Are your customers telling you the whole truth?
Opal Enterprises: Using the James Hardie Contractor Alliance and GuildQuality for differentiation and accountability
October 28th, 2021 byNaperville, Illinois-based exterior remodeler Opal Enterprises was founded by company co-owner Tara Dawn and her business partner Voytek Opalski in 2003. Their mission from day one was to ensure that every customer has a “wonderful remodeling experience.” To accomplish that goal, the Opal Enterprises team installs high-quality windows, siding, and doors for residential customers.
Tara and Voytek take a lot of pride in their company’s culture and customer-first approach to the home remodeling experience. Partnering with both GuildQuality and the James Hardie Contractor Alliance gave them the communication tools to get their entire staff on the same page and continue to meet their customers’ needs.
James Hardie and GuildQuality
James Hardie partners with GuildQuality to offer best-in-class customer satisfaction surveying to its Contractor Alliance members. This long-standing relationship began because James Hardie wanted to give their Alliance members better insight into their customers’ satisfaction levels.
How does the partnership work?
As a Contractor Alliance member, you have access to a free Limited GuildQuality Account, which allows you to log James Hardie jobs so we can survey those customers (for free!) on your behalf.
The survey feedback helps you pinpoint where your company excels and where you have opportunities for improvement. (And if your company is at the Rewards or Rewards Plus tier, these surveys can be used to upgrade to the Ambassador Program.)
When you join GuildQuality to survey all your jobs—both James Hardie and non-James Hardie—you’ll receive the following benefits:
- Access to a full GuildQuality account, complete with marketing and analysis data and features
- A better, more accurate picture of your customers’ overall satisfaction levels
- Opportunities for industry-recognized awards, such as the annual Guildmaster Award and James Hardie Service Excellence Award, that help you stand out from the competition
In fact, James Hardie has so much trust in GuildQuality that they use our data to power their annual James Hardie Service Excellence Award.
Being part of the James Hardie Contractor Alliance is a fantastic distinction for your company—and being part of GuildQuality gives you access to valuable customer feedback you probably wouldn’t otherwise receive.
Unhappy customers often influence more people than happy customers. But what about the people who aren’t necessarily unhappy but aren’t really pleased, either? Those are the potential repeat customers you’ll lose if you don’t directly ask for their feedback on the work—and as Tara and Voytek at Opal can attest, that’s where being a full GuildQuality member becomes an invaluable part of your customer satisfaction process.
Standing out in the market and overcoming consumer fears was a top priority
There is no shortage of home remodeling companies in the greater Chicago area, so it’s important that Opal Enterprises stand out from the crowd. When Opal was still a relatively young company, they offered services for all exterior home needs, including roofs, but Tara and Voytek saw a need to narrow their focus.
Today, Opal Enterprises specializes exclusively in window, siding, and door installation. They only offer James Hardie siding products, which allows them the prestige associated with selling and installing a top-of-the-line product.
The company became a full GuildQuality member very shortly after joining the James Hardie Contractor Alliance.
“We were always looking for a differentiator,” recalls Tara. “I felt [GuildQuality] was a really strong third-party way to prove to homeowners that we have a great track record even though we’d only been in business for five years or so.”
As a James Hardie Contractor Alliance member, Opal Enterprises surveys every siding customer through GuildQuality as well as their window and door clients.
“We knew we wanted a partnership, and the accountability layer of, ‘Hey, we are going to survey all of your customers,’ helped us build the culture of the company.”
Tara and the team at Opal make a point of telling their customers about the survey process from the beginning of the relationship. Being open about the surveying and communicating frequently to ask customers whether there was anything they wanted to be fixed or changed has made all the difference for Opal.
“[The customer satisfaction surveying] just became a part of our culture,” says Tara. “Being a young company and needing that validity of who we were, we knew that we needed to take that culture that James Hardie and GuildQuality had offered us and expand that to everything we did.”
Customer feedback from the surveys is delivered to virtually every member of the Opal Enterprises team. Tara reports that they use the survey feedback in all of their team meetings—sales and production included. This process helps everyone in the company get on the same page about what their customers expect.
Looking toward the future with GuildQuality and James Hardie
After almost 20 years in business, Tara says that she and her team have perfected their method of success. They’re now entering the growth and scalability phase of their business. Tara plans for GuildQuality and the James Hardie Contractor Alliance to continue to play an integral part of Opal Enterprises in the years to come.
For contractors who are currently James Hardie members but haven’t yet made the move to a full GuildQuality membership, Tara highly recommends taking the leap. She makes the point that fundamentally, GuildQuality is an accountability tool. “It gives an unbiased perspective,” she adds. “It’s not me who thinks these things need to happen; it’s what the market is demanding.”
Another advantage of the GuildQuality survey process, Tara notes, is that the survey doesn’t have to be taken right then and there. People are far less likely to respond honestly to a satisfaction survey if someone is standing next to them, waiting for them to finish. The GuildQuality surveys can be completed at the client’s leisure.
This low-pressure tactic raises response rates, leaves a far better impression with the customer, and results in honest feedback.
Being part of GuildQuality and the James Hardie Contractor Alliance helped Opal Enterprises become what their customers wanted and needed. The survey feedback they receive from each job allows the team to respond to any concerns and nurture client relationships, vital components of the customer satisfaction process.
About Opal Enterprises
Learn more about Opal Enterprises, visit their showrooms in Naperville and Des Plaines, and check out their stellar GuildQuality reviews.
Here are a couple of images from their recent projects: