Quality-minded builders, remodelers, developers and contractors rely on our customer satisfaction surveying to help them provide exceptional service

Atlantans are about to see the start of an exciting revitalization project in the city’s south Midtown area. The project has been coined Ponce Park, and plans include a complete renovation of the impressive City Hall East building, which was originally a Sears, Roebuck store and office complex. After all is said and done, the mixed-use development will include residential and office areas, retails stores, and art and theater space. This project is of particular interest to me because my grandparents met at the Sears store where they were both employees over 60 years ago. My grandfather worked for Sears his entire career (what a rarity these days!) and, embarrassingly enough, we still say “Sears” instead of “Cheese” when taking family pictures. Check out the proposed plans here – it will be fun to watch the transformation of this historic building and long-neglected area.

I just noticed that Tuesday brought us an all-time record number of visits to our reporting system. 600 visitors spent a total of over 30 collective hours reviewing their customer feedback, benchmarking their performance against that of their peers, looking for ways to improve their customers’ experiences, or (if they were customers) responding to a survey.

To commemorate that record, I thought I’d share with you where that traffic originated (courtesy of Google Analytics).

This is a map of YTD traffic from cities that have sent us 10 or more visitors. Since January 1, 2007, we’ve serviced over 36,000 visitors from 400 different locations.

As you can probably infer from the map, as of June 19, we had ZERO members in either Hawaii or Alaska–two places I have never been and would sure like to visit.

At GuildQuality, we rely on a simple web-based project collaboration tool called Basecamp. It helps us communicate internally and keep track of product development, marketing campaigns, office management issues, and any other project-based endeavors we’re pursuing. We’ve been using it for over two years, and I don’t see that changing any time soon.

Basecamp is developed by 37 Signals, an eight-person Chicago-based company that, over the last couple years has pioneered the movement toward simplicity in web-based solutions. Are you tired of stuff that just has too dang much going on? Don’t need the zillion options in Microsoft Project? Don’t need the gajillion features in your CRM tool? Well, these guys probably have something you’ll like.

We take a lot of inspiration from them, and I think all businesses–regardless of whether they are web developers, homebuilders, or real estate brokers–could learn from the lessons they offer.

37 Signals was recently featured in Time Magazine. The article does a great job describing why they are succesful, why their customers love them, and what you can learn from their strategy. My takeaway is this: Making it simple is a whole lot more difficult than making it complex–but the long-term payoff is huge.

GuildQuality collects a LOT of customer feedback. Lately, we’ve been interviewing around a hundred homeowners a day about their experience with one of our builders, remodelers, or real estate developers. We deliver that survey feedback, in real-time, to our members in a consistent, actionable, and succinct format. As a big added bonus, we also give them easy-to-use analytical tools to help them track things like the performance of their employees or their company’s performance in contrast with a highly-relevant group of peers.

Our mission is to elevate the building industry to a stature commensurate with its importance in our communities. There’s not many jobs that are more important than that of a homebuilder, remodeler, or developer. These are the folks that are shaping our built environment. They significantly influence both the way we live our lives today, and how we’ll live them for many decades (or even centuries) to come.

Given the importance of the building profession, I was pleased to see a significant trend emerge from a research project we’ve been working on. With the help of 15 remodelers and Remodelers Advantage, we’ve been able to make some judgments about the correlation between customer satisfaction and profitability.

We were trying to assess whether or not customer satisfaction impacted gross margin. Here’s what we found:

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A few days ago, I referenced Zillow in a post about price appreciation in I’On. Zillow made it possible for me to (easily) assess comparable price appreciation in I’On versus the rest of I’On’s zip code. Nice.

Every place in the U.S. doesn’t have the same level of accuracy as the Charleston-area (Atlanta is woefully inaccurate). Nevertheless, I definitely like the direction Zillow is going. Atlanta and other cities may not be spot-on yet, but I am guessing that won’t be too far off.

Here’s one more reason to be impressed: Today, I happened to notice their “Bird’s Eye View” feature. Bird’s Eye View = Awesome. Here’s what Zillow has to show you about my old house in I’On. Not satisfied with the north-facing view? Want a little more? Check it out from another angle.

The thing that most impresses me about Zillow so far is how focused they are on putting information in the hands of the consumer. And this is changing the game. As Zillow’s popularity (and functionality) increases, they are putting more and more pressure on real estate brokers to deliver exceptional service and insight.

