This year at Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, The Grand SAM Award was won by Geranium Homes Limited of Markham Ontario. They had also won the award for the best single detached home over 2,200 square feet in the production category. The Grand SAM is presented annually to a CHBA builder member for combined excellence in both the building and marketing of new homes.

“It is a pleasure to work with such a customer-centric organization who places the customer firmly at the core of all decisions, firmly where it should be. It is an honour for our team to wear the Crystal Creek Homes name,” Caswell.

“Crystal Creek Homes is honoured to be awarded the Gold HOME Award from Caswell and Associates. It is truly a testament to the quality of our product, our focus on customer service and the passion of every member of our team to build our customers’ dreams. Recognizing the importance of the product we produce keeps our team focused on putting customers first and making their vision come to life. We will certainly continue to build exceptional homes for our customers as Crystal Creek Homes grows for the future,” Krista Kerth.

The room of over 350 attending delegates responded with mixed emotion. Excitement and shouts of support could be heard, while others looked quizzical about the sheer logistics alone. Some laughed and joked, while others dismissed the idea as quickly as it was presented.

“I’m serious”, Bazely said. Suddenly, the room drew silent.

“We’re hoping to attract 250 Ontario home builders to the Caribbean island in November 2011 to spend a week on a humanitarian building project through Hero Holidays. It was my daughter Melissa who inspired me with the idea. She has been participating in humanitarian projects in both Haiti and the Dominican Republic through a student program”.
Bazely has an uncanny ability to take a vision and turn it into reality.

What was it all about?
The main goal of the 2011 OHBA Humanitarian Build and Conference was to build six houses for needy families living in a very poor barrios (called Aguas Negras) around the Puerto Plata area. This would be accomplished through an outreach program in conjunction with Absolute Hero Holidays.

Who was involved?
A plane-load of OHBA members and their families departed from Pearson International Airport and flew directly to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. Once there, participants were divided into teams of 15 people per work crew. Those teams worked on-site in shifts, some double shifts, to successfully complete the projects in 5 days.

How did it go?
It was an exciting event for our members to take advantage of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and make a difference. James inspired us and for some, it changed their lives while others were motivated in other ways.
C.Caswell & Associates would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who participated in the event, and/or supported us through your generous donations. Over the next year, we will recount each day of the Humanitarian build with photos, video footage and stories from the participants’ perspective, to share with you the profound impact that the experience has had on our lives.

We are also pleased to recognize three more builders receiving the 2011 H.O.M.E. certification:

• Halminen Homes, Courtice, Ontario
• Holitzner Homes, Ottawa, Ontario
• Avalon Master Builder, Calgary, Alberta

The H.O.M.E. certification is provided to any of our new home builder clients who maintain a superior customer satisfaction score throughout the first year of homeowner occupancy, as rated by their customers. To qualify, builders must also receive a significant sample size of survey responses. Please join us in celebrating these outstanding homebuilders for making a positive impact in our industry.

For more information about the Homeowner Mark of Excellence(TM) (H.O.M.E.) certification and awards, please contact C.Caswell & Associates (CustomerInsight) at (705) 252-5314.

It was four years ago that a punishing recession officially began. The financial pressure drove many companies out of business, while the survivors generally adapted and got stronger.

KB Home. Stock decline: 46 percent. This California-based homebuilder has lost more than $2 billion since the housing bust struck in 2007, and analysts surveyed by Capital IQ are predicting another money-losing year in 2012. The company has slashed costs, targeted higher-income buyers, and refocused on smaller homes and innovative energy-saving technologies. But KB remains concentrated in several of the hardest-hit housing markets, such as southern California, Nevada and Arizona. With a housing recovery not likely to start until 2013 or 2014, at the earliest, the next 12 months look like another grinding year. – Rick Newman, Chief Business Correspondent, U.S. News.

No … it requires lots of work. And all too often, it’s easier to do just the opposite … “Think Like a Sales Person”. Thinking like your customer means plotting a chart that will capture their agenda at each step of their shopping process and matching it against your selling process. Jan Carlzon, author of Moments of Truth, did the same thing years ago while he was at SAS Airlines. Simplistically, he looked at each point in his “sales” process where employees might come in contact with their customer. Next, he polled customers in order to understand what they expected at each predetermined touch point. From there it was easy for him to develop an “easy to execute” satisfaction (contact) plan.

Think what might happen if you could match your departmental processes to your customer’s expectations at those points in their home buying process. And on top of that … think how different you would be compared to all of your competitors. Thinking Like a Customer To start “thinking like your customer” you need to begin by asking yourself the following question, “What are my customer contact points?” In other words, what are the major points that you come in contact with your customer. I’ve provided an easy way for you to think about it with some examples. Your “contact point” list can be shorter or longer … it’s up to you. Let’s use the sales process as an example.

Here goes:

• Advertising-Home
• Phone
• Office
• Model
• Office
• Spec Home
• Home

Next, and be honest with yourself, decide what your customer wants to accomplish at each of these contact points. In other words, what is their agenda? Let’s use your customer’s arrival at your sales office as an example for some the questions you might ask yourself.

• What’s my customer’s overall agenda for their visit?
• How do they want to feel when they first arrive?
• Do they want me to begin with a business or non-business agenda?
• What do they want while spending time with me in my sales office?
• What do they want from me as far as my sales process?
• What would make them want to talk to me?
• What would make them want to listen to me?
• What do they expect during their entire visit?
• And the list goes on …

I know it’ll be easy to justify that your customer desires all of the things that you already do, but are you being honest with yourself? Take rapport for instance. I know rapport is important to you, but ask yourself, “Is rapport important to my customer when they first arrive”. If you think through it, you have to say, “No”. Customers don’t want to build rapport with you when they first arrive because they don’t even know if they like what you have … and that makes it a waste of their time. This means that you have to think “out of the box” and decide what they do want. The answer is Comfort.

Customers will only “take” what they need at each point in their shopping process. And in terms of the steps leading to a relationship … they look something like this:

• Comfort
• Rapport
• Trust
• Relationship

This is called a relationship model. And as customers progress deeper and deeper in their shopping process, they’ll actually want to progress deeper and deeper in this model. Want proof? What’s your customer’s agenda for their first visit? Is it to see if they want to buy a home from you? The answer is no. They’re trying to decide if they want to include you in their “Keep” pile. In other words, if you are going to be one of the two to three “finalists” for more comparison as their decision process moves forward.

And that means one thing:

Your customer doesn’t need Rapport … Trust … or a Relationship to decide if you should be one of their two or three finalists. All they need and want is to feel comfortable. It’s this kind of “out of the box” thinking that will allow you to revamp your sales process and make it a “give and take” proposition for both you and your customer? Remember, this doesn’t mean that you have to give up your sales strategies. On the contrary. “Thinking like your customer” means adjusting your sales process to match your customer’s agenda. You’re after the same results … but in a faster and much easier manner.

Remember, with today’s market and today’s customer it’s important for you to look for every advantage you can get. As always … the choice is yours. Good selling.

In Jan’s most recent role as Customer Experience Director, she worked in a strategic capacity to improve the customer experience across all departments – from land planning through to warranty. Jan was instrumental in the success of many initiatives that have resulted in greater efficiencies, higher referral rates, decreased warranty costs and year-over-year improvements in customer satisfaction results.

We are delighted that Jan has joined our team as we continue to grow in the Canadian Homebuilding Industry.