Technology is constantly evolving and home builders need to be willing to adopt new technologies and empower their OSCs if they want to provide the very best experience for home buyers and stay ahead of the competition. We reached out to Paul J. Gortzig, the Director of Sales at the Bokka Group, a company committed to helping home builders create unforgettable home-buying experiences, to learn more about how home builders can use technology to have better control over the funnel while homes are being built.
Meet Paul: Paul’s commitment at the Bokka Group is to elevate the buying and building experience for home buyers. Through programs like Builder Signal and Journey Mapping, they help home builders create better efficiencies through greater production, increased margins, and a better company culture. Paul helps builders build in-house sales programs through his sales training, coaching, and mentoring services, and also heads the Online Sales Counselor program, which helps builders coach and train their OSCs.
How You Can Better Control the Funnel with Technology
Once you’ve found a buyer for a homesite, the next 8-12 months (give or take) will be spent building the property before it’s finally ready for your client to move into. So much of sales and marketing is focused solely on getting buyers to the point of putting their name on the line, but these months before closing are absolutely critical for customer experience, loyalty, and satisfaction. In a recent survey conducted by Zillow (and supported by Bokka’s research) pointed to the building journey as the biggest pain point for buyers due to the lack of consistent and accurate communication.
It’s in this gap that serious attention needs to be paid to keeping buyers up-to-date and securely moving through the funnel. Fortunately, technology has developed to ensure this is done easily, without demanding a huge amount of time and effort from your sales team.
With just a little planning, your Online Sales Concierge (OSC) can keep your buyers happy, securely moving through the funnel, and educate them each step of the way.
Why the OSC Should Be Involved in the Build Process
Before we go any further, it’s essential to understand how an OSC can assist in the build process. The OSC should act as a primary contact person for the home buyer, ensuring they feel supported and educated throughout the build process.
It’s important to remember that home buyers do not understand the process of building a home, so it’s only natural that they often feel anxious throughout the building process, wondering what’s happening when. While local home buyers often drive by to see progress, home buyers further afield often feel detached from the process, and if there’s a lack of communication, can even feel like they are being purposefully kept in the dark.
Allowing and training your OSC to be a part of the build process will fill this void – keeping your home buyers in the loop and answering their questions as they arise. This frees up other team members to focus on their roles, rather than having them stop to update clients or answer their questions.
You need to dedicate time and effort to cross-train the OSC in all aspects of the business for them to fulfill this role successfully. You need to do 30-45 days of onboarding and give the OSC knowledge of the entire home-building process so they have the confidence to guide buyers through the process. If you fail to do this, you’ll essentially simply have created a middleman, meaning your OSC will have to go to your team for answers – the secret to turning your OSC into a powerhouse for your clients is to educate them now and provide them with the right tools.
One of the best ways to facilitate your OSC is with Builder Signal.
What is Builder Signal?
Builder Signal is the easiest way to send your buyers updates on their homes. It streamlines the process and ensures they feel constantly connected and involved in the building of their dream home. The key to Builder Signal is that its proactive communication is filled with vital information about each phase of the construction process, which helps educate your buyers on what they are seeing. This is much more effective than your antiquated homeowner portal. Most current “homeowner portals” are bulky add-ons to other software and are often difficult for both homebuyers and team members to use. Builder Signal changes that.
Builder Signal allows for easy home updates in the field, offers an Administrative dashboard to track progress, and creates a website for every home. Homebuyers absolutely love their personalized website as it provides a pictorial journey of their home assembled all in one place so they can share their building journey with friends and family on social media. Builder Signal is built from the ground up for ease of use on-site, making posting construction photos a breeze. The platform eliminates the need for digging for buyer contact details and fiddling with email attachments. Buyers want simple, timely updates that give them peace of mind, and Builder Signal offers exactly that.
Strengthening OSCs with Builder Signal
Most OSCs are remote, so Builder Signal provides them a window into the home-building process, giving them the same information as the home buyers. This allows them to guide customers through the process because they can act knowing they are offering information that is accurate and timely.
Together, Builder Signal and the OSC can reduce anxiety for the buyer because they can see the home they want to purchase in all stages of construction and reach out directly to the OSC with any questions.
Implementing Builder Signal in Your Business
Home builders are notoriously traditional, and so the home builders that adapt to new technology are the ones that are going to get ahead. The home builders that have adopted Builder Signal are seeing huge success in using it to educate and follow up with buyers.
Home builders need to embrace the progressive nature of technology and include their OSCs in the sales and team meetings. By stepping outside of their comfort zone, home builders can adopt the change and allow Builder Signal to make them more efficient by putting more power in the hands of those who can best use it to improve the customer experience.
With the right guidance, OSCs will be empowered to be a constant contact for buyers, and construction and sales teams will walk homes regularly, providing buyers with the updates they crave. (And, as an added bonus, catch any issues sooner, meaning they are easier–and cheaper–to fix.) If you keep the excitement of your buyer as a priority, you’ll be motivated to implement these changes and see the increased customer satisfaction that comes with it.
Control the Funnel with Technology
Home builders can control the funnel by using technology to allow OSCs to be more effective in their roles. Builder Signal offers a platform that can make this possible by providing buyers and the OSC with direct insight into the build process. With the right onboarding, OSCs can use Builder Signal to become resident experts and help guide buyers through the building process, reducing anxiety and increasing buyer confidence. Builders who adopt new technology will be able to stay competitive in the market and provide better service to their buyers.
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