Actionable Feedback

Randy Banks has been building in Mountain Air Country Club in Burns-ville, N.C., since its inception in 1990, but only in the past two or three years has he enlisted outside help to survey customer satisfaction.

When his company grew from 15 to 60 homes in four years, the systems he had in place did not keep up with the change in volume. Customer satisfaction suffered, and he partnered with customer service consultant and surveyor Woodland, O’Brien & Associates to turn Mountain Air’s customer service system around.

The new survey is very thorough, Banks says, with questions about every step of the experience, including mortgage, contract, design center, warranty, timeliness and willingness to refer.

As important as the shift in content was that the third-party survey made buyers more comfortable and candid, and gave the company specific, trackable, actionable feedback.

Although Banks has access to raw survey data in real time via Woodland, O’Brien’s password-protected site, he looks only at a comprehensive report twice yearly.

Banks relies on his director of construction to update him monthly of any “bombs”. Lately there have been few, with a 93% willingness to refer rating and satisfaction with home at 95%.

The trades respect feedback from a third party more than they respect complaints from Mountain Air. “Now the conversation is not whether the feedback is right or wrong,” Banks says, “it’s what we’re going to do about it.”