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GQ in Remodeling Magazine’s May Issue

May 15 2008 by Geoff Hartnett in Articles, About GuildQuality

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Stacey Freed, Senior Editor of Remodeling Magazine, has put together a three-part series on how remodelers can “engineer the customer experience”. This series asks remodelers to ponder the question “What do clients really need and how can I make my world work best for them?”. She guides remodelers through the customer experience in three stages; sales, production and post-project warranty work (June 2008).

Her latest installment “Productive Production” (part two) focuses in on production; “what makes and keeps clients happy as their homes and lives are turned upside down during a remodel”. Stacey Freed talks with GuildQuality President and Founder Geoffrey Graham about, among other things, the correlation between the overall customer experience and high rankings in scheduling, punch list and communication.

“The most important thing for homeowners is schedule,” says Graham, “followed by punch list and communication.” “There might be delays,” he says, “but if a remodeler communicates [about those delays] in a way that a customer appreciates and understands, overwhelmingly the customer is happy”. And those happy customers will recommend their remodeler. … “If a remodeling company regularly struggles in those areas, they aren’t as profitable as those people who have those things down pat.”

This is an excellent series and we recommend it to any quality-minded remodeler looking for ways to fortify or improve on their delivery of an exceptional customer experience.

Printing the New Survey Format

May 12 2008 by Rob Faraj in GQ features

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We just released a new design for our survey. This new design shows up when a respondent is taking an email or phone survey. It also shows up when viewing a completed response. I’ve had a couple questions today about printing this new survey format. I figured it would be best to write up an entry here.

There are two simple things that need to be configured when trying to print the survey. The first is ‘Printing background images and colors‘ and the second is ‘Setting your left and right margins‘. You’ll only have to do this one time and your browser will remember these settings for you. The overwhelming majority of our users use Internet Explorer 6 and 7, so I’ll write up a how-to for each browser because the steps vary slightly. If you do not know if you use Internet Explorer 6.x or 7.x, you can find out here.

If you are using Internet Explorer 6.x, then follow these steps…

(more…)

Revival Construction on a winning streak

May 11 2008 by Geoff Hartnett in Member news

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Last month, GuildQuality had the distinct pleasure of awarding Atlanta based Revival Construction with a Guildmaster Award for the third consecutive year. Revival Construction, a Guildmember since 2004, is a full service remodeling contractor specializing in whole house renovations and additions to older homes within the intown Atlanta area. We are proud to announce that GuildQuality wasn’t alone in recognizing Revival Construction’s phenomenal work.

In March, Revival was named a NARI 2008 Regional Contractor of the Year for the Southeast region in the Residential Historic Renovation and Restoration category of its annual awards competition. Contractors from seven regions around the country vie for CotY Awards on an annual basis, and all regional winners are eligible for National CotY Awards. Judging is based on problem solving, functionality, aesthetics, craftsmanship, innovation, degree of difficulty, and entry presentation. The honor bestowed upon Revival Construction was based upon their renovation of the Colonial Revival house built in 1922.

Revival Construction also performed a whole-house renovation on a 1950’s ranch built in the Tuxedo Park neighborhood (within Atlanta’s Buckhead Community). The goal of the recent renovation was to instill the classical proportions and details of the historical architectural styles within the neighborhood to this modest ranch home. Not only does the design fit within this beautiful, historical area, but also the construction recalls the materials and techniques of the 1920s and 1930s. For their efforts, the Southeast Chapter of the Institute for Classical Architecture and Classical America (ICA & CA) awarded Revival Consruction with the 2008 Shutze Award. Named for Philip Trammell Shutze, the Atlanta architect whose work is revered internationally as one of the Twentieth Century’s most devoted Classicists, the Shutze Award recognizes contributions to the creation of Twenty-first century classical and traditional architecture.

Congratulations to Wright Marshall and everybody at Revival Construction. Your achievements are well deserved; GuildQuality is proud to have such quality-minded members.

System Update: Enhanced Survey Formatting

May 09 2008 by Geoff Graham in GQ features

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This weekend, GuildQuality’s engineering team will roll out another system enhancement. This project improves a number of aspects of the surveying process. Most notably:

1) We’ve redesigned the web version of our survey to improve the look and feel. From a usability perspective, we made the comment options more obvious, and enabled people to clear answers after they’ve entered them.

2) We’ve enabled members to personalize the survey emails (much as they can with their mail surveys). Emails can now have customized subjects, introductory language, and personalized “from” and “reply-to” email addresses.

When we introduced survey mailers about nine months ago, our overall survey response rate bumped up a few points. Earlier this year, we made some tweaks to the email and mail delivery process bringing another nice little jump.

