There are some things that I think the resale community does better than us, things that we in the home builder industry can learn from. One of these is the idea of building a customer for life.
Too often we sell a home one time, to one customer, a wham-bam transaction with some reactionary customer service for a year.
What would it take to make a buyer love our brand enough to buy again when they moved up in 5 years, or moved down in 15? What would it take for them to want to refer our homes to all of their friends and family?
When Buyers Pay More
When I started my career in new home sales in the early 90’s, I worked for a small, local builder who had a tremendous reputation. He built the kind of homes that people happily paid more for (compared to other homes), even in a recession. Our homes were touted by resale agents as holding their value more than other homes simply because of the name. People talked about owning one of our homes with the same pride that they might use when talking about owning a high performance car, or a well-balanced stock portfolio. There was a pride of ownership. Not just of owning a home, but one of our homes. We built for both entry level buyers and move-up, but we sold on quality.
As employees, turnover was lower because we felt that we were part of something special. Even if we weren’t getting the highest commissions in our market.
About the time that I joined that company, it was in the process of being bought out by a national builder and the work of creating a legacy home builder brand gave way to corporate ideals. It brought a lot of positive changes, but something was lost as well. The national builder was an East Coast presence in a West Coast market. There was no name recognition. Buyers (and employees) questioned if quality would be maintained. The trust had to be rebuilt.
Home builders who have a lower level of recognition and trust are more likely to have to compete on price to win a sale.
Today, most of us within the industry are at pretty much the same place. We all have to rebuild (trust), reinvent (product and process), and re-inspire (our internal customers). In the decade ahead we all have the same challenge and opportunity to rebuild trust and create customers for life. Customers that generate referrals, repeat sales, testimonials, and – if we can get all touchy feely for a moment – a deep sense of purpose for the work that we do.
Is the person buying a home from you today the same person who will buy a larger home from you for their expanding family in 5 years, or who will help their adult child buy their first home from you in 20 years, or downsize and retire with you in 30 years?
If not, what would it take?
