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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.

Remodelers Advantage workshops and seminars for Guildmembers

Apr 29 2008 by Geoff Graham in Event announcements, Miscellaneous

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Remodelers Advantage is an internationally-acclaimed business improvement and peer group organization exclusively for remodelers. They teach practical, proven, and profit-generating strategies to remodeling professionals that are interested in developing exceptional businesses — while still having enough time at the end of the day to enjoy the fruits of their labors.

I am a believer in this organization. The companies I know that rely on Remodelers Advantage Roundtables tend to be the leaders in the industry. They dominate Remodeling Magazine’s Big 50 Awards, and are regularly anointed Remodeler of the Year by national publications and their local associations. And those accolades are well-deserved — not only are these remodelers among the most profitable in the business, but they are also leaders in service excellence.

The president of Remodelers Advantage, Victoria Downing, offered to extend invitations to our membership to participate in their forthcoming seminars and workshops. These workshops are great for remodelers and custom homebuilders.

Administrative PowerMeeting — June 2008 — San Diego
Production PowerMeeting — June 2008 — Philadelphia
Building and Managing a Winning Sales Team — November 2008 — Baltimore

To register or to find out more about these events, visit the Remodelers Advantage website, or call them at 301-490-5620.

P.S. Remodelers Advantage also has an excellent newsletter filled with weekly bite-sized “PowerTips” for improving your business and leading a better life. Visit their newsletter archive, or sign up to receive it.

Remodeling Leadership Conference, green building, and doing well by doing good

Apr 25 2008 by Geoff Graham in Event announcements, Member news, Miscellaneous

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Next week, GuildQuality will be in Washington, DC as a sponsor of the Remodeling Leadership Conference. Each year, 50 exceptional remodelers will be inducted into Remodeling Magazine’s Big 50. In the words of Remodeling Magazine, these leaders possess “top-notch business acumen, outstanding customer service, a financially strong foundation, and exciting systems.” I was thrilled to learn that 8 of this year’s award winners rely on GuildQuality for customer satisfaction surveying.

The theme of this year’s event is The Color of Money: Green and the future of remodeling. I love that through Green Building, one can do well by doing good. It pleases me that a remodeler who practices sustainable building techniques is creating a better built home and helping to preserve a healthy unbuilt environment. And it especially pleases me that the green remodeler earns a premium for his or her thoughtful business practices, and can even enjoy savings wrought from efficiency and forethought.

I have long felt that what motivates one to go green is the same kind of thing that motivates one to deliver the best possible customer experience: it is a belief that, in the long-term, doing the right thing will bring the greatest success. Remodelers that practice service excellence are not only serving their customers’ interests, but they are earning greater recognition and higher margins. They are doing well by doing good.

The 2008 Guildmaster Award Winners

Apr 21 2008 by Geoff Hartnett in Event announcements, GQ features, Member news, About GuildQuality

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Yes, its that time of year again. We are thrilled to announce the official 2008 Guildmaster Award Winners.

Guildmasters differ in their types of work, but all have a lengthy track record of superior customer service. These Awards were based upon a review of over 40,000 customer satisfaction survey responses for nearly 600 building and real estate professionals nationwide.

To be eligible for an award, a GuildQuality member, a Guildmember if you will, must have achieved a recommendation rate of 90% or greater and at least 70% of their customers must have completed a customer satisfaction survey. For those eligible, additional criteria deemed indicative of outstanding customer service was used to generate the final list of Award winners. This year, this process produced 102 Guildmasters!

GuildQuality Founder and President Geoff Graham says,

GuildQuality’s mission is to elevate the building and real estate profession to a stature commensurate with its importance in our lives. A tremendous part of that involves equipping home builders, remodelers, and developers with easy-to-use tools to monitor and improve the quality of their service. But we also take every opportunity we can to celebrate excellence when we see it. These 102 Guildmembers have demonstrated their commitment to exceptional service, and we’re honored to be able to recognize them.

