Posted on Mar, 2nd 2013 By Charlie Scott
Do you remember the last time you received a piece of personal U.S. mail (not counting bills)? According to a recent study, the average American receives a piece of personalized U.S. Mail every six to seven weeks – and this includes birthday, holiday and other family generated cards. Wow, what a
Posted on Feb, 8th 2013 By Charlie Scott
I read thousands of customer surveys every year – THOUSANDS! This customer insight gives me a unique perspective on many home building topics, like today’s “Finding Your Special Agent 007s For Huge Sales Increases."
One of our customer satisfaction surveys' many purposes is to help
Posted on Jan, 29th 2013 By Charlie Scott
When I was part of a growing home building company we learned to be on guard for the newest “technology” coming down the pike that promised to revolutionize our home building business. We called the condition of falling for these fantastic technology claims the “allure for the sexy lady of
Posted on Jan, 17th 2013 By Charlie Scott
It is not a secret to regular readers that increasing a home builder’s customer satisfaction increases referral sales. Many home builders blow away the 15% national average of referral sales and achieve 40-50%, by virtue of meeting the customers’ hierarchy of needs and having in place a
Posted on Jan, 4th 2013 By Charlie Scott
The market bottom is clearly behind us, and this is validated by three very reliable indicators. First, annualized home starts have more than doubled from the Spring of 2009. Second, consumer confidence (and therefore builder confidence) continues an upward trend, and for regular
Posted on Dec, 23rd 2012 By Charlie Scott
There is no question that Lance Armstrong has one of the most unique comeback and sporting histories of all time. He was a little known triathlete, cancer survivor, turned seven time Tour de France winner, and founder of an extremely successful non-profit foundation, before dramatically
Posted on Nov, 1st 2012 By Charlie Scott
We all know that teamwork is an important ingredient in building great homes and great relationships with our customers. This importance is substantiated by Woodland, O'Brien & Scott studies showing that a builder's teamwork rating is a good predictor of future referral sales. Given the
Posted on Oct, 8th 2012 By Charlie Scott
Performance bonuses have been around the homebuilding industry for a long time. Salespeople earn commissions and bonuses based upon their sales productivity, and Superintendents earn bonuses for their Quality, Budget and Schedule performance. For the most part, customer satisfaction
Posted on Aug, 29th 2012 By Charlie Scott
Team sports analogies have long been used in home building for obvious reasons. They both have the common component of individual performances that roll up into team results. Home building is the ultimate team endeavor, made up of internal employees and external trade partners
Posted on Aug, 7th 2012 By Charlie Scott
Readers may recall a study I did a few years ago attempting to identify the most reliable predictor of future new home sales activity. The closest predictor turned out to be the Michigan Consumer Sentiment Study (MCSS). The trick was that you had to adjust the MCSS data six months
