About six years ago, Shea Homes Colorado held focus groups with its customers to determine their needs and expectations.
It’s an investment that paid off, with the homebuilding company ranking No. 1 in the J.D. Power and Associates 2005 New-Home Builder Customer Satisfaction study for the Denver/Colorado Springs market. Shea ranked No. 2 in last year’s survey and No. 1 two years ago.
“We’re really starting to understand our customers’ needs,” said Chetter Latcham, president of Shea Homes Colorado. “We’ve changed our business plan to accommodate them.”
Among the changes: Shea builds an extra week into homebuilding schedules to enable the trades and quality-assurance workers to inspect homes before they’re handed over to buyers.
“We find much better results if we walk through the house before that customer closes,” Latcham said.
The J.D. Power study measures customer satisfaction with new-home builders in 30 of the largest U.S. markets. It’s based on 10 factors driving overall satisfaction: builders’ warranty/customer service, home readiness, builder’s sales staff, construction management, quality of workmanship/materials, price/value, physical design elements, builders’ design center, recreational facilities, and location.
Shea ranked highest in six: home readiness, sales staff, construction management, quality of workmanship/materials, recreational facilities and location.
Following Shea in the overall rankings were John Laing and Centex.
Laing performed well in warranty/customer service, quality of workmanship/materials, price/value and physical design elements. Centex was strong in builder’s sales staff, construction management and price/value.
“All of our customers are surveyed,” said Rich Larson, vice president of operations for Laing. “We’ve added a couple of more touches with the customer – we have five designated times during the construction process. We just continue to build a strong relationship. There’s not a lot of gimmicks with us.”
Staff writer Margaret Jackson can be reached at 303-820-1473 or mjackson@denverpost.com.
