how we can make their technique work here because the UK needs more housebuilders like Buz Hoffman.
The thoughts of John and Keith
Client teamwork is absolutely vital “One of the most rewarding aspects of our work is to see a divided staff form into a customer-committed team – the energy they can produce is awesome and they end up creating some very happy working environments.” Don’t brag beyond your capability “We’ve had clients make changes internally and they’ve gone public with them too early. They raise customer expectation and we see their CSM scores take a dive. Good housebuilders make sure that what they promise is what they can deliver each and every time.” Referral sales come from being excellent “Being just ‘good’ isn’t good enough. You must strive for the highest possible level of referral – in a recession, your referral sales are the last to go.” Manage expectations “If you don’t tell the customer what you are going to do and by when, he will judge you by his own rules and they will invariably be tough.”Source
Building Homes
Postscript
Malcolm Pitcher is a director of PCL, a consultancy specialising in marketing strategy, brand strategy, culture change, change management, marketing research and customer satisfaction monitoring. Before starting PCL, he was marketing director for Wimpey Homes and held senior posts with Volkswagen and Honda.