We expect this enhancement will bring more gains by improving the survey respondent’s overall experience — both with a more elegant survey design and a personalized message from the Guildmember.

To customize your email messages, log into your account, click on Customer Satisfaction > Survey Admin > Survey Settings.

Our Referral Program: Build the Guild

May 07 2008 by Geoff Graham in Miscellaneous

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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, a couple years ago we introduced a referral program: Build the Guild.

We have enjoyed a great surge in membership referrals as of late — mostly from NAHB 20 Club members and Remodelers Advantage Roundtables, but also from plenty of members referring one of their local peers or competitors. Thanks to all those that have encouraged others to reach out to us. Referrals are by far our number one source of new members.

Despite the volume of referrals, most of our referring members are surprised to receive a credit. That makes me think our members don’t know about Build the Guild. So, in an effort to raise awareness, here are the details:

1) Let us know about it. Before a prospective member joins, either the prospective member needs to let us know they’ve been referred by a specific member or the referring member needs to let us know they are referring someone.

2) Both the referring member and the new member receive a credit. Once we receive our first payment from the new member, both the referring member and the new member will receive a credit equal to the new members’ monthly membership fee.

3) Awards credits last one year. Credits expire one year from their date of issue.

4) Some caveats. Occasionally multiple members will refer the same new member. When this happens, we split the referring member credit among multiple companies. Also, from time to time we learn about a better way to do things, so please know that these terms may change at any time.

We’re honored to have your support. Thanks very much!

Dispatch from the Green Remodeling Conference

May 05 2008 by Geoff Graham in Event announcements, Member news, Miscellaneous

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The subject of this year’s Remodeling Leadership Conference is “Green: The Color of Money.” Today has been a series of back to back seminars on what it means to be green, why it’s important, and how to sell it.

Here are a few sound bites:

Corinne Asturias of Iconoculture, presented a compelling argument for Green Remodeling as a mainstream and enduring consumer preference. Among the supporting evidence she cited: The fifteen month waiting list for the $125,000 Tesla Roadster, an all electric car with a 200+ mile range.

She quoted an increasingly accepted definition of Sustainable Development: “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,” and noted how compelling that concept was to virtually every prospective home buyer or remodeling customer. 84% of Americans, she went on to say, believe that it is important for us to lessen our impact on the environment. Those 84% span the spectrum from uber-greenies who desire to be carbon neutral to grandparents who want to save money on utilities to new parents that are interested in a healthy home for their babies.

Mark Richards of Practica Consulting cautioned remodelers to avoid “greenwashing” their company images. Consumers are smart enough to discern when a company is committed and when a company is providing lipservice. He talked about the importance of training, and the need to get your entire team on board. Mark quoted a committed green builder in Oklahoma, Vern McKown of Ideal Homes, as saying, “If you are not prepared to fire half of your salespeople, don’t get into green building.” He also talked about the necessity of positioning green in way that resonates with buyers: i.e. use phrases like “high performance” rather than “efficient.”

Carl Seville, a green building consultant and one of the folks who helped to launch EarthCraft Remodeling, gave a presentation about the critical components of being green. First and foremost: high performance. Materials and power sources are secondary. Before we start building solar panels and wind turbines, we need to start practicing advanced framing techniques and better insulation practices. Carl also provided my favorite anecdote of the event so far.

Terry Brennan gave a talk about some construction dos and don’ts. He had a great way of introducing every point: On flashing, he suggested, “Don’t tuck your rainjacket into your rainpants.” On resource efficiency, he observed, “We can either reduce the amount of materials and resources we use, or we can reduce the amount of people on the planet.” On healthy home environments, he advised, “Start with the health and safety stuff, cause its bad to kill your customers.”

The conference concluded with an inspiring talk from Val Jones of Green For All. At the heart of his talk was his commitment to raising up the entire United States economy through green building practices, and doing so by helping poor uneducated youth develop the skills we need to “retrofit the United States.” To paraphrase his recurring theme, “We now have the opportunity to put green remodeling at the center of the economy — where the auto industry was after WWII — in our rebuilding of the United States. Let’s make it an inclusive economy that raises everyone up.”

And on top of the great speakers, there’s been plenty of roundtable chatter amongst the attendees. The hundreds of remodelers here are among the best of the best. These folks are passionate about creating great places to live (hence our desire to sponsor this event), and we’ve been very pleased to find such a strong reception — both from the dozens of our members that are here, and the many more prospective members who have been enthusiastic about learning more about GuildQuality’s customer satisfaction surveying.

The latest news from GuildQuality.

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GQ in Remodeling Magazine’s May Issue

Printing the New Survey Format

Revival Construction on a winning streak

System Update: Enhanced Survey Formatting

Our Referral Program: Build the Guild

Dispatch from the Green Remodeling Conference