Rachel Foster of Atlanta based Construction Ahead, Inc., one of only six companies to have ever been awarded the Guildmaster with Highest Distinction Award in back to back years says,

… being honored with Guildmaster Awards enable us to instill the additional confidence and affirmation potential and referred clients need when making their decision to engage us as their contractor… The critique we receive from GuildQuality truly gives our company the tools we need to monitor and uphold our mission statement, “Construction Ahead retains satisfied
clients for life.”

Congratulations 2008 Guildmasters. You’ve all made it through some very tough criteria. Recognition of your achievements are very well deserved.

Click here to view the complete list of this year’s recipients.

Click here to read the press release.

GQ Member John Wieland Homes wins Avid Award

Feb 29 2008 by Geoff Graham in Event announcements

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This news is from late last year, but we just noticed the article: Avid, in partnership with Professional Builder, awarded John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods top honors for customer satisfaction in the Atlanta market. This echoes the company’s similar 2007 JD Power Award for best in Atlanta.

The folks at John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods are top-notch, and we’re pleased to have the opportunity to serve them in their ongoing pursuit of service excellence.

Orlando Member Meeting

Feb 19 2008 by Geoff Graham in Event announcements, Member news

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We are back from the International Builder Show. The highlight of our trip was unquestionably our Member Meeting on Friday evening. Thanks very much to those that came — we appreciate the opportunity to speak with you about your businesses and how you use our service. You’re also a fun group of folks, and it was a pleasure spending time with you.

To all of those that wanted to come that we couldn’t accommodate (10 was our limit!), please accept my apologies. Next year, we’ll plan earlier for a much larger group.

We had guests from three companies: Lubbock Land Company of Lubbock, TX; William Shaw & Associates of Houston, TX; and Emerald Ventures of Gainesville, FL.

A couple things were notable coincidences:

1) All three companies joined GuildQuality in January. Welcome new members!

2) All three were referred to us by existing members: Lubbock Land Company from Betenbough Homes (also in Lubbock); William Shaw & Associates from Citadel Enterprises (of Charleston, SC); and Emerald Ventures from Brice Business Group (also in Gainesville).

I’d like to spend a lot more face to face time with our members, and am working to make that happen. These meetings are extremely helpful for us: Member feedback guides our service’s development and contributes to our continuous pursuit of improvement in our reporting and customer satisfaction surveying processes.

It’s also great fuel for us to hear so many stories about our members’ commitment to service excellence. They truly appreciate the importance of quality in the building and real estate profession, and it’s a nice affirmation of GuildQuality’s purpose: “To elevate the profession to a stature commensurate with its important in our lives.”

Thanks again to those that were able to join us!

Join us for dinner at the IBS

Feb 06 2008 by Geoff Graham in Event announcements

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We are hosting a Member Meeting in Orlando during the IBS. I hope that you can join us at Bonefish Grill on Friday, Feb 15th, at 6:00pm for heavy appetizers and cocktails.

I’ll be sharing information about GuildQuality’s latest happenings, along with our plans for the near future. I am especially interested in hearing your feedback about GuildQuality, our services, and how we can better serve you.

Space is limited. We only have room for ten guests, so please RSVP as soon as possible. Also, please limit your attendees to three per company. I hope to see you soon.

GQ Webinar | “Making Customer Satisfaction a Priority in your Business”

Jan 16 2008 by Geoff Hartnett in Event announcements, About GuildQuality, Webinars

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* Prepended update: On January 31st, GuildQuality presented the first in a series of Webinars “Making Customer Satisfaction a Priority in your Business”. It was a remodeler focused discussion on how two nationally-recognized companies (Strite design + remodel and Normandy Builders) internalize and promulgate customer satisfaction through every facet of the business– from the first time a customer interacts with a company representative to the last punchlist item. They stressed the importance of properly setting customer expectations (remodeling can be unpleasant!), holding team members accountable to their customers’ experiences, and follow up with customers for referral business. Strite and Normandy also discussed adjustments each had to make in their marketing strategies (in response to market downturns). They elaborated on changes in both traditional marketing strategies and implicit marketing– via team member interactions. Again, our speakers provided wonderful insight into how customer satisfaction impacts the way they conduct business both in the office and in the field.

