By Marcia Jedd
Leading design elements that drive consumer satisfaction with home builders were revealed recently at the 2007 International Builder's Show in Orlando, Fla. Avid Ratings (formerly NRS), a customer-loyalty management firm based in Madison, Wis., presented along with Bassenian Lagoni Architects of Newport Beach, Calif.
Paul Cardis, CEO of Avid Ratings, explains the company mined its national database of thousands of building customer surveys and randomly select nearly 1,550 surveys for analysis. "We did a quantitative analysis about the comments that buyers made about what they liked most about their home."
Heather McCune, director of marketing for Bassenian Lagoni Architects, joined Cardis to outline the following as the seven design elements that are most important to consumers:
1. Floor plans matching lifestyles. "Know the customer. Start with close attention to the floor plan," McCune said. She said an element of surprise in a home equates to delight and memory. For example, a dramatic entryway makes a home memorable. Plans that seamlessly move living between inside and outside rooms are popular. "Find ways to minimize garage dominance and separate the human entrance from the car's," she said.
2. Light-filled floor plans. Brightness and open design are a given in many home layouts. "The study confirmed the need to include natural lighting and open floor plans," Cardis said. Think vaulted ceilings, large windows, and side and interior courtyards as well as ways to define spaces without walls.
3. Cohesive community/lifestyle. "Customers want a community and the house. Master-planned communities are here to stay," Cardis said. Amenities such as trails and parks matter.
In addition to offering valued features, McCune said developers can evoke a true community feel by creating both a sense of arrival and an identifiable neighborhood with hardscape and signage.
"Also create a clear pattern of circulation for cars and pedestrians," McCune said. In many new communities, developers are featuring cul-de-sacs that act as a village green, replicating that small-town feel.
4. Street appeal. Street appeal has to be strong. McCune said: "Use architectural variety in style and color, and again, remember to eliminate the garage-dominated street scene." Leverage architectural elements of the home to add excitement.
5. Kitchens. Kitchens are a key selling point for many homes today. "These are among the rooms that matter the most on organization and flow," McCune said. A vast variety of shapes and sizes of kitchen islands are replacing the kitchen table.
6. Master bed/bath. McCune noted the "wow factor" in a variety of materials and textures both in the kitchen and the master suite. "Master baths are featuring dual everything and even vertical spas that use multiple showerheads, water diverters and temperature-control systems to replace the traditional whirlpool," McCune said.
Master suites are also showcasing fireplaces and TV/entertainment areas.
7. Storage space as king. "There can never be too much storage. Small solutions count," McCune said. Use of cabinets outside of the kitchen is increasingly popular.
Multi-unit housing has special considerations that emerged from the research. Privacy is particularly important to these homeowners, McCune said, "The overall goal is to preserve the best attributes of single-family detached living in a more dense type of housing." She noted separate entrances can encourage privacy, and inside the home, flex spaces and his-and-her dual retreat spaces are popular.
Cardis said that the importance of community and street appeal was a surprise research finding. "It's more than just a floor plan that satisfies the customer. Builders just doing homes on single lots are going to have a harder time delighting buyers, because they can't really address the community development and neighborhood aspects."
"The moral of the story here is the builders can go far when they assess their buyers' needs and determine what they want," Cardis concluded. In return, builders get lower cost of sales by increased referrals, improved margin potential through better customer relationships, and strengthened brand identity via word-of-mouth advertising.
Marcia Jedd writes frequently about design and construction issues.
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