GuildQuality

2011 marks the sixth year of the Guildmaster Awards, and by coincidence, we have six Guildmembers who have earned an award in each of those years. Congratulations to:

Classic Remodeling, Charleston, SC

Cook Bonner Construction, Charleston, SC

Eberle Remodeling, Sacramento, CA

Phillip W. Smith General Contractor, Mount Pleasant, SC

Revival Construction, Atlanta, GA

Structures Building Company, Mount Pleasant, SC

The lowcountry of South Carolina is well represented in this elite group. I started the business in Charleston, and the four South Carolinians are also the first four members to join GuildQuality when we officially launched way back in 2003.

Also of note, Revival Construction’s Wright Marshall sat in front of our camera for GuildQuality only a few weeks ago.

Today, I happened to notice that the reviews we’re receiving in our members’ survey responses are now showing up in search results. It looked to me like a star average/summary now appears alongside the profile page of every member that’s 1) opted into reviews and 2) received at least one review.

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If you are attending the Housing Leadership Summit next week, check out the following people on the agenda (PDF):

John Wieland is a panelist in a “wide-open roundtable discussion of the major issues facing the home building industry today, including how the spring selling season panned out, how the rest of the year looks, and how companies are prepared to make the most out of 2011.”

Stanley Martin Homes CEO Steve Alloy is among three “chief executives from the nation’s largest home building companies [who] will reveal how they have prepared their companies to seize the future. Find out how they have changed organizational structures, fine-tuned balance sheets, adjusted operations, re-crafted marketing and advertising plans, and altered the homes they build to make the most out of what promises to be a very tough 2011 market.”

Marianne Cusato & Carson Looney, two friends from the real estate development side of my career, will “discuss strategies for designing homes that buyers want to buy. [That sure sounds like a good idea!] In some cases, that may mean tweaking existing homes to meet today’s realities. In others, it means starting from scratch to develop a new breed of homes that matches the aspirations of today’s buyers—young and old.”

Jonathan Smoke “takes a look backward and forward, tracing the history and future of industry consolidation. Will big companies, with easier access to capital, come to dominate the marketplace again? Are there markets that the biggest companies are more likely to target than others?”

And for those who are into fortune telling or astrology, Moody’s economist Mark Zandi will be presenting another forecast. For context, you may enjoy reviewing some of his predictions from the recent past.

Our members routinely earn recognition on the “leader” lists of home building and remodeling publications. More than 20% of QR’s Top 500 Remodelers are Guildmembers. The same goes for the Remodeling 550. We work with 9 of the Builder 100. 14 of this year’s Big50 (28%!) are GuildQuality remodelers. And when one of our members is ranked by JD Power, it’s common that they’re at or near the top spot for their market.

But among Professional Remodeler’s Market Leaders — the leaders in each of the 19 largest remodeling markets in the United States — fully a third (19 out of 57) are Guildmembers.

Most of this is probably more correlation than causation — many of our members have been on these lists since before GQ launched in 2003 — but it still feels good to see so many of our members enjoying such great success and recognition.

Next week marks twenty years since I graduated from high school and I feel like I’m in the best shape of my life. Over the last few years, I’ve become thoughtful about what I eat, started running and hiking more consistently, and switched to working at a standing desk most of the time. Even more importantly, my wife and kids are keeping me young: I’m once again playing with Legos and riding bikes. Life is good.

At my 20th high school reunion last month, the consensus seemed to be that I look exactly the same. This message was reinforced last week at the Remodeling Leadership Conference where people were asking why Sal Alfano was letting a teenager announce the Service Excellence Awards. Youthful appearance isn’t always a great thing, but I’ll absolutely take it over the other extreme. And I’m thankful to have the health that comes along with it.

I wouldn’t normally share this kind of thing here, but this article featuring new Guildmember Oakwood Homes got me thinking about the importance of health. It seems this Colorado home builder and I both started paying serious attention to our health about three or four years ago.

