This year's National Housing Customer Satisfaction Survey of private housebuilders will replace blank marks with shaded stars in an effort to provide a more conclusive set of results.
In last year's first survey it was difficult for the 59 top housebuilders featuring in the survey to evaluate or compare results because many had incomplete sets of scores, with blanks where there should have been rankings of one, two or three stars.

As a result the Housing Forum, which commissioned the survey, has worked with researcher MORI and others to find a way of rating all housebuilders in all of the survey categories, which cover home quality and housebuilder service. It has decided once again to use the star rating system, but where solid stars cannot be given with 95% confidence, shaded stars will be given instead.

MORI's telephone surveys of homebuyers, this time reduced from 13 minutes in duration to 10 minutes, will be carried out over September and October this year. The homebuyer sample will be made up of homeowners who bought their homes between 1 April 2000 and 30 June 2001. As last time, the survey is expected to feature around 59 homebuilders, covering those with sales of 300 or more units.

In the last survey some notable homebuilders achieved disappointing results, prompting many to introduce or improve their customer care strategies. But a recent customer satisfaction survey carried out by Zurich Building Guarantees as part of its Customer First Awards shows that there is no room for housebuilders to be complacent about their customer service.

Source

Building Homes