Constructive criticism: conducting customer surveys can provide remodelers with valuable...

Bowers Construction, McLean, Va., has been conducting post-job customer surveys since it was incorporated 15 years ago. Co-owner Wilma Bowers says that due to the remodeling industry's poor reputation, homeowners are predisposed to thinking they will have a terrible experience. "We want to prove

Remodeler David Merrill of Arlington, Va.-based Merrill Contracting & Remodeling thinks it is shortsighted not to do a survey. "It's great to get positive feedback to share with staff," he says. "It's one thing for me to tell the team, 'You did a good job.' It's another thing to hear it directly from the client."

As Bob Fleming's company, Classic Remodeling & Construction, in Charleston, S.C., has grown from $3 million in revenue to $6 million, he finds he has less contact with clients. Surveys counteract this distance. "When you're running a small company, you have your finger on the pulse, but as you grow you really need surveys," he says. Geoff Graham, founder of GuildQuality, an Atlanta-based company that conducts customer surveys for the building industry, stresses that it's not just larger companies that should collect this data. "There is no greater indicator of your future success than your recommendation rate," he says. "This applies whether you build three high-end custom homes or 7,000 multifamily condominiums or do $1 million in remodeling."

Whether companies use an in-house survey or hire a third party, Graham thinks it's important to gather this information. In fact, remodelers are the fastest growing segment of GuildQuality membership. "Customer service is becoming a higher and higher priority," he says. "It's part of the increasing maturity of the remodeling industry."

NEED TO KNOW

Bowers has a corporate marketing background, so she created Bowers Construction's survey herself. "It should start with your processes and the way you run your business," she advises. "Service, price, craftsmanship--whatever you want to deliver to the client should be specified on the survey."

Jim Strite, president of Strite Design + Remodel in Boise, Idaho, agrees. "Not every company has the same goals," he says. "If you have a vision or a mission, design a survey that will assist you in reaching it."

Marketing consultant Adrienne Zoble points out that it can be difficult for contractors to develop questions. She suggests beginning with an oral sales follow-up: "Write down three questions before you pick up the phone. By the time you get through the second question the conversation will have taken on a life of its own." Information from the call can be used to expand from three questions to six questions and then to form the basis of a written survey.

Out of respect for the customer's time, Graham suggests limiting the survey to 25 questions. He says the best survey has fewer than a dozen questions that will focus on specific points, because "this makes the customer happy and more eager to provide answers. If the survey takes them more than 15 minutes to fill out, they get annoyed."

Bowers' survey has about 20 questions on three pages. The questions are grouped into sections based on the stages of the remodeling process--initial contact, design, contract, construction, and punch-out. "The number of questions is not a concern, as long as they are relevant and easy to answer," she says. Most questions have a four-point scale that ranges from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree." Bowers also provides a space for comments at the end of each section, and then again at the end of the survey, where she asks clients to describe three things that the company could have done better. She says that the combination of scaled questions, open-ended comments, and the broader blue-sky question at the end works well. "If you can't get data one way, you'll get it another," she points out.

After the completion of a job, Christopher Repp of Repp Construction, Orchard Park, N.Y., uses a survey to ask clients if his project managers and tradespeople were courteous, helpful, and knowledgeable and if his field staff were respectful toward the client's home and belongings. "We are trying to make employees and subs accountable," Repp says. "So they need to hear what the client said and how they felt. If an employee is getting negative feedback, we have a meeting to find out what we can do to fix it." If a sub receives a bad review, Repp sends that sub a copy of the survey. If that sub receives a second bad review, he meets with them in person.

MARKET FOCUS

To help focus marketing dollars, Bowers asks her clients what local newspapers and magazines they read. She also asks what Internet search engine they prefer. "We want to make sure we're associated with the fight search engines," she says.

On his in-house survey, Strite covers the same processes and issues that his salespeople discuss at the beginning of the remodeling process. One question on the survey is, "Name one or two benefits you've received from the work we've done that you value the most." The answer to this question provides Strite with a training tool. The remodeler also asks, "Who else do you know that needs our services?" He says that using "who else" in the question encourages clients to respond with a name. Strite says that if he asked, "Do you know someone who needs our services?" the customer could answer "No" or "Not right now."

Graham says that format is crucial for open-ended questions. For example, instead of asking, "Did the project manager give you a warranty handbook?" the remodeler should ask, "Do you feel you have a solid understanding of how to take care of your house?" He says that the latter question speaks more to what the customer wants to gain from your services rather than addressing the company's internal processes.

Zoble suggests placing the adverb at the beginning of the sentence. For example, "What did the neighbors think?" or "How many neighbors asked about your remodel?" But she warns against beginning a question with "why" because that feels too aggressive. She also says that offering multiple-choice answers is good because it gives clients somewhere to begin.

Consistently asking the same questions, says Strite, is essential for providing historical data. "It's tough to pick up trends if you keep changing the questions."