For those able to attend, we thank you and hope that you enjoyed it. For those unable to attend, “Making Customer Satisfaction a Priority in your Business” is now available for viewing in its entirety here. Thanks again, to Jim Strite, Jack Steindl, and Karen Cericola for taking time out of their busy schedules to participate. - Regards - Your GuildQuality Team.

******************

On January 31st, GuildQuality will be hosting a live online webinar for remodelers. It will be a discussion featuring the principals of Normandy Builders and Strite Design + Remodel moderated by our founder, Geoff Graham.

Chicago-based Normandy Builders earned Professional Remodeler’s 2007 “Remodeler of the Year” award for their accomplishments in customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership. Normandy Builders has been using GuildQuality for its customer satisfaction surveying since 2006.

Boise-based Strite design + remodel has been designated by Qualified Remodeler magazine as one of the nation’s Top 500 remodelers every year since its inception. They’ve been featured on the cover of Remodeling Magazine, and are the recipient of numerous awards for their exceptional business practices, working environment, and contributions to the remodeling profession. Strite design + remodel has been using GuildQuality for its customer satisfaction surveying since 2004.

This is an exciting opportunity to hear from two of the industry’s most respected companies and the role that customer satisfaction plays in the growth of their businesses. Join us!

Date: January 31st, 2008
Time: 2pm EST
Duration: (under an hour)

Happy New Year!

Jan 01 2008 by Geoff Graham in Event announcements

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Happy New Year to you and yours from the GuildQuality team.

Front row (left to right): John Ramey, Agent Geoff Hartnett, Erin Rosintoski, Laura Summerlin, Sean Ellis, Michael Hardy. Middle: Laura Flowerree. Back row (left to right): Me, David Strandburg, Rob Faraj, Glenn McNairy, Jon Atteberry. Not pictured: Autumn Printup and Heather (VanSickle) Fricke.

Normandy Builders: 2007 Remodeler of the Year

Dec 19 2007 by Geoff Graham in Event announcements, Articles, Member news

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Congratulations to Normandy Builders of Hinsdale, Illinois: Professional Remodeler’s 2007 Remodeler of the Year. The good folks at Professional Remodeler selected Normandy Builders because of their successful execution of a growth rebound strategy. After a 20% decline in sales from 2005 to 2006, the team huddled up and crafted a new growth strategy. They’ve not only made up their lost ground, but they’re on track to outperform their best year ever by nearly 20%.

I was very pleased to read that a key component of Normandy’s strategy involved GuildQuality’s customer satisfaction surveying. They originally came to us seeking to verify that their lost ground was not a product of diminished service. Their 95% recommendation rate from 200 surveys gave them some solid reassurance. But they got a lot more than affirmation from the surveying. Reg Marzec, who co-founded the company in 1979 elaborates:

But it’s not just about whether we’ve got happy customers. It’s also about finding out if we’re doing something wrong and having the chance and the ability to correct what we might be doing wrong. If we have a weak link, we should try to do something about it. And that has been a real side benefit that I never really thought of.

After getting a handle on the strength of their service, and identifying who were among their most passionate customers, Normandy took the extra step to develop a “Referral Rewards Program” that leveraged “the relationship they had developed with hundreds of satisfied past clients over the years.” The referral program contributed to a whopping 25% increase in leads.

According to their Marketing Director, Laurie Camp, their 2007 strategy is “more of a rifle shot approach than a shotgun approach in targeting potential clients. We’ve actually spent less on marketing than in the past, but we’ve increased our marketing effectiveness.”

I’ve just touched on the customer satisfaction components of their successful strategy. Visit Professional Remodeler to read the entire article.

Congratulations again to all the people at Normandy Builders for their well-deserved recognition, and best wishes for an equally successful 2008.

