For the 8th time in 10 years, Parkwood Homes has been honored with the prestigious Guildmaster Award.
By Simon Liu
The first week I started working at Parkwood Homes last August I got an email from Jack, president of Parkwood Homes. He was sending me, along with the rest of the company and most of our subcontractors, the survey results from our most recent Parkwood owners.
Over the next week, Jack sent everyone some more surveys from more buyers. This continues to this day, without fail, for every survey that each of our buyers completes. Each email comes with comments from Jack, for example:
“[...] these folks have been dream customers.
Pretty challenging.......
[...] we now offer the egress window option in the basement that they suggest.
[...] they obviously put some thought into this and there is some good feedback here. Let’s discuss this one Monday...particularly how we can speed up the custom pricing piece”
We spend a good amount of time in our meetings discussing the feedback we get in these surveys and how we can implement changes to improve.
It goes without saying that customer satisfaction is a top priority. About three-quarters of all our home sales in recent years have come from referrals or from people moving up to a Parkwood from within the community we’re building in. So we’re meticulous about gathering and using customer surveys to continuously improve.
Over the course of the home buying process, our buyers receive four separate surveys: one when they sign the contract, one midway through the process (around the pre-drywall walk), one on their closing day (when we hand them the keys to their new home), and one long-after closing (14 months after closing). Two of those surveys are conducted by Guild Quality, an independent third-party service that helps us standardize and aggregate the reviews.
And while we appreciate and learn from any constructive criticism that we get, we’re proud to have earned the enduring loyalty of the vast majority of our homebuyers. According to Guild Quality, industry averages for the “How likely are you to recommend this company to family and friends?” question are around 70%. Guild Quality honors homebuilders who achieve over 90% recommendation rates with their prestigious Guildmaster Award. For the 10 years we've worked with Guild Quality, we've received their annual Guildmaster Award 8 times, including this year. Here’s the top of our Guild Quality reviews page:
That level of approval from our buyers isn’t always easy to achieve. As a production builder that offers an almost unheard of level of customization, the homebuilding process has the potential to be confusing, messy, and difficult to navigate. Add to that the fact that the process often takes about a year, that this new home will likely be the largest purchase they make in their lives, and that their home will be the place they’ll raise their children, build memories, and live out their lives, and it’s incredibly important to us that we succeed in building the home of their dreams.
These surveys are the first place we look for feedback. Every part of this company, from sales to customization to construction quality to warranty, is evaluated by our buyers and we get an in-depth look at what we're doing well and what needs to be improved. Based on the survey results we can confidently make changes to help make building a home the exciting and rewarding experience it should be.
Whether you're a thinking about building a Parkwood home or have owned one for the past ten years, your feedback is critical and I promise to keep reading your feedback as long as Jack keeps emailing them to me.
Thank you.