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

12/3 Update: The GuildQuality Home Book is now live. Click here to sign up for an account. As a reminder, we’re now field testing an early version of this service. Your feedback will help us work the bugs out and will also inform the way we expand and improve the service.

As we hinted a few weeks ago, we’ll soon privately launch a new service: The GuildQuality Home Book (working title). The GQ Home Book will enable people to easily record all the contractor and project information that relates to their home.

Those that sign up will receive invitations to participate in our private release when we go live with the service.

I’ve received a number of questions about the new service, and what follows is my attempt to answer the biggest ones.

“How much will it cost?”

We’re presently thinking it would be free. We may introduce premium features down the line and the consumer would pay for them, or they might be free to all customers of Guildmembers. We plan to execute it in a way that actively promotes and benefits our members so that the service will be a marketing, selling, and membership retention tool for GuildQuality.

“Who will control the information in the account?”

The consumer would control the information in their house record, and it would be private to them, though they could share it with select people or companies. As with current GQ data, we will probably aggregate the data somehow for the benefit of all users.

“Where did the idea come from?”

For some time, I’ve been thinking about how we can help strengthen the relationship between members and their customers beyond the surveying process. Some time ago, my wife shared with me an article about keeping a “home journal” and that got my wheels turning. I pitched it to a bunch of people thereafter, and they liked it a lot. Then in October, I did a focus group with about a dozen members, and the reception all around was sufficiently positive to prompt us to spend some engineering time on it.

“Why aren’t you launching the Home Book for everyone right now?”

We like to develop things iteratively. That helps us keep projects small with the expectation that we can make improvements as we go along. This also saves us the burden of developing a project for a year, and then launching it only to discover a year’s worth of miscues when we see it operating out in the wild.

The product we have right now is a simple stand-alone service. It includes consumer-facing functionality that lets people record the important stuff that relates to their home. But before we launch publicly, we have a handful of additional things we’d like to add to facilitate the relationship between homeowners and our members.

“How do you intend for it to “facilitate the relationship” between the homeowner and the Guildmember?”

We expect to add at least three things in to the Home Book accounts before we launch publicly.

First is the auto-creation of a Home Book account for people that complete surveys. By automagically creating a survey respondents account, we can auto-populate it with a bunch of relevant project and Guildmember information and save them the hassle of having to enter all that stuff in themselves.

The second is a feed of cool information about the GuildQuality member that is listed in their account. So in addition to tracking things about their home, the user can also see what the member is up to elsewhere. We believe this will help members stay top-of-mind for the homeowner, facilitate additional work in the future, and encourage referrals to friends and family.

Third, we intend to create some interconnectivity between each Home Book and the Guildmembers’ project record inside the existing member accounts. Our members’ will be able to add some things into each Home Book where they are listed as a contractor. Think warranty and service management, special offers and messages for past customers, and a place where both member and customer can record information about ongoing work.

“How does this jive with the GuildQuality mission?”

GuildQuality’s mission is to elevate the stature of the building, remodeling, and real estate profession. We primarily do that with our customer satisfaction surveying by helping our members deliver great service. For the last couple years, we’ve been fueling that effort by celebrating the quality we see in our community — if more people choose great companies to buy from and build with, then fewer people will have bad experiences, and this will strengthen the industry as a whole. The homeowner accounts will provide a platform for the ongoing promotion of the existing relationships formed between members and customers. My thinking is that the customer/contractor relationship shouldn’t end with the sale of the home or the completion of the renovation, and there’s great value for both parties by helping to continue it.

Register for an invitation. Let me know if you’d like to receive an invite to try out the GuildQuality Home Book when we privately launch next week. 12/3 update: We’re now live. Click here to sign up.

Earlier in the year, we announced a partnership with the Pella Certified Contractor (PCC) program, wherein GuildQuality became the preferred provider of customer satisfaction surveying and an integral part of the PCC program.  Since that time, over 30 new PCCs have become members of the GuildQuality community, and this number continues to grow.

As an extension of our relationship with Pella, and to recognize those PCCs who are the “best of the best” in customer satisfaction, Pella has announced a new PCC Customer Satisfaction Award, powered by GuildQuality.  The award will recognize those PCCs who are delivering an outstanding customer experience, specifically for their Pella-related jobs.

