What is the value of Guildmaster?

Each spring, we announce the winners of our annual GuildQuality Guildmaster Award. Our members work hard to satisfy their customers, and this award is our way of recognizing them. Read more to find out what the Guildmaster Award is all about, why winning awards is so important, and why recipients should brag about their achievement.

What is the Guildmaster Award?

Why did it start?

We developed the Guildmaster Award in 2006 to recognize outstanding GuildQuality members who constantly strive to satisfy their customers. 

There are many sales-oriented awards out there, and companies should be proud to win those. However, Guildmaster specifically focuses on customer experience and providing excellent service, which means everything to the homeowners you serve. 

Helping contractors listen to the voices of their customers is the cornerstone of what we do at GuildQuality. Because we collect third-party feedback that is authentic and quantifiable, we knew we could identify and highlight the contractors within our network who are clearly committed to providing exceptional customer service.

Ultimately, GuildQuality members are part of a guild, as well as a part of a larger industry. We want to help raise the standard for the contracting, building, and home services fields. Encouraging all of our members to strive for greatness and achieve high recommendation scores uplifts the performance and reputation of both our members and the industry as a whole.

How do you earn the Guildmaster Award?

The Guildmaster Award is presented annually to active GuildQuality members that meet a certain threshold for survey results, response rate, and number of responses. 

To earn the Guildmaster award, companies must verify that they survey all of their customers, receive at least 20 survey responses in the calendar year for which we are looking at data*, receive at least a 50% response rate, and earn a Likely to Recommend score of 90% or higher. To learn more about the details about the Guildmaster Award, visit this link. 

For Guildmaster 2021, we looked at all customer survey responses from 2020 to determine the winners. The window to qualify for Guildmaster opens in the fall and closes during the next spring.  

There are three different levels of Guildmaster you can achieve: 

• Members who receive between 90% and 94.9% for Likely to Recommend earn the Guildmaster level. 
• Members who earn between 95% and 97.9% Likely to Recommend scores receive Guildmaster with Distinction. 
• Guildmaster with Highest Distinction is reserved for those members whose Likely to Recommend scores are between 98% and 100%. 

How do people know if you’re a Guildmaster winner?

Each spring, we publish a Guildmaster winners announcement on our blog. Winners can also order certificates to display in their offices. Additionally, we provide a press release for you to use as you see fit. Each year, many Guildmembers announce their achievement on their own blog, in their local newspaper, or on their social media pages. 

Your GuildQuality profile page also displays each year you have won the Guildmaster Award. You can embed a Guildmaster badge on your own website, to show off this award alongside other notable industry awards you have earned. 

However you choose to announce and display your Guildmaster Award, you should be proud of your demonstrated dedication to customer service. 

Why Awards Matter

There’s a lot of noise out there in the home building, remodeling, and home services industries. Many companies are bidding for homeowners’ attention, so it’s important to set yourself apart from your competition. 

Industry awards lend your business credibility, and they position your business as reliable and valid in the eyes of a prospective customer. Third-party recognition can go a long way towards building a trustworthy reputation. 

Additionally, awards represent results. Industry awards are earned, not bought, and they represent the work that went into achieving it. Your company puts effort into providing a great experience for your customers, and the Guildmaster Award is proof. 

Internally, awards can boost employees’ morale and pride. If their hard work pays off with recognition from outside of the company itself, that’s a big deal. Celebrate and brag about your team when your company wins awards! 

And finally, awards can push your company to achieve higher heights. For example, many of our members achieve and maintain higher levels of distinction within the Guildmaster Award after they first earn it.

Why Guildmaster Matters

The Guildmaster Award highlights that your company focuses on customer satisfaction. You’re dedicated to collecting and evaluating honest, third-party customer feedback. You are driven by a desire to provide high-quality work that makes your customers happy. 

Inviting a stranger to work in their home is difficult for a lot of homeowners, especially if they haven’t worked with many companies in the industry before. Unfortunately, our industry does not have a stellar reputation (although we are trying to change that, one survey at a time), so they may feel they are taking a huge risk when they hire a remodeler, home builder, plumber, etc. 

The Guildmaster Award shows that you’re an honest and reliable company dedicated to providing them with an exceptional experience. Their project and their home are safe in your hands, just like it has been for other homeowners whose feedback they can see for themselves. 

One great thing about Guildmaster is that it is included in your GuildQuality membership. There are no additional award application fees, and you don’t have to submit a bunch of extra information.

Get Ready for Winning Guildmaster Next Year

If you want to win a Guildmaster Award, it’s never too early or late to start. Make sure you’re surveying all your customers, stay on track to submit enough surveys by next spring, and keep doing what your company does to ensure top-notch service and great customer satisfaction. 

The great thing about the Guildmaster Award is that you already have the information at your fingertips that you need to work towards winning. Your surveys provide you with comment-rich customer feedback that you can review to identify areas of improvement. Make improvements to your process, your services, or whichever areas you need to, and your Likely to Recommend score is bound to improve. 

Tips and tricks for navigating the qualification process

Something you may need to work on to achieve Guildmaster is increasing your response rate. Here are a few tactics that may help you meet the response rate requirements: 

• Use our GuildQuality intro letter.
• Introduce GuildQuality during your sales pitch and/or during the job.
• Set up expectations that GuildQuality will be reaching out to survey the homeowner.

The more familiar your customers are with the idea that you use GuildQuality for customer satisfaction surveying, the more likely they are to respond when we survey them. 

Additionally, you’ll want to keep an eye on your feedback year-round. You are likely already doing this if you are using GuildQuality feedback to track and improve company performance. For Guildmaster, you’ll want to watch for survey responses that are three stars or lower. 

You can try to address these as they come up, offer the homeowner a solution to their issue, and then get their permission for us to resurvey them and ideally get a higher Likely to Recommend score on the survey. If you are able to make meaningful changes for your customers well before the deadline, that will keep you on track to earn the score necessary to qualify for the award. 

How do I get to the next level of Guildmaster?

If you’ve reached a certain level of customer satisfaction and achieved the Guildmaster level, maybe you’d like to aim for Guildmaster with Distinction next year. 

You can look at your GuildQuality survey feedback to identify areas of improvement to get your score up for next year, so you can show off your track record of continuous improvement and award-winning performance. 

If you have questions throughout the year about your progress towards the Guildmaster Award, our Member Experience team is always standing by to help. You can email them at support@guildquality.com or chat with them through the app. They can review your account and determine how you can go about improving your scores and/or response rate.

Takeaways

The long and short of it is: awards are incredibly important for your business. They help your business stand apart, represent your hard work, and encourage your company to strive for new levels of success. 

The Guildmaster Award was created to recognize you, our hard-working companies. You make your customers’ dreams become reality while striving to provide a great customer experience, and that deserves recognition. 

*If necessary, we will review data from previous years to reach 20 total survey responses.