I’ve found it to be a lot easier to change myself than to facilitate change in others, so I have to give a huge congratulations to the leadership of Oakwood Homes. On the eve of their 20th anniversary, the good people at Oakwood Homes are about to close their 10,000th home, they’ve climbed to number 77 on the Builder 100, and they’re going to be in great shape when they celebrate their anniversary. An excerpt from John Caulfield’s article in Builder (italics are mine):

Oakwood Homes is fit—in more ways than one. This year, for instance, the Colorado-based company’s health-care rates dropped, thanks to a wellness program it launched in 2007. Last year, it added a fitness center with personal trainers to its headquarters.

Oakwood asks all associates to provide blood samples, as part of its requirement for participating in the health-care program, and measures their weight and body fat. Employees who partake in an exercise regimen of 10 hours per month receive $50 in monthly “Oakwood Bucks,” redeemable for everything from ski passes and model-home furniture to race-entry fees, says COO Frank Walker. One employee who met all of the company’s wellness requirements got his health-care coverage for free last year, adds Bob Sanderman, Oakwood’s CFO.

Via PRNewswire and BigBuilder:

Reston-based Stanley Martin Homes continues to demonstrate success as it climbs the ranks of the nation’s largest homebuilders. The company was #193 in the nation in 2004 during the housing bubble, and has risen every year since, gaining significant market share during the housing downturn. After being ranked the 84th biggest builder in the country for 2009, Stanley Martin jumped 11 spots to #73 in the nation in 2010, based on the number of home closings. Based on revenues, Stanley Martin moved up to #41 in the nation according to the Builder Magazine’s “Builder 100″ rankings.

Congratulations to all the folks at Stanley Martin. We’re honored to be working with such an excellent company.

This just in from Leah at daily5Remodel:

GuildQuality members that do basement remodeling are eligible to win an iPad 2 by entering the May contest on daily5Remodel. The contest is sponsored by WoodTrac by Sauder, which has an easy-to-use wood ceiling product.

Entering is free and simple. Just email two “after” photos of a basement remodel, and one or two “before” photos, to snapshots@daily5Remodel.com. Include the project location and a brief narrative explaining how you created a better space for your clients. The winner of the iPad 2 will be chosen by a random drawing at the end of the month.

Send in your entry today or tomorrow, and your project could be featured as early as this week! Contest runs only through this month, so act quickly for a shot at the iPad 2.

I’m pretty confident our members have some basement remodel pictures laying around somewhere, so entering should be easy.

This year, 29 leading remodelers competed for Remodeling Magazine’s Big50 Service Excellence Award. The award recognizes those in the Big50 class who demonstrate an exceptional commitment to customer service.

GuildQuality measured that commitment through an exhaustive survey of nearly 2,500 remodeling clients. For each of the candidates, we sought feedback from their most recent 50 customers, or for high volume candidates, a random sampling customers from the past 12 months.

Through email, mail, and telephone surveying, clients shared with us their ratings and comments about construction quality, communication, problem resolution, and a host of other aspects of the remodeling experience, as well as the likelihood that they will recommend their remodeler to a friend or family member.

In the end, of the 2,500 we surveyed, more than 1,500 replied. Of those that responded, 95% indicated they were likely or extremely likely to recommend their remodeler. That astounding figure is more than 20 points higher than the national average.

I’d like to congratulate all 29 of these candidates for both their commitment to service excellence, and their exceptional performance.

But alas, only 6 received a 2011 Big50 Service Excellence Award. To give you some idea of how they earned that recognition, here is some randomly selected praise heaped on them by their clients:

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Aug 1 Update: Late last month, Google dramatically reduced its emphasis on third-party reviews in Google Places pages. Here’s their official statement. As noted below, GuildQuality reviews were showing up near the top of Places pages. Since that change, Google has now moved the reference to the bottom of the Places pages, with a link to the number of reviews received by the third-party. GuildQuality Reviews continue to show up in Google searches.

