Customer Service Tips

In August, new home customer service professionals from all over the country gathered in Las Vegas for the ninth annual New Home Customer Service convention. Manny Schatz, principal of Professional Builder Services in Danville, Calif., and a speaker at all nine conferences, shared how important builders' sales staffs are to the customer service effort. "Everybody in the organization is a sales ambassador to the public, reinforcing the buyer's decision and increasing customer referrals," he said.

Schatz also offered these customer service recommendations for salespeople:

• Walk inventory homes weekly or more to keep abreast of status and condition.
• E-mail digital photos of construction progress to customers. This not only fosters good customer relations, but it also keeps visiting traffic down on weekends, freeing salespeople to greet new customers.
• Conduct weekly status meetings between sales and construction staffs to review progress, challenges and the inevitable difficult personalities.
• Remember that construction, customer service and sales are all co-dependent on the other. "Neither one is more important to the customer's overall satisfaction than the other," said Schatz.