Customers for Life

Our mission is to provide single-family attached and detached housing communities in the United States serving first-time/entry level, move-up and active adult home buyers. We will be a leader in the markets in which we do business.

We will go beyond the old standard of customer satisfaction to a new standard called Customer Delight, exceeding expectations by doing right things right the first time. We will view our customers as being Homeowners for Life.
- Pulte Homes mission statement

Imagine you sold a buyer his first home in his 20s, say, a condo for $80,000. A decade later this buyer, now with family in tow, moves up to a $300,000 model with four bedrooms and three baths for all those kids. Twenty years down the road, now in their 50s with college loans for the kids paid off, the couple buys a luxury $750,000 dream house. However, in their 70s that home is too big so they downsize to a two-bedroom ranch.

Imagine that at each step of the journey, one builder offered that one buyer personalized attention from start to well beyond finish.

At Pulte Homes, that’s called Homeowner for Life. What began as a quality concept for the Giant builder in 1994 has grown into an active policy at work throughout the company’s 41 divisions.

"It’s more than a philosophy. It’s a strategy," said Alan Laing, vice president/E-Business, supply chain and customer satisfaction for Pulte Homes.

Part of that strategy means setting Pulte apart from every other production builder by selling at all price points, from $80,000 condominiums to $1 million luxury homes. "If home buyers are looking for a move-up home, we need to be building it. Most builders don’t build for all consumer groups - entry level, first and second move-ups, active-adult housing, retirement housing. We very specifically do that because we believe in homeowner for life and referral opportunity."

Offering, however, is only part of the equation, according to Laing. "Buyers must have a delightful experience - if they haven’t, we’ve failed."

Changing Culture

To create and keep delighted customers, Pulte involves every sector of the company in its Homeowner for Life strategy on a daily basis. "The cultural message we’re trying to create within the company is that the homeowner is one we value for life, and we treat them accordingly," Laing says.

"One of our lessons learned from customers is they place a great deal of value on the relationship with the Pulte employee. Given this, we have changed our hiring profiles to include a better mix of marketing and communications graduates who are by nature more interested in relationships. As it turns out, in the eyes of the customer the Pulte employee is the brand at that moment of truth with the customer," Laing says.

Pulte also does extensive training with contractors and now holds four-hour workshops to teach its trade partners basic communication skills and relationship management. Classes cover fundamental customer service practices like taking off shoes before entering the house and cleaning up before leaving.

Starting in 2002, contractors will have to be Pulte Certified before they can provide customer service in an occupied home, Laing says. "They have to demonstrate the basic technical skills to do their job and communication skills consistent with our standards. Our research and that of J. D. Power Associates has indicated that one of the biggest drivers to long-term customer satisfaction is quality of service experience. That has driven our behavior - to build a better house the first time and to be professional in servicing it."

"Our referral rates have almost doubled since 1997. In 2001, approximately one-third of our sales will be to customers who are either repeat buyers or are referred to us by friends or relatives. This helps us lower our customer acquisition cost, which is good for the business. The fact that twice as many buyers in the year 2000 were repeat or referred customers tells us we’re doing something right."

And rates are largely up because the Homeowner for Life strategy is now in place in all 41 Pulte divisions, says Bob Halso, Midwest group president for Pulte.

"All of our divisions are employing the same best practices. Tucson, Minneapolis, Las Vegas and Detroit have been doing this longer than the others and are leaders, but all are bunched closely at the top. In January 2000 we awarded 28 divisions the Exceptional Customer Satisfaction award; three years ago there were only seven. It’s a matter of consistently employing the best practice," Halso says.

Part of transforming its far-flung field operations is an organized system of information sharing among the divisions. Pulte’s computerized Uniform Service Tracking Process identifies customer service issues fairly quickly, pushes the information out to the divisions and helps managers "correct problems sooner rather than later," explains Halso. Constant Communication

"We looked at all our best practices, and what we found was those who consistently had a lot of interaction with the customer had built a relationship with a customer," Halso says.

About 10 years ago, Pulte developed a seven-step process of scheduled, face-to-face meetings between its homeowners, realtors, contracts representatives and service personnel. It’s only been in the past few years, however, that all 41 Pulte divisions have consistently practiced the process. Among other things, it includes a series of planned meetings unique to the production builder world, such as: