The latest news from GuildQuality.

Come See Us at the International Builders Show!

GuildQuality delivers the most dynamic customer surveying program to builders and remodelers nationwide, and we will be in Orlando for the International Builders Show.

We’d love to see you there, so drop by our booth in the South Exhibit Hall, #11055.

It’s been a great year for our members – who know that their reputation is a driving force behind their bottom line.

- With the Qlist, members can now promote their businesses online to a wider consumer audience
- GuildQuality members had a strong showing at the first annual customer satisfaction awards given by the Certified Professional Home Builder program in Atlanta, GA
- Many were featured in industry publications, highlighting their innovative business practices
- And one built a house for a needy family as part of ABC’s Extreme Makeover Home Edition!

Our members continue to raise the bar in the building industry, and we’d love to speak with you about how we can benefit your business.

We look forward to seeing you there!

We launched the GuildQuality Qlist just before Christmas. Since then about 2,000 visitors have viewed nearly 4,000 pages in our directory of building professionals. To give you an idea of what people are viewing, following is a list of the 10 most-frequently visited Guildmember Qlistings of the first 30 days.

Dozens of our members have updated their Qlistings (to include their company profiles, customer comments, logos, affiliations, etc), and several hundred have yet to expand theirs beyond just a company name and contact information. The Qlist accounts for about 20% of GQ’s web traffic, so visit the Qlist launch announcement to find out how to expand your Qlisting.

1. Structures Building Company, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
2. Paragon Homes Corporation, Brandon, Florida
3. Highland Commercial Roofing, Baldwin Park, California
4. Terry Bennett Builders & Remodelers, Westlake, Ohio
5. Menold Construction, Inc., Morton, Illinois
6. Icon Development Corporation, Atlanta, Georgia
7. Mueller Homes, Sykesville, Maryland
8. Quadrant Homes, Bellevue, Washington
9. Sabal Homes, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
10. Black & David Properties, Marietta, Georgia

Among my favorite things about our business is that the more we grow, the better our service becomes for each and every one of our members. Every member we add and every customer we survey increases the richness of the information available to our members. More information equals better trend reporting and benchmarking for everyone.

With that in mind, we are pleased to re-introduce our membership referral program: Build the Guild.

Here are the details: We will offer each referral a free trial of our service. If they join, they’ll receive their first month of service for free. And as a special Thank You to those of you who send folks our way, for each referral that joins GuildQuality, the referring member will receive a one-time credit equaling the referral’s monthly membership fee.

Your Builder 20 Group or Remodelers Advantage Roundtable peers are ideal candidates for Build the Guild. At your request, we’ll establish a customized peer group for you and the folks you refer to us. With a customized peer group, in addition to the standard benchmarking against certain profiles of Guildmembers, you also may benchmark your performance against the industry professionals you know well.

Last week, the Certified Professional Home Builders, the only voluntary builder certification program of its kind in Georgia, announced its first ever customer satisfaction awards. The CPHB is administered by the Housing Institute (a non-profit subsidiary of the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association). The organization’s mission is to “promote the highest standards of professionalism between the residential building industry and the community.” One year ago, the CPHB invited GuildQuality to assist them in introducing a customer satisfaction component to its certification process.

Throughout 2006, GuildQuality surveyed around 5,000 customers of certified builders. That survey feedback assists Certified Builders in their pursuit of excellence and continuous improvement. In addition, it provided the foundation for last week’s awards program. The CPHB bestowed awards in three categories (the winners with links to their websites are GuildQuality members):

CPHB Customer Recommendation Award: 100% Recommendation Rate.
Black and David Properties
Calhoun Properties
Earnest, Inc.
Hiluard Kitchens Homes
Ideal Smart Energy
Pritchard Brothers
Ray Vick Homes
Stillwater Communities
The Minka Company
Tom Nail Builders

CPHB Customer Satisfaction Award: Highest rating in their volume category.
Ideal Smart Energy (1-20 homes per year)
Earnest, Inc. (21-50)
Harcrest Homes (51 to 99)
John Wieland Homes (100+)

CPHB Excellence in Customer Service Award: Highest overall rating.
Ideal Smart Energy

Congratulations to all the award winners! Thanks for setting an excellent example for the industry.

Congratulations to Dan O’Dwyer and his team at O’Dwyer Homes for honors received at the Greater Atlanta HBA Installation and Awards banquet on January 11. Dan was named the GAHBA’s Builder of the Year and HomeAid’s Builder Captain of the Year.

HomeAid is an organization devoted to building dignified housing for homeless families and individuals as they seek to rebuild their lives. Dan led over 100 volunteers in the renovation of the Drake House, an emergency housing facility for women and children in the north Atlanta area.

This is a great honor for a tremendous cause. Way to go, Dan!

I have been known to cry while watching movies, tv shows, and even the occasional commercial. Last night was a new experience for me, as I found myself fighting back tears during the Atlanta HBA’s installation of new Housing Institute president, Tony Perry. During the ceremony, we saw a brief video from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Tony’s company, Oakwood Homes, is working on an amazing project for a family in need:

While the family relaxes in California, crews directed by the show’s experts and Woodstock-based Oakwood Homes will, in less than a week, complete [a house for the Tipton-Smith family], using hundreds of artisans working simultaneously.

According to the article, Tipton-Smith family has endured a series of painful blows over the last two years, including the death of a child. The Oakwood Team is helping them recover from their tragedies.

Cory Hogan authored an inspirational piece on synergy in the latest edition of Remodeling Magazine.

His comments on focusing energy in specific neighborhoods were particularly relevant to me. We try to do that at GQ in a slightly different way by focusing our marketing energy in areas where we’ve already had successes. We have a stronger brand within niches where we have a presence (be it with Builder 20 members, Remodelers, or members of a particular HBA) and that leads to greater successes for us and more value (from a competitive benchmarking perspective) for our members.