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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.

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.

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.

I’On: Ten years later

Mar 18 2008 by Geoff Graham in Member news

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Macky Hill had the foresight to snap some construction pics ten years ago. He recently had the presence of mind to capture the moment from the exact same spot ten years later. April of 1998 was about two months after the first houses started in I’On. That is (was) mine on the right. Click here or on the images to see a few more shots.

DreamMaker Bath & Kitchen and GuildQuality

Mar 18 2008 by Geoff Graham in Member news

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DreamMaker Bath & Kitchen recently announced that we’ll be taking care of their customer satisfaction surveying. Last year, a group of their franchisees test drove our service. That was a great experience for both us and them, and it led to the finalization earlier this year of our working relationship.

I’m excited about this relationship for a number of reasons. First and foremost, everyone I’ve met at DreamMaker’s corporate office has impressed me. They are all sharp friendly people.

Second, their franchisees are enthusiastic. We’ve had a great reception from all the franchisees we’ve met so far.

Third, I like working with franchises in general. They intuitively appreciate that their reputation is their greatest asset, and they take it very seriously.

As DreamMaker’s president, Doug Dwyer, put it: “Using GuildQuality surveys will enable us at a corporate level to make sure the customers are completely satisfied with the DreamMaker Bath & Kitchen brand [and] at a local level, the surveys will provide a forum for our franchise owners to receive feedback on their work.”

Strobel featured in Remodeling Magazine

Mar 07 2008 by Geoff Graham in Articles, Member news

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Strobel Design Build enjoyed a nice feature in this month’s Remodeling Magazine. Don Strobel discusses some of the marketing strategies he employs now (targeted and strategically timed direct mail campaigns, website design, web analytics tracking) as well as the things he has planned for the website (password-assigned client pages and customer testimonials).

Bowen Family Homes CFO leads Atlanta HBA

Mar 04 2008 by Geoff Graham in Member news

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On January 22, Steve Palmer of Bowen Family Homes took on the responsibility of President of the second largest home builders association in the country — the Greater Atlanta HBA.

According to their website, Bowen Family Homes is the 5th largest builder in Metro Atlanta, the 25th largest privately owned builder in the country, and the 83rd largest among all builders nationwide.

Steve joined Bowen Family Homes in 1999 and has most recently served the GAHBA as Vice President. Bowen started using GuildQuality for their customer satisfaction surveying in mid-2005.

Perry Builders is the Raleigh-Wake County HBA Builder of the Year

Feb 27 2008 by Geoff Graham in Member news

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Congratulations to Perry Builders, who was recognized as the 2007 Builder Member of the Year by Raleigh-Wake County HBA.

From the press release:

“It was a great honor to be presented the Builder of the Year Award,” says Ryan Perry. “The HBA is a great organization, offering outstanding support to builders. As a member, I feel not only that it’s my duty to be involved, but that my involvement has a direct effect on the future of my company. I’m humbled and appreciative of this recognition.”

Top 10 Qlistings from the last 90 days

Feb 22 2008 by Geoff Graham in Member news, Featured products, The Qlist

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In the last 90 days, about 10,000 people have visited the GuildQuality Qlist to find out more about the members in our community of quality. The most frequently visited Qlistings from the last 90 days are:

Betenbough Homes, Lubbock, TX
Eberle Remodeling, Sacramento, CA
Quadrant Homes, Bellevue, WA
Johnson Homes, Cherryville, NC
Jimmy Nash Homes, Lexington, KY
Ivey Residential, Evans, GA
Goodall Homes, Gallatin, TN
Advanced Kitchens, Marietta, GA
Wetherington Builders, North Augusta, SC
Structures Building Company, Mount Pleasant, SC

–
Common themes: Logos, links, customer comments, company descriptions. Customers want to see as much as they possibly can and the more info in your Qlisting, the more traffic it receives.

Additional content helps in a couple ways: First, the Qlistings with the most content are listed highest in the qlist, and thereby get more traffic. Second, search engines like good content, so the more relevant content on your page, the easier it is for search engines to direct people your way.

You can add more information to you Qlisting in your account preferences. If you need help, let us know!

We also report your Qlisting traffic to you. You may have noticed the messages in your feed: “3 people visited your Qlisting yesterday” (see the arrows below).

And for reference, here’s an example of a great looking Qlisting from Sabal Homes that didn’t quite make our Top 10 Most Visited, but was among the top 20.

Mixson wins CNU Charter Award

Feb 21 2008 by Geoff Graham in Member news

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The I’On Group announced that it’s latest project, Mixson, received the Congress for New Urbanism’s prestigious Charter Award. Congratulations to all the folks at the I’On Group. Sales and construction in Mixson began several months ago.

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!

Charlotte Observer: “Morningside Village takes first giant step”

Feb 13 2008 by Geoff Graham in Articles, Member news

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The Charlotte Observer reported today about the progress at Morningside Village, a mixed use redevelopment project near the heart of the Queen City.

Post Properties has contracted to purchase two of the project’s 10 blocks.

The Charlotte Business Journal talked about the plans for this project in September of 2007. This is a significant project for the Charlotte community, and it’s nice to see those plans becoming a reality.

The Morningside Village development team is led by my father Tom Graham (pictured to the right, researching playground equipment for another development).

My brother Vince, our father Tom, and I are partners in the development of I’On in Mount Pleasant, SC. I’ve referenced I’On a few times in this blog. Both Vince and Tom are also GuildQuality shareholders.

ABD wins NAHBR’s 2007 Remodeler of the Year Award

Feb 12 2008 by Geoff Hartnett in Member news

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Congratulations to Bob Peterson and Associates in Building and Design (ABD) on their NAHBR’s 2007 Remodeler of the Year Award. This accolade was bestowed upon Bob and his staff at a gala in Las Vegas in October of 2007 adding to their already impressive trophy case. In celebration, NAHBR cited Bob’s “17 years of professional remodeling achievements”, more than 30 years of business in the industry, being “one of the fastest-growing in his area” and being “the first Colorado contractor to achieve the Certified Aging in Place specialist certification”.

“As an industry leader, Peterson has been active at the local, state, and national levels of NAHB. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Northern Colorado Association of Home Builders, is a National Director and Board of Trustees member of the NAHB Remodelers as well as being one of 12 national members to serve on the National Association of Home Builders CGR Board of Governors. Peterson is also known for his charitable remodeling works, building homes, ramps, playhouses, and completing renovations in his community.”

Having recently become a Guildmember, we are delighted to welcome ABD to our community of quality. As always, we are proud to have such wonderful companies as part of our endeavor to elevate the building profession to a stature commensurate to it’s importance in our community.

“7 Houses a day”: Seattle Times on Quadrant Homes’ discipline

Feb 12 2008 by Geoff Graham in Articles, Member news

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The Seattle Times recently described the discipline of “the No. 2 homebuilder nationally in gross margin, sixth by pretax earnings and 15th in closing volume and revenue.” (Here’s the link to a web-based version at HousingZone.com and here’s the original pdf.)

Some notable excerpts: “Quadrant’s goal was to begin the permitting and building process only when the house had been sold, and to move quickly to complete it…Quadrant began with a 63-day timetable. Now it takes 54 working days to complete a house. Ten years ago, Quadrant started one house per day; now it starts seven, a number unchanged by the national downturn.”

Quadrant’s acumen radiates beyond the construction process. Quadrant was recently recognized by the Puget Sound Business Journal as one of 2007’s best Washington workplaces.

Click here to read more about Quadrant’s values (as described in the image above).

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