GuildQuality

Over the last few weeks, many conversations with our Guildmembers have started with a question: “How will your year wrap up?”

I’ve responded by sharing some highlights: 2011′s revenue and net income are both record highs; Guildmember satisfaction is strong and, as a result, our membership churn remains very low; and we added a full 33% more members in 2011 than we did in 2010. Despite the turmoil that’s plagued our market since late 2006, we seem to be firing on all cylinders. It feels good!

People generally react to this answer with something like, “That’s wonderful to hear. There are so many tough stories out there that it’s always encouraging to encounter businesses that are doing well.” And virtually everyone adds, “To what do you attribute it?” There’s no way to give a short answer to that question, so here’s my attempt at a long one.

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Congratulations to Guildmembers Normandy Remodeling for winning 12 out of 15 NARI Remodeling Excellence Awards.

The 12 awards represent the work of eight different Normandy Designers; Jennifer Runner, Ann Stockard, Leslie Lawrence, Gary Cerek, Stephanie Bryant, Kathryn O’Donovan, John Long and Leslie Lee.

Normandy Remodeling has been providing award winning kitchens, baths, renovations and additions to Chicago area clients for over 30 years. Normandy is known for great service, high ethical standards and exceptional quality of work. Their dedication to their clients has previously earned them the title of Remodeler of the Year by Professional Remodeler Magazine, as well as the distinction of a GuildQuality Guildmaster Award in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Read more on their win here!

Yesterday, Fox News published a short story highlighting some of the unique aspects of building a software company in the South. The article featured comments from Pardot CEO David Cummings, bigWebApps CEO Patrick Clements, and me. I thought I’d take a moment to elaborate on a subtle point from the article, and what that means for our Guildmembers.

There’s a prevailing sense among Atlanta’s tech entrepreneurs that our businesses should earn a profit by creating value for clients. I suspect that this whacky notion is, at least in part, a product of the lack of a robust venture capital community in the South. By necessity, we have been forced to reject the notion that venture capital will play a roll in the early success of our business.

Around here, there are only a few ways to get your software company off the ground, and all of them require achieving positive net income as soon as possible. For software-as-a-service businesses like ours, net income requires recurring revenue. Recurring revenue requires an excellent offering and happy customers. And those require great people who are focused on creating something special. This chain creates a virtuous cycle that benefits everyone involved.

An interesting (and often unhealthy) dynamic emerges when one attempts to finance the growth of his or her business by some means other than profit. From whence comes the cash, goes the attention. This is the Silicon Valley paradigm, and under it, any person who might facilitate or profit from an investment or acquisition becomes the de facto customer. This is good news for lawyers, bankers, and pretty much anyone who makes a living by seeing businesses bought or sold. Unfortunately, this distraction draws the business’ attention away from the actual customers: you.

When a business focuses on something other than delivering value to actual customers, there are consequences. We’ve experienced what happens in our world of real estate and construction when, instead of focusing on creating livable homes and communities, we focused on facilitating the flip. Remember what happened when all the real estate brokers, appraisers, lenders, legislators, architects, remodelers, builders, and buyers all started thinking that homes were no longer something that you lived in, but instead they became something from which you could earn a fee for facilitating a transaction?

Because that pain is very fresh in our minds, we’re going to stay focused on generating profit by creating value for you — our Guildmembers. Y’all are the good folks who keep our lights on, and we’re grateful for your business!

FastCompany describes the Power of Circles:

As business owners, we’re often living out on our own insular Tahiti. Rarely do we have the opportunity to ask questions of other folks who have walked a mile in our shoes. Small, trusted, intentional networks help temper that challenge.

I circle up with my Entrepreneurs Organization “Forum” every month. I also get together once a quarter with a handful of Atlanta SaaS entrepreneurs. Among our Guildmembers, Remodelers Advantage is extremely popular. As are the NAHB’s 20Clubs.

Are you a member of a “circle”?

When visiting with friends this Christmas Eve, I spotted one of Revival Construction‘s candy houses. Wright and his team recently remodeled and expanded the main floor of their home. View more of these great candy houses and read about their history on Revival’s Facebook page. What a wonderful tradition!

“The most reliable way to forecast the future is to try to understand the present.” - John Naisbitt

This report contains a summary of the feedback received from our members in the Q4 2011 Market Predictions Survey conducted during the week of December 19. This survey is a continuation of the survey we began in October 2008. In this and prior surveys, GuildQuality requested feedback from the owners and operators among our hundreds of home builders, remodelers, contractors, and real estate developers that use our service. In each of the surveys, more than 100 people have provided feedback. 185 of our builders, remodelers, developers, and home services contractors responded to the 4th quarter survey.

It’s worth remembering that this is what people expect to happen in the near future. 6% anticipate the real estate and construction market will be worse six months from now; 39% forecast improvement. In every survey except our very first in Q4 2008, more have forecasted improvement than decline.

For your reading pleasure, our members shared the following comments, along with their forecasts: (more…)

How do Degnan Design Builders, Inc. and Creative Contracting Inc. keep their customers satisfied? By maximizing client feedback using GuildQuality! Check out the Professional Remodeler interview with both company owners here:

This past year at GuildQuality has been fast paced and full of exciting changes. We introduced new product features, launched new partnerships, welcomed a fresh batch of wonderful employees…oh, and we moved to Midtown!

Whether you’ve been a member of GuildQuality for years, or you’ve just recently joined our community of quality, you will want to take a moment to familiarize yourself with our recently developed components built to make your life easier.