To be eligible for the award, PCCs must be an active GuildQuality member as of December 31, 2009.  In addition, the winners must survey a minimum of the last 20 completed Pella jobs, achieving a 90% recommendation rate  and 60% response rate to the surveys.  The award recipients will be notified in March 2010.

This award is a separate distinction from than the annual Guildmaster awards, and members may apply for both.

For more information, please contact GuildQuality’s sales department at 888-355-9223 or sales@guildquality.com.

In our Newsletter from November, you’ll find an article on best practices, a webinar invitation, member news, and an invite to beta test a new GuildQuality service.

Click here to review this year’s qualifications and apply for a 2010 Guildmaster Award. It takes less than 30 seconds to complete the form. So far, more than 100 members have requested to be considered for an award.

Some random factoids for your Thanksgiving Eve:

At the bottom of each page on our website, and at the top of every one of our Guildmember profile pages, visitors will find a little orange plus that encourages them to “Share”. This tiny feature, powered by AddThis, makes it easy for folks to share content from our site by email or via a social network. Visitors share something about GuildQuality (usually about our members) an average of just under three times a day. By what means are they sharing?

Email remains the market leader, with 31% of shares from the past two months. Old school printing is in second place with about 23%. And Facebook is the leader among the social networks, with 18% versus Twitter’s 14%.

If you find this of interest, then you are probably as dorky as I am, and you may also be interested in these stats about which social networks your customers are most likely to click to from member profiles or after they’ve completed a survey.

On November 20, 2000, I incorporated GuildQuality. It was a couple more years before I made the business my full time occupation, and it wasn’t until August of 2003 that GuildQuality’s surveying and reporting system first launched. A lot has changed since that fateful day in 2000. I got a dog, a wife (who came with another dog), a great group of employees, then a son, a daughter, and, along the way, hundreds of fantastic customers. Thanks to all of you for helping me realize what was, nine years ago, barely more than a vague idea. Today, our community of quality includes hundreds of the most quality-minded building, remodeling, and real estate professionals working today. Together they, along with our tremendous employees and supportive partners, are pushing GuildQuality and our mission forward. Together we are elevating the stature of our profession to a level commensurate with its importance.

In October, the good people at Kohler hosted a handful of our custom homebuilders at their company headquarters in Kohler, Wisconsin. Business-wise, the trip included a tour of the historic factory and a series of focus groups. The Kohler team was interested in sharing with our homebuilders how they craft their products, and hearing our members’ thoughts on what Kohler can be doing to help them deliver superior quality and service to their homeowners.

The Kohler factory is an exhibit of craftsmanship from every period of our history. Kohler artisans are hand finishing fixtures almost immediately alongside giant robot arms and glowing vats of molten iron. If you are a builder or remodeler, and you ever you have an opportunity to visit Kohler, Wisconsin, you must go. I have never seen anything like it, and it elevated my appreciation of both American industry and industrial artistry.

But the visit wasn’t all business. We stayed at the historic American Club, dined at River Wildlife, and golfed at Whistling Straits. The food and comfort we experienced during our Kohler experience was surpassed only by the thoughtful hospitality of the Kohler team.

Last week, we rolled out a new feature providing homeowners with a summary email following the completion of a survey – even if the response was provided by telephone (55% of responses).  This is an opportunity for the homeowner to view their completed survey response, contact us if they’d like to make changes, and for members to share more information about their company and services (ie, the Member Profile and Customer Report).  This is also another step towards helping our members further engage the homeowner following the survey, and ties in with our forthcoming beta project.

12/9/09 UPDATE: Click here to view the recorded webinar.

A few weeks ago, I was spending some time with a number of our members. During our discussion about GuildQuality, their businesses, and state of the market, I was surprised to learn that many of them weren’t aware of our fantastic marketing resources. Upon learning more about what we offer, they encouraged me to get the word out via a webinar.

Webinar: December 3rd, 11am Eastern

On December 3rd, at 11am Eastern, I will be hosting a webinar tutorial for our builders, remodelers, and developers who’d like to learn how to take advantage of our marketing resources and for those who need a refresher on the subject.

We have a number of tools that help our members enhance their online presence and better articulate their quality of service for prospective customers, and I’m excited for the opportunity to share (or re-share) those with you.

In addition to reviewing our complimentary marketing services (like Customer Reports, Member Profiles, Listings, and our integration with a number of social media services), we’ll also spend some time discussing prospect surveying (which now accounts for 15% of our total survey volume!).

