Delivering the ‘Beazer Homes Difference’

For over 50 years, Beazer Homes has conveyed an unmatched passion for building quality homes throughout the United States. When you begin to peel back the layers of what makes their business so successful, you find that the secret to all that Beazer has accomplished is rooted in the very simple principle of doing right by their home buyers. For Beazer, investing in service has become the single most important piece of what they call delivering the Beazer difference.

“We’re buying land in great locations, we have a wonderful product, we’ve implemented programs like Mortgage Choices and Choice Plans, but there is no differentiator with a greater impact than customer service,” explained Kathi James, Chief Marketing Officer for Beazer Homes. “That’s why we focus on exceeding expectations in every customer interaction. We can only convey our quality and commitment to service through our actions.”

Mrs. James’ goal to better the experience of everyone Beazer encounters has led the company to become a member of GuildQuality. Today, Beazer Homes relies on GuildQuality’s customer satisfaction surveying and performance reporting to keep a finger on the pulse of their performance with leads, prospects, and ultimately their buyers.

“GuildQuality has become such a valuable part of our business because we’re able to get clear, actionable, real-time feedback about our performance at the key points of our sales, building, and warranty processes. We’re only as good as our leads, prospects and buyers say we are,” said Chrissy MacInnis, Customer Experience Manager for Beazer. “We have a better understanding today of how they feel about our company, and our delivery of service, because of the unbiased responses captured by GuildQuality.”

Performance reporting has become a meaningful part of the Beazer company culture. The entire team including Allan Merrill, Beazer’s CEO, reviews weekly and monthly survey reporting, “Focus and accountability are core values that drive our company.” said Merrill, “The GuildQuality survey results show us where we excel, so we can share those practices company-wide.  They also show us our areas of weakness, in real time. This allows us to identify problems quickly and react immediately.”

“On a monthly basis, corporate reports on our four key metrics for each division. The divisions are then able to see how their specific division performs compared to their peers, and what role their performance played in Beazer’s overall satisfaction average,” said MacInnis. “Our Division Presidents have embraced GuildQuality. When we initially implemented the new survey system, we set our system notifications to email copies of completed surveys with scores below benchmark to our Division Presidents. They quickly recognized the value of the data and requested to receive email copies of all completed surveys for their respective divisions.”

Chris Heal and Bruce Craig are two Division Presidents who have become GuildQuality power users. Mr. Craig, the Division President for Houston, utilizes GuildQuality’s iPhone app to stay up-to-date on his location’s performance scores.

“If we’re not receiving a satisfied or strongly satisfied response, my team and I want to know what’s going on. The feedback has really put an emphasis on the importance of follow up for us.”

Mr. Heal sees value in the speed at which he sees feedback from his Myrtle Beach leads, prospects, and buyers. It’s helped him to quickly identify any areas of weaknesses, and helps the team respond to those areas in a more sophisticated manner. In addition to reviewing every survey, Heal and his entire management team meet to discuss their feedback every month. This has helped them to focus on enhancing their product offering and overall rapport with leads, prospects, and buyers.

“My team and I have had two major revelations. We realized what we’re not presently doing, that we should be doing, prior to the one year mark with our customers. We also learned what our prospects love about our communities,” said Heal. “We implemented a proactive contact point for all of our customers at the eleven month mark of our relationship to ensure any issue, or unresolved task, has been addressed. We learn so much from the survey comments, we even purchased additional property in the same location our prospects raved about.”

With regards to raving fans, the top 10 home builder has plenty. Just take a look at the many positive comments from Beazer home buyers. The ability to publish responses that reflect the Beazer difference has been a welcomed sales tool for Becky Boucher, their Orlando Director of Sales.

“We’re working with a more educated buyer today,” said Boucher. “Years ago, their first encounter with our brand occurred when they arrived at one of our communities. Now when they step into our community, it’s in essence the second or third time they’ve encountered our brand because they’re researching online. Publishing comments from our survey feedback, which back up our commitment to quality, provides a level of authenticity that really resonates with our leads and prospects.”

That credibility is helping Beazer as they continue to grow into one of the nation’s largest home builders. And while the uniqueness of their commitment to energy efficiency, flexible Choice Plans and Mortgage Choices make them appealing, what truly differentiates Beazer is their sincerity toward building not only durable homes, but also enduring relationships.

For more information on Beazer Homes, visit www.guildquality.com/BeazerHomes.