In November, GuildQuality optimized our reporting app for iPhones, Androids and Blackberries! Mobile devices make real-time delivery of our survey feedback even more useful to you. Login, Survey Response, and our Dashboard are easy to view via mobile. We’ve even optimized the actual survey form that your customers use to complete online surveys. Not only does this enable you to view feedback quicker, but it allows your customers to provide information more efficiently.

Speaking of feedback, have you opted in to GuildQuality reviews? GuildQuality reviews provide a wonderful opportunity to empower your customers to share more information about their experience with your company. Most of our Guildmembers leverage the customer feedback they receive through our new reviews feature to strengthen their brand. With the addition of GuildQuality Reviews, more robust, useful, informative commentary is also increasingly finding its way into search results. Prior to launching GuildQuality Reviews, we piloted the feature with a number of our early adopter members. Their most popular request was for us to allow them to add their own responses to reviews they receive, and now you can!

If you’ve been with GuildQuality since before September of this year, you can appreciate our GuildQuality dashboard redesign. Our goal with the new design was to enable you to do and see as much as possible from one location, minimizing your need to dive deeper into the account in order to see trends in performance. For your convenience we’ve added a Scorecard right on the dash, Recent Responses are now vertically oriented, and you are able to directly publish comments.

In addition to new product features, 2011 brought about a partnership with Kohler. GuildQuality is now the preferred provider of customer satisfaction surveying for members of Kohler’s Leading Edge Program.

We welcome a new partner and four more talented folks to the GuildQuality team this year, three sales associates, Andy Cesario, Mike Sveda and Rebekah Taylor, along with our new Marketing Communications Manager, Erica England.

This is just a glimpse of all that we’ve accomplished this year at GuildQuality. We were extremely fortunate to have experienced another successful year working with top building and remodeling professionals who value customer satisfaction as much as we do. Thank you to all of our fantastic members!

P.S. If you haven’t visited our new office, pop over to the big city in 2012 and come see us in the heart of Midtown Atlanta.

Congratulations to DreamMaker Bath & Kitchen, winners of the November daily5Remodel snapshots contest! With nearly 3,500 votes, Jeremy Thompsen of DreamMaker Bath & Kitchen is now the proud owner of a white 16G iPad 2, courtesy of GuildQuality.

DreamMaker Bath & Kitchen submitted this story about their clients Janet and Rob Beaumont!

We are thrilled to sponsor this year’s Replacement Contractor Executive Conference powered by Replacement Contractor. This year’s conference is being held February 23–24, 2012 in Las Vegas.

In addition to hearing from industry experts and learning from other professional contractors from around the country, this year’s conference will feature the Replacement Contractor Service Excellence Awards Dinner conducted by GuildQuality and sponsored by James Hardie.

All replacement contractors who register for the conference before December 30, 2011 are eligible for the Replacement Contractor Service Excellence Awards. As a Guildmember, you are automatically eligible for the awards with your registration prior to December 30, 2011. Those companies ranking highest will be presented with the Service Excellence Award.

Registration for the conference is $495 for Guildmembers—a significant savings off the $695 regular registration rate. Click here to register, and be sure to check “Sponsor Guest” as your registration type.

We look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas!

The Home Builders Association of Illinois held its Installation and Awards Banquet this week in which it chose Scott Sevon, GMR, GMB, CGP, CGR, CAPS, partner with MAW Chicago as Remodeler of the Year with HBAI. Sevon is also on the advisory board with Qualified Remodeler magazine.

“I feel very grateful to be voted the best in the state! Although this award singled me out, it is our firm’s award. MAW Chicago, our team of employees and trade partners make this award possible,” he says. “As my partner, Mike Nagel, CGR,CAPS, and I believe, we try to give back to this great industry. We each stay involved at the local, state and national levels of our HBAs. This gives us an edge over most in our industry because we are current on rules, regulations, requirements and the pulse of our industry.” Read more here.

MAW Chicago, a construction company specializing in residential and commercial interior and exterior design and renovation has been a GuildQuality member since June 2011. Congratulations Scott and MAW team!

GuildQuality member, LEFKO Renovations, earned a mention in the December issue of Fortune! Owner, David Lefkovits shares his secret to successful marketing in the latest Fortune Venture column.

LEFKO Renovations is a family owned residential renovation and remodeling company and a sister company of the LEFKO Group, a real estate development, general contracting and investments company co-founded by David.

In addition to David’s leadership at LEFKO, he is also a partner of Custom Building Group, a builder of luxury homes in Metro Atlanta. Congratulations David and LEFKO team!

Michael Nagel, partner of MAW Chicago LLC, was named the 2011 National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Remodeler of the Year this past November. Due to his NAHB involvement, superior business management skills and outstanding contributions to the remodeling industry, Nagel received top honors. Read more on Michael Nagel and his NAHB win here.

MAW Chicago LLC has been a GuildQuality member since June 2011. Congratulations Michael and MAW team!

Nagel receives his Remodeler of the Year award from (left to right) Chris Dana, Pella Corp.; Rob Heselbarth, Qualified Remodeler; and Bob Peterson, CGR, CAPS, CGP, NAHBR chair, during the NAHB.

GuildQuality partner, James Hardie, was contacted by the Discovery Channel Network to participate in a segment for their show, “How It’s Made” which airs nationally on the Science Channel. Check out their segment here!