With me will be Laura Summerlin (our Member Services Director) and Mark Miles (our COO).

Click here to register for our 1 hour webinar.

We’ll soon begin field testing a new component of our service, and we’re looking for beta testers. Please let us know if you’d like to test it out. I promise it will be painless and require a negligible amount of your time. And hopefully, you’ll find it enjoyable and interesting.

12/3 Update: Consumer Accounts (the working title is GuildQuality Home Book) are now live. Click here to read more and sign up to help us beta test the service.

In early December, we’ll launch GuildQuality accounts for homeowners (if we move beyond a beta version, we’ll include apartment residents as well). Beyond that, about all we can say is that the homeowner accounts are designed to make it easier for people to care for and improve their homes.

Please click here to let us know you’re interested in experiencing them first hand. Anyone can ask to participate in our Beta launch (you don’t have to be a Guildmember to be involved), but we reserve the right to exclude anyone for any reason.

12/3 update: The GuildQuality Home Book is now live. Click here to read more and begin using our beta version.

We encourage all of our remodeler members to apply to become a member of the Big50 Class of 2010. Each year, Remodeling recognizes 50 companies that are leading our industry in professionalism, innovation, and best practices. Over the last several years, Guildmembers have represented 15% to 20% of each class. This is a great honor, and if you’ve not applied before, we encourage you to do so.

For the second year, GuildQuality is powering Remodeling’s Big50 Service Excellence Award. Last year’s first ever Service Excellence Award was a big success, and we’re excited to be working with the Hanley Wood team again for the 2010 Award.

For Guildmembers, applying for the Service Excellence Award is easy. All you need to do is check the box at the end of the application, and that will opt you in for consideration.

For non-Guildmember Big50 Applicants, there’s no extra charge for applying for the Service Excellence Award — the surveying process is very similar to our Free Trial.

Click here to download the Big50 application form. Applications are due by December 7.

Earlier today at the Custom Builder Symposium in San Diego, Cleveland’s Payne & Payne Builders was recognized as the NAHB 2009 Custom Home Builder of the Year.

Company co-founder Mike Payne Sr accepted the award on behalf of the company, his brother and co-founder David Payne, and his four sons that are now a part of the business. The Paynes received a standing ovation from the crowd.

We recently connected with the owners of three Case Handyman & Remodeling franchises in San Jose, Twin Cities, and Birmingham.  These owners shared their views on the current market environment and how they were using GuildQuality to gain an edge.

Jim Kabel of Case San Jose said that as an owner you want to “trust, but verify” that you are doing a great job for homeowners.  His feeling is that third party feedback is the only way to get an accurate picture.  He surveys all of his remodeling jobs (but not handyman) and reads every completed survey response at monthly team meetings.  Jim reviews performance trends quarterly, and has built customer satisfaction scores into the company performance dashboard.  Everyone on the team receives every completed survey response in real-time.  “The great reviews are incredibly motivating to the team.”

Bob Mock of Case Twin Cities has created a similar culture of quality in his business, and shares that he was surveying in the past before implementing GQ.  “We did receive a high response rate to our internal surveys, but we weren’t getting the detail and the insight on the total experience working with us.”  These insights are often the small issues that homeowners may not be comfortable sharing with you directly.  These issues can usually be resolved quickly, delighting the client and helping to create raving fans.  Bob summarized the importance of surveying and measuring feedback, by saying ”the client is in control today and they know it.  They are value conscious, and we have to find ways to verify our value.  GuildQuality helps us do that.”

Tom Coan of Case Birmingham uses GuildQuality feedback in the sales process.  “If we are to maintain a higher margin business in this climate, you have to be clearly differentiated.  Service is one place to make a proposition, and it’s tough to communicate without GQ.”  Tom shares surveys with his lead carpenter and sales person and reviews scores at monthly meetings with the team.  They identify 1-2 issues that can be improved upon each month to continuously set the bar higher.

Key message from these owners — it’s not enough to do great work.  You have to measure the feedback, and share it with your prospects, clients, and employees.  Building a culture of quality in your company will lead to profitable growth.

Joanne Hall of Villa Builders was kind enough to share with me this great picture of her company’s 2009 Guildmaster Award hanging in her office.

Between now and the end of the year, members can apply for the 2010 Guildmaster Awards.