 S&A
Homes’ Case History
From an Interview with Dave Grimm
Vice President of Business Operations
S&A Homes is one of Pennsylvania's leading full-service
general contractors for residential, multi-family, industrial,
and commercial construction. S&A Homes currently serves
Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and has built over 10,000
homes in the past 30 years.
CUSTOMER FOLLOW UP began working with S&A Homes in
1998. Executives at S&A Homes originally contracted
with CUSTOMER FOLLOW UP because they wanted to improve
their customer service. At the time S&A Homes had a
customer satisfaction level that hovered in the mid-80s.
Marc Warren of CUSTOMER FOLLOW UP began by meeting
with the executive staff at S&A Homes. Through extensive
research into the company and by talking with S&A employees,
Marc developed a list of 37 questions to use in a phone
survey with S&A customers.
Marc and the staff at CUSTOMER FOLLOW UP moved forward
in a timely manner with the survey and succeeded in
maintaining a very high rate of contact and completion,
generally obtaining information from 80% to 95% of the
customers they were to contact.
The results of the phone survey were eye-openers for
the staff at S&A Homes. Several ways to improve their
products and their customer service emerged immediately
from the reports supplied by CUSTOMER FOLLOW UP. First,
customers wanted more thorough inspections at the time
of completion of their new home. Second, from a simple
customer service perspective, customers wanted their
phone calls returned more quickly when they had a concern
during construction or after they had moved into their
new home.
By implementing some basic changes suggested by the
CUSTOMER FOLLOW UP data, S&A Homes was able to improve
their customer service dramatically. The next year S&A's
customer satisfaction marks rose to 96%.
S&A continues the relationship with CUSTOMER FOLLOW
UP, contracting with them every year to survey their
new customers. CUSTOMER FOLLOW UP's data has led to
better customer service and a better end product.
Dave Grimm of S&A Homes believes they provide much
better customer service now—and much of that improvement
is thanks to the information they received through CUSTOMER
FOLLOW UP.
|
Since
we began working with CUSTOMER FOLLOW UP, our
percentage of happy customers has risen appreciably.”
