GuildQuality

Congratulations North Georgia Replacement Windows on your consumer choice award! (And thanks for the GuildQuality shoutout!)

Caine’s Arcade from Nirvan Mullick on Vimeo.

Why do you build? Creating, expanding, or improving a home is fulfilling. Through construction, you shape the world. When you’re finished, you can step back and say, “We did that.” Few other professions give people that sort of tangible satisfaction.

But the great joy comes when others experience your work. Caine, a nine year old boy, built his own arcade. He built it because he loves to build and he loves to play games. Still, despite the pleasure he found creating his cardboard wonderland, he longed for some customers.

This morning, I watched this video with my seven year old son, and then again with my wife and four year old daughter. The grownups cried. The children grinned ear to ear.

Earlier this week, I ran into Andy Foot of Dwell Design Build in Toronto. He shared that he’d recently been a part of a roundtable discussion, sponsored by Canadian Contractor, about customer feedback and transparency.

The video is above, and Canadian Contractor followed up with this brief article, interviewing Andy. Here’s what he had to say:

We decided to use GuildQuality for a couple of reasons. Number one, we wanted honest feedback from our clients. We felt that having a third party survey our clients would help our clients feel more comfortable in giving an honest response. We cannot manipulate the results or scores and we can benchmark ourselves against our Remodelers Advantage Peer Group. The reporting engine is amazing. You can slice and dice the data by project manager for bonus or employee review purposes.  On larger projects we survey our clients up to 4-5 times during the project life cycle and a year after project completion. Our feeling is if you survey a client after completion there is little opportunity to correct or adjust to any issues raised.

Thanks Andy! We appreciate you helping us spread the word.

People always ask us what we do. Simon Sinek argues that the more important question is: Why do we do what we do?

I spent some time with Joaquin Erazo of Case Design/Remodeling at Monday’s Pro Expo in Toronto, and we got to talking about purpose-driven companies. He shared this 2009 TED talk with me, and I enjoyed it so much, I shared it with our team, and thought I’d share it here, as well.

My answer to the question: The work of our members shapes the lives of their customers, and we’re working everyday to elevating the quality of the building, remodeling, and development industries to a level commensurate with their importance.

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”?

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!

Even the best businesses get negative reviews. The trick is utilizing that feedback constructively to help your business grow. Negative reviews can be an ideal platform for you to demonstrate just how much you care about your customers. Yelp’s blog for business owners recently posted a video specifically about the positive side of negative reviews, take a look.

Many of our GuildQuality members leverage their customer feedback to strengthen their brand through our survey process which presents a great opportunity to let customers share more information. Their published comments find their way into consumer rating services like Google Places, and with the addition of GuildQuality Reviews, more robust, useful, informative commentary will make its way throughout the web. Don’t shy away from reviews! Encourage your customers and open the door to valuable commentary.

Does your work shape the human habitat? Then you’ll probably have an interest in this documentary.

Thanks to Erin Rosintoski for the pointer.

“Will Customer Comments about Your Business Catapult or Crush You?”

View the recorded event.

As a side project, we’re messing around with maps. Here’s a heat map showing our members’ survey responses in the conterminous United States from the last five years. The larger the dot, the more survey responses in that zip code.

We engaged a contractor for this work. He did a great job showing a bright spark the moment a customer completes a survey, with the spark fading to a glowing ember. Press play and watch our surveying spread all over the country.

In all, this is about half of our survey responses. To narrow the geographic area, we excluded Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, and the Caribbean. And to keep the data set manageable, we excluded surveys conducted during free trials of our service, prospect surveys, and surveys conducted as part of market research projects.

This is a fun visualization that helps us to think about how we might introduce more maps both into your account and onto the public website. An example might include an interactive map on your public member profile page that shows where you’re working, pictures of your work, and reviews. And inside your private account, we could display a map with additional details, like satisfaction scores, comments, and project information.

Right now, we’re experimenting with how to bring an engaging member map back to the homepage, but I’m curious what our members think: How could maps be most useful to you, either inside your account or on your member profile page?

For more fun maps, check out the two that inspired this project: The Growth of Walmart & Costco and Kiva Lending.

I just returned from a big trail run in Colorado. During the first mile and a half, we climbed about 1,000 feet — from 8,600 to 9,600 feet above sea level. For a lowlander accustom to Atlanta’s rolling hills, this was an arduous start to a wonderful journey.

Whenever I’m facing a challenge, and questioning my ability to overcome, I think about 21 year-old Terry Fox running across Canada, 26 miles a day, every day, with one good leg and a prosthetic limb.

With conviction and purpose, anything is possible.

My wife spotted a profile of PE Guerin in Traditional Home Magazine, and followed the QR code to this video.

I have a great deal of respect for people who craft useful works of art by hand: blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, and all the professional trades who, through their labor, skill, and creativity turn the Earth’s raw materials into beautiful homes. The skills of these men and women are under-appreciated and more young people should consider a path like the one they’ve chosen.

Update: Shortly after I posted this, Attention To Detail shared this video about how quarrymen cut white marble. Fascinating.

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.