By Deborah L. O'Mara
One of the biggest mistakes builders and remodelers make is not sharing customer information across their own organizations. Instead, they "run with it for their particular task," says Steven Lewkowitz, professional services director, Pivotal Corp.
This tactic, he says, results in an organization that cannot effectively deal with prospects and customers, which reduces productivity. Steven, whose company develops customer-relationship-management software products, specializes in working with homebuilders. He also heads up the Technology Workgroup of the National Association of Home Builders Business Management and Technology Committee.
Steven says builders and remodelers need to examine the information coming into their organizations and establish one point of entry. CRM software is one way to automate the information so that everyone in the organization can use it to deal proactively with customers.
As soon as a prospect calls or accesses the website, a standard series of questions triggers the process. Information is gathered and entered into the database as the relationship progresses, resulting in a record of all interactions with the company and the corresponding results.
"It starts with the sales process," Steven says. "Sales personnel ask a series of questions, and the answers to those questions are input and shared. This is how we begin to establish 'customers for life.' We have initial information on them as prospects and what their needs are, so we're ready when they become customers," he says.
Remember the Information Highway?
Another cost-effective way to use technology to communicate with customers is the Internet. Pivotal's research has found that 70 percent of homebuilder prospects made initial inquiries through websites. "It's another way to share information, and it's much less expensive than other forms of advertising," Steven says.
Other tools to enhance productivity include:
- Lead profiling. This segments customers by such categories as demographics, lifestyle and price. It also identifies customers' initial requirements.
- Lead captures. Automate lead capture and tracking from sources that include Web promotions, newspaper and trade ads, realtor activities and visits to showrooms and remodelers' offices.
- Portals. Create portals or roadmaps on your website to let clients get information about their projects. Other good uses for your site include option selection, quoting and design-center information. Even service requests can be automated.
- Surveys. Conduct surveys of presale and post-sale customers. Automatically schedule surveys for prospects. Request client-satisfaction surveys after the remodeling is finished.
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