When customers purchase new homes, they bring certain expectations about what they want to the construction process. Customers paint a picture in their heads of their new homes. If their real homes don't match those visions, they may be disappointed. As a builder, you have an opportunity at construction meetings to help make sure the picture in the customer's head matches the home you're building. If you do an effective job, you can help your customers better understand the features and benefits of the homes you're building for them and ensure they'll be happier with the finished product and with you as their builder.
What do customers want? When people purchase new homes, their expectations are simple: they want the homes they ordered, they want them built right, and they want them delivered on time. When they meet with the builder's representatives during the construction process, they typically focus on five key areas.
Customer expectation #1: A home that's finished on time
The question you probably hear most often at construction meetings is, “When will my home be ready?” Moving into a new home requires lots of advance planning for most families. Often, a family needs to sell its current home or wants to move before a new school year starts. Or, a customer may just need to know when to give notice to the landlord. Whatever their situation, knowing when their home will be available is very important to your customers.
Customer expectation #2: A home with the correct selections and upgrades
When customers buy a new home, choosing interior and exterior features is an important way for them to personalize the home. Most customers spend a lot of time making these choices, and they look forward to seeing their choices installed. These choices have all been captured in each customer's contract paperwork. Much of your time during construction meetings is spent making sure that the home customers have built in their head is the home described in their paperwork.
Customer expectation #3: A home that's "built right"
A home is one of the largest purchases a person will ever make, and it's important to them to know that the home will be trouble-free and long-lasting. During the construction process, expect customers to ask questions about the quality of the materials you're using and your construction methods. Someone who spots what looks like a problem during a site visit will usually question you about the problem and what you're doing to fix it.
Customer expectation #4: Access to the home during construction
Long before they actually move in, customers take a sense of pride and ownership in their homes. They often want to visit frequently to watch the progress of construction. They may even ask for permission to work on their homes themselves. Whatever the reason, you should expect customers to ask about visiting their homes during construction.
Customer expectation #5: Special requests
Customers often make special requests during construction. They may ask to make changes in their selections long after the materials have been ordered. Or, they may ask to have an outlet moved from one side of the room to the other. Balancing the tight schedules of production homebuilding against the desire to please the homebuyer can make these questions especially difficult to handle.
Questions will come up time after time in construction meetings, and in most cases, you can trace them back to one of these five simple expectations. If you can tell customers what to expect in these areas, you’ll answer the questions they're really asking, build their confidence in you, and create happier customers overall. For more information about helping customers through the construction process, see our related article, "Managing Customer Expectations through Construction Meetings."
More Best Practices® for setting and meeting customer expectations can be found in the following online training courses from BuildIQ University:
