In the third blog of our series on how ICI Homes earns such eye-opening customer service ratings — a sparkling 96 percent as of this writing — let’s review East Central Florida Division President Samuel D. Morrisett’s Part I summation of how we approach customer satisfaction.
“There are three things that are critical,” Morrisett says of customers’ expectations. “They want the home they choose to be built on time, they want it delivered 100 percent complete at closing, and they want timely warranty service.”
Let’s use Morrisett’s stomping grounds as a case study.
Walking the talk
Like all our divisions, East Central Florida is super-busy these days.
Among our master-planned communities, Mosaic in Daytona Beach is early in its estimated 10-year buildout of 1,200 homes. In Port Orange, Woodhaven is new to one of Volusia County’s hottest residential spots. Two decades into its existence, Plantation Bay Golf & Country Club in Ormond Beach continues to expand, offering new townhomes and single-family homes.
Per Morrisett, repeat Plantation Bay buyers often exemplify ICI Homes’ priority on customer service. Homeowners there often seek, “an upper-end custom home. Then we’ll build them a jewel box — smaller, 2,500-square-feet, but loaded with options — then they’ll want a low-maintenance townhome.”
The key, aside from doing the job right the first time, is data.
ICI Homes uses a third-party source to survey customers four times during the building process. Surveys happen at mid-construction, 30 days after closing, five months after closing and 11 months after closing.
“The one that we get the highest response on — 30 days after the home closing — that one, our division is at 96 percent,” Morrisett says of ICI Homes’ rating. “That is truly exceptional, we believe, especially when we have so many parts and pieces.”
It’s not easy to nail consistent customer satisfaction in custom home building. ICI Homes doesn’t build assembly-line products, but its commitment keeps customers coming back.
“The strategy to build a high-quality product that’s focused on what that customer wants, has always been a component,” Morrisett says.
Our process
Another valuable customer-service tool is ICI Homes’ internal attention to quality.
Per Morrisett, each build goes through a complex design-center phase. Once construction begins, regular meetings between construction managers assure consistency and early problem-solving.
Other employees pass the same information to buyers via weekly status updates — what happened last week and what’s projected the coming week.
There’s also an internal quality assurance manager. Their primary job is to confirm that builders in the field are executing on each home.
Another advantage is employee retention. Morrisett says many co-workers have been with the company for more than 20 years. Many are ICI Homes customers themselves!
“If we take care of our internal customers, they’ll be in good shape to take care of our external customers,” Morrisett says.
Ready for your new custom Florida home? Talk to ICI Homes here.