Moments of Truth

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It's after hours. Hammers are dormant. Electric saws are sleeping. All that can be heard is the sound of a woman's heels pacing deliberately across hollow plywood floors. Stacy stalks the skeleton of a home that's into the framing process. Like radar, her eyes search out clues to help her decide. "Hmm, this one is clean," she says aloud to herself. No sign of hamburger wrappers, beer cans or unidentified water marks. Even the wood shavings are swept up. Stacy reasons: "If the home looks this clean in the early stages of framing, this builder must really care about the quality of its work. This is going to be a quality-built home." For Stacy, this is a moment of truth.

Moments of truth are everywhere in every business. For example, airline passengers might think that coffee stains on the fold-down trays mean the airline must not do good engine maintenance, so the plane might not be safe to fly. When the front desk makes a personal call to guests' hotel rooms 30 minutes after they've arrived to make sure all is well, guests think this hotel cares and it probably will be a pleasant stay. When a store clerk smiles and greets you by name on your second visit to the store, don't you think this is a great place to shop? Moments of truth leave impressions - for better or worse.

Let's go back to the building site with Stacy. The investigation continues. Her eyes glide up and down 2x4s and come to rest on the freshly drilled holes for the electrical conduit. "Wow, those holes are precise." Her eyes follow a line of 2x4s drilled with a similar pattern of careful workmanship. Stacy reasons, "If these holes are drilled with such accuracy and precision, and they eventually will be hidden by the wallboard and paint, I bet the things I can see will reflect real quality workmanship." This is another positive moment of truth.

What is a moment of truth? It is any episode or event in which the customer gets an impression of the builder's products, service or people. Nothing is neutral about a moment of truth. It leaves a positive or negative impression on the customer's mind. Moments of truth can build or destroy trust and confidence in the minds of prospects and homeowners. Moments of truth can and often do dictate buying decisions. Moments of truth become word-of-mouth advertising.

Stacy was part of a home builder's customer focus group and is a real-life example of the kind of thinking a prospect can go through. Stacy had visited many sites after hours looking for clues that would help her determine the builder with whom she would invest her limited time, life savings and ultimate trust to help build her dream. Based on several key positive moments of truth, she purchased from the builder with the clean work site and carefully drilled electrical holes. Sounds like a happy ending, right? Wait -- there's more.

Stacy is getting settled into her new home. One day she is relaxing in her comfortable, well-appointed living room when she suddenly notices that the brick around the fireplace is decidedly crooked. She calls the builder's service department and, after a visual examination, the service manager agrees that the brick has to be torn down and rebuilt … another moment of truth, but of the negative variety.

A couple of days later, Stacy is standing in front of her home talking with neighbors when she notices that the brick over her garage also is crooked. The service manager again agrees that the brick is evidence of poor workmanship and unacceptable. "Don't your people use a plumb line?" Stacy asks.

"Sure we do," the service manager replies. "Look, we'll tear it down and make it right."

The next day, Stacy is watching contractors re-brick the face of the garage and notices they are not using a plumb line. A few days later, she is looking out her kitchen window watching contractors build the house behind hers and notices that they, too, are not using a plumb line … yet another moment of truth. Stacy says, "When you spend this much money on a home, the brick should be even, and the builder should be straight with you."

Regardless of whether customer perceptions are in reality correct or completely inaccurate, customers carry these moments of truth in their head. They tend to personalize them. Moments of truth are like a report card in the customer's mind. They can make or break a sale. A series of moments of truth tells a story and, in the minds of homeowners, helps create builder reputations ... favorable or unfavorable.

Moments of truth are not limited to things; they also can include relationships:

It is the final walk. Well-appointed in every detail of dress and mannerisms, the new homeowners are standing by the pool with the warranty technician. A hand waves, and the wife's expensive sunglasses leap off her face and sink to the bottom of the pool. Not wasting a second, the warranty tech strips to his boxer shorts, dives in and retrieves the sunglasses. The husband pulls out his digital camera and takes pictures of the drenched warranty tech. This incident leaves an indelible impression on the new homeowners. They can't believe the depths to which this builder's people will dive. This delightful moment of truth spreads like wildfire throughout the community.

Moments of truth happen everywhere. For example: doing what was promised when it was promised, returning calls, scheduling, greeting, response times, appearance, handshakes, eye contact, listening and so on. A moment of truth is any event or episode that creates an impression of the builder's products, service or people.

A builder president walks up to a model. Alongside him is his superintendent, who is busy talking on his cell phone. As the president looks around, he notices a burned-out floodlight, some trash behind a shrub and several other minor things that prospective homeowners easily could observe. He notices that the superintendent is oblivious to these potential moments of truth.

Later, in a meeting on quality, the president recalls this incident. He explains to his team: "Whether you are walking through the development, the office or in the midst of homeowners, occasionally put your cell phone down and look around you. Really pay attention to the impressions we are making as a builder. Try to put yourself in your homeowners' shoes and see what they see, experience what they might experience as moments of truth. Avoid seeing them as lot number 640. We do this every day, and things can become routine. We have to keep remembering that, for each of our customers, buying a home is a big deal, and even the little stuff matters to them. We should never minimize their issues, however inconsequential they seem to us. We can't control what the prospects and homeowners think. What we can do is become even more aware of the scores of potential moments of truth. Whenever and wherever possible, let's create positive impressions by exceeding customers' expectations and simultaneously be observant of when we might be missing the mark in our customers' perception. In doing so, every day in every way we will create scores of positive impressions that will make this organization stand out in the mind of its customers and employees."

What about you? Are you paying attention to the impressions being made in your communities? Do employees, managers and trades understand the concept of moments of truth? A moment of truth can build or destroy relationships with customers, contractors, trades, suppliers and employees.

Daron Powers is senior associate and director of quality programs at TrueNorth Development Inc., a consulting and training company in Northville, Mich., that specializes in residential home building. E-mail him at dpowers@truen.com [1].