P.S. If you’re interested in more of Normandy Builders’ stats, they publish their summary Customer Report, and link to it from their website.

Blast from the Past: Bob Vila at I’On

Nov 26 2007 by Geoff Graham in Event announcements

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A number of years ago, Bob Vila’s “Home Again” came to I’On to film about a dozen episodes about the construction of a home in the neighborhood.

Click here to watch one of the episodes in which Bob strolls through the neighborhood commenting on the architecture and development philosophy. More about the series of episodes at at Bob Vila’s website.

This series of episodes is especially meaningful to me, as it was at the “wrap party” (the oyster roast that followed the filming of the last episode) where my wife-to-be first considered agreeing to a date.

The Ellises welcome more Ellises

Oct 31 2007 by Geoff Graham in Event announcements

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Congratulations to Suzie and Sean Ellis! On October 25, they added two new additions to their family with the birth of twin Ellii: Ben and McKenzie. I understand from Sean that the very first thing they saw was his GQ-blue jacket!

Garcia Award Winner: Geoff Hartnett

Oct 16 2007 by Geoff Graham in Event announcements, Miscellaneous, About GuildQuality

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The GuildQuality team has spoken, and our newly crowned Garcia Award Winner is Geoff Hartnett, our Director of Web Marketing.

Every member of the GQ team nominates up to three people for the award, and the team member with the most nominations wears the Garcia Mantle until a new winner is chosen. Previous award winners include Laura Summerlin (Survey Manager), Michael Hardy (Data Support Administrator), and Erin Rosintoski (Membership Director).

Hartnett’s takes care of most of our design work, the public website, and virtually all of our marketing. Some of the recent contributions that earned him the team’s accolades: his significant work in enhancing our web presence, his expert production of our communications, and his big help in making the Remodeling Show a great event for us. Hartnett is a big part of the reason why so many people are familiar with our customer satisfaction surveying for quality-minded building professionals.

Congratulations to Geoff Hartnett. Thanks for all your tremendous contributions to GuildQuality.

Visit us at The Remodeling Show in Vegas

Oct 03 2007 by Geoff Hartnett in Event announcements

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This upcoming week from October 10-12th, GuildQuality will be In Las Vegas at The Remodeling Show held at the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino. If you’re planning on attending, stop by and see us at booth #4024.

In addition to the show, we’ll also be hosting a breakfast with Remodelers Advantage on Thursday, October 11th from 7:00 to 8:30 at Mandalay Bay’s Red, White and Blue Restaurant. If you’re already a Guildmember, we’d love to see you for a breakfast amongst friends and peers. If you’re not already a Guildmember and you’ve been considering GuildQuality or Remodelers Advantage, come by and see how quality-minded builders nationwide leverage us in their endeavor to be the best building professionals they can be.

If you would like to attend the breakfast, RSVP to Erin Rosintoski or call (404) 961-6124 .

Again, we’ll be at booth #4024. Can’t wait to see you there!

Charlotte Member Meeting

Sep 13 2007 by Geoff Graham in Event announcements, Member news

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Last week, several of us visited the Queen City to spend an evening with some of our members in the area.

We had a strong turnout from our Charlotte-area members. I recognize it’s a big investment for people to take time away from their personal lives, and I appreciate everyone coming.

Thanks to Ben Yeakley of Dienst Custom Homes; Scott Whitlock, Tyler Mahan, and Steven Whitlock of Hubert Whitlock Builders; Scott Dirkenschneider of Meeting Street Homes; Fran Hillhouse and Bob Zweier of Saussy Burbank; Jim Burbank of JCB Urban (and Saussy Burbank); and Maria Skipper and Kristian Kellogg of The McAllister Group.

These meetings are great opportunities for our members to share fellowship and experiences with other quality-minded building professionals, and invaluable opportunities for me and our team to get direct, face-to-face feedback from the people that rely on our customer satisfaction surveying.

Thanks very much for coming!

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