About ten weeks ago, we launched GuildQuality Reviews. Members who choose to opt in to Reviews have an additional question appended to their customer satisfaction survey, asking respondents to provide a review if they’re interested in sharing their experience with the whole world.

Since we launched Reviews, more than 1 in 5 of our survey respondents have shared a review. Initially, those reviews were only being published on each members’ profile page. They’ve recently started finding their way into search results and onto our members’ Google Places Pages. Some examples:

When a prospective client searches for “Roberts Construction Group, Evanston, IL,” they now see something like this:

Hey, how about that! Roberts Construction Group has 16 reviews. And when they click on either of the two links highlighted by the red arrows, they see something that looks like this:

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The GuildQuality Guildmaster Awards celebrate exceptional customer service in the building industry. This year (our 6th year) we are excited to recognize 155 home builders, remodelers, contractors, and real estate developers for their history of exemplary service.

To identify the award winners, we reviewed thousands of survey responses from their customers. Following are a few representative comments pulled from the customer feedback of this year’s winners:

Our experience with Windsong Properties was extraordinary and welcoming. It always felt like home every time we came out to visit even before we purchased our home.

I am grateful for the patience, expertise and professionalism – and kindness – of the entire team at McClurg. They made a challenging process (remodel in the dead of winter!) as pleasant as possible. And my new room is just what I’d hoped for, a beautiful space that completes my home.

From the moment we started this process with Carissa to finding the perfect floor plan to working with Daphne through the mortgage process and John with construction and ending with Ian we have had the best experience. Quadrant knows how to ensure a smooth process and keep the customer in the loop. We have been blessed to be part of this team and look forward to many years of enjoyment in our new home.

We were thrilled with both projects that we did with Sean Perry and group. We were impressed with the professionalism and detail oriented aspect of the group right from the start through the finished products. We just love our kitchen remodel and the extension of our deck, and do not have a single regret with the process or the result.

Of the 2011 Guildmasters’ 18,000+ survey respondents, more than 95% would recommend their builder, remodeler, or developer to a friend — an astounding accomplishment that places these companies among the healthiest and most enduring of building and remodeling businesses. Congratulations to the 2011 Guildmaster Award Winners!

To learn about this year’s Guildmaster Award Qualifications, visit the qualifications page of our website or contact us with any questions.

We’re looking to add to our great sales team.

Jerrod, Andy, Mike, and Rebekah are our intrepid ambassadors. If you’ve joined GuildQuality recently, it’s likely that one of them was the first GuildQuality person you met. We like them a lot, and would enjoy having more people like them on our team, so if you know people that are similar, ask them to email something compelling to careers at guildquality dot com.

We’ve got great people on our team who work from faraway places. Being in Atlanta is a bonus, but not a requirement.

Here’s the official job description (PDF). Please help us connect with some great candidates!

Learn more about GuildQuality and our culture here.

A few weeks ago, we hosted a luncheon for our Atlanta-area Guildmembers. More than two dozen members turned out. Our entire team was there (including my wife, but not including Luna), and every one of us had the opportunity to have at least a few meaningful discussions with every person that came.

What fun it was to have so many Guildmembers in one place! And what a useful reminder about how much more you can learn from someone when you’re face-to-face versus over the phone or email (or even Twitter). Thank you to all that came — for your business and your generous insights.

While we completely forgot to take some pictures, we did have the presence of mind to record some video. After being plied with iced-tea and some fine southern cooking, five of our members were feeling good enough to subject themselves to Friendly Human‘s camera. Here’s what our members had to say in response to the question, “Why did you join GuildQuality.”

David Sturm of Attention to Detail Home Remodeling in Roswell, GA shares why his company is a GuildQuality member.

Wright Marshall of Revival Construction shares what it’s like to work with GuildQuality. His favorite thing: He can count on GuildQuality and never has to worry about it.

John Gwaltney of Nehemiah ReConstruction shares why he’s a member of our community of quality, the affordability of our service, and reasons why business owners should focus on continuous improvement.