In the short-term, this is going to be painful for some brokers. Access to MLS isn’t going to get anyone any business. But in the long-term, services like Zillow and Craigslist (where I sold my last three personal homes) are going to be fantastic for both the industry and the consumer.

They’re making the industry stronger by making it harder for inferior real estate professionals to get business. Why hire a mediocre performer when you can sell it or buy it on your own? This is good for both the homeowner, the homebuyer, and the true professionals with ability, passion, and a history of delivering exceptional service.

UPDATE: For more on Zillow’s “Bird’s Eye View”, visit their blog.

We had a wonderful turn-out for Tuesday’s Atlanta Member Meeting. Thanks to all of you who joined us. All told, we had about 40 people there, with representation from 17 members (out of a total of around 70 in Atlanta). I recognize it is a big deal to carve out an evening for something other than your family or yourself, so I and all of our team are deeply appreciative.

Our goal for the event was to enjoy some face-time with our members. I was especially solicitous of constructive feedback about how YOU would like to see us improve GuildQuality. I also candidly shared some details of our recent growth and our plans for the next couple years. Thank you fall all of your great feedback. We took away some fantastic insights, and we’re appreciative of that feedback.

I’d also like to thank Custom Builders USA. CB-USA split the cost of the event, and brought along a few of their Atlanta-area members. I think these guys are doing a great service for builders around the country. They help small- and mid-sized homebuilders leverage their collective buying power to earn them better pricing and better service from both manufacturers and local vendors. If this sounds like something you need (and who but our largest members doesn’t need this!), please check them out.

This was our second member meeting. The first was in Charleston two months ago (though we completely forgot a camera). These two were so popular and so successful that we’re going to make them a regular thing. Please let us know if you’d like us to bring one to your town.

I’On recently enjoyed the ten-year anniversary of its zoning approval, and the occasion prompted me to spend some time looking back on our sales history.

The entire development team has expended tremendous energy in our effort to maximize I’On’s quality of service, construction, planning, and life. Those efforts have paid off, both in terms of appreciation in lot values (as indicated by the above chart of average lot sales prices) and home values in comparison with the surrounding neighborhoods (as indicated in the below “Zestimate” contrasting the appreciation of I’On’s first house with that of the surrounding zip code — courtesy of Zillow).

We’ve certainly enjoyed our ups and downs like everyone else. We fret over inventory management, pricing strategy, marketing strategy, and quality. But despite all the challenges, the appreciation in home value and lot prices in the neighborhood has significantly outpaced that of the surrounding area.

To what do I attribute this superlative value creation? How have we so outperformed the surrounding communities? I think it’s two things: Vision and Execution.

The Vision has come from the founders, the builders, the architects, the salespeople, the development team, and the buyers. My brother Vince Graham was the fountainhead for that vision and he continues to serve as I’On’s vision keeper.

And a tremendous number of people share the responsibility for the Execution. I give most of the credit to the building team, their custom clients, and the homebuyers. Their commitment to exceptional quality gave us the great results we see walking down any one of the neighborhood’s streets. The neighborhood’s public realm–it’s architecture and urbanism–sets it apart from other new places, and there is absolutely no way to produce that kind of environment from the top down.

So thanks to everyone for a great ten years. I expect we have a few more to go before the I’On Company’s job as the developer is completely finished. But if we can make our last few chapters as enjoyable as our first ten, the result will have far surpassed our expectations.

The May/June issue of Georgia Builder has a great profile of Harcrest Homes and its president and owner, Mike Smith. Smith joined what was Carl Riden Homes in 1992 as an assistant superintendent, quickly rose to partner, and assumed ownership of the company in 2005 after Riden chose to retire.

Smith credits his staff and efficient systems for his company’s 100+ awards. His 25 employees play key roles in the company’s success – and all reflect Smith’s priorities of honesty and humility in their work. Equaling Smith’s dedication to a solid workforce is his emphasis on efficient systems throughout the homebuilding process. Each Harcrest home is built through a slot or even-flow scheduling system – a process that implements firm start dates, trades schedules, and service delivery. This allows Smith and his team to confidently tell customers that the company does what it says and sticks firmly to a consistent schedule – a process that builds trust with each client.

These efforts certainly paid off given Harcrest’s latest accolade: a customer satisfaction award from the Certified Professional Home Builder program (CPHB) of the Greater Atlanta HBA. The CPHB partners with GuildQuality for ongoing surveying for its members, culminating each year in awards for the highest performers.

Congratulations to Mike and the Harcrest team!