CALL AND RESPONSE

Immediately after the punch list is completed, Bowers sends clients the survey with a cover letter. "In the cover letter we say that we'd like a response to the survey within two weeks," she says. "If we don't hear from them, we follow up with a phone call." If the clients still don't respond, one of the owners or the vice president will call them.

Repp sends his company's survey 30 days after the job is completed. "We don't send it fight on the heels of completion because the clients are often burned out and may be frustrated," he says. "We want them to settle into their home and start enjoying it--then we get a more accurate idea of what they're feeling."

Merrill's survey has a 75% response rate, but it often takes from a week to a month to receive responses. Along with the survey, he sends his clients a gift: a small oil painting of their remodeled house.

Zoble thinks that sending a gift with the survey can feel manipulative. Instead, she suggests paving the way for the survey by delivering the gift and then making an appointment for a follow-up visit during which to do the survey in person. Merrill was at first concerned that his gift was influencing his clients to include positive responses, but he now feels that they are honestly answering the survey.

When the responses to his company's survey began to wane, Repp began offering movie tickets as an incentive to complete it. Bowers also sends a gift after clients return the survey. "We don't tell them what it is because we customize it for each client," she says. "For example, if it's a family, we send them Blockbuster and pizza gift certificates."

Zoble encourages contractors to conduct the post-job survey in person. Ideally, she says, it should be performed by the company owner or a salesperson. To concentrate on the client's answers, remodelers can ask permission to record the interview. Strite's salespeople conduct an inperson post-job survey. "The idea is that the remodeling consultant is there in the beginning, through the process, and at the end," Strite says. "It's a full circle." For Strite, it's important that the survey is conducted by someone familiar with the project, because they are able to delve deeper into any remaining issues. Instead of a gift, his company makes a donation to a charity chosen by the client.

Tom Maguire, a principal with EnviroCare, a Buffalo, N.Y., restoration company, works with an off-site customer service representative. The job-tracking program he uses automatically reminds the rep to phone clients at the beginning and at the end of each job. Maguire says that clients feel free to express how they feel about the company's work because the customer service rep is not in Enviro-Care's office. "Clients feel some sense of distance," he says. Strite and Fleming also like to use a third party to survey clients. They both work with Geoff Graham and the team at GuildQuality. (See "Measuring Quality" at right.)

MAKING IT PAY

Repp can cite four specific process changes he has made based on client-survey results. First, when he received poor subcontractor reviews, he asked his lead carpenters to meet all subs on site to review the scope of work and to check the completed job. The company also began purchasing all materials for the subs. Second, Repp improved his selection process. The remodeler's specification sheet for each product now includes a picture of the product, a client signature line, and a section for changes. Third, the company now lists its specs room by room instead of grouping them based on its estimating program. Finally, Repp has an outside interior designer help clients make selections.

Merrill says that client surveys also sparked a change in his selection process: Results confirmed that the burden Merrill and his production manager felt about the selection process was being transferred to their clients. To remedy this, Merrill created a relationship with an interior designer. He says, "I pay for the initial meeting with the client and then she works directly with them." Bowers says that after reviewing the design segment of her survey she and her team decided that they needed more control of the timing of the design process, so they hired in-house design staff.

Fleming ties field incentives and bonuses to customer satisfaction. The percentage that an employee receives is based on his rating on the customer survey. Strite also uses survey results as part of the bonus equation. "It helps take the subjectivity out of the incentive determination," he says. Strite considers his company a learning organization, so that, for example, when there is a project manager who receives a low score, he is encouraged to work with a project manager who has consistently high ratings.

Both Fleming and Strite use the third-party GuildQuality results to demonstrate to their potential clients how dedicated they are to customer service. "If clients are on the fence, I'll send them a link to our survey results," Fleming says. "It works for those who want definitive data."

Measuring Quality

GuildQuality measures customer satisfaction for a national community of hundreds of builders, remodelers, and real estate developers. President and founder Geoff Graham says that contractors use the service to track and to compare customer service.

According to Graham, most members are small- and mid-size companies. The activation fee is as low as $475 for custom builders and up to $785 for builders of 100 homes per year. The first month is free and includes a discount for historical surveying. Members then pay a monthly membership fee based on survey activity. As the member completes a job, GuildQuality contacts the client. The surveys are added to the account, and the member can access all the information online and generate reports.

Contractors choose from a library of pre-written questions. This allows members to take advantage of the most valuable aspect of the service--benchmarking themselves against other member companies. They can compare their results against those of members in their area or against subsets of members. "When you allow builders to share performance info, it is far more valuable to each of them;' Graham says. "Members are benchmarking against other members who treat customer service as a priority. The 93% recommendation rate among our member remodelers is considerably higher than in the industry as a whole." For more information visit www.guildquality.com or call 888.355.9223.--N.P.

NINA PATEL SENIOR EDITOR