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Canadian Home Building

Managing Customer Expectations with Inoculation

Preparing home buyers for potential problems is a great way to maintain customer delight.

The field of medicine has long known that a small dose of a disease can immunize against a full-blown outbreak. Similarly, home builders can use the concept of inoculation to administer a dose of reality to ward off dissatisfaction with home buyers. In fact, inoculation is an essential technique to manage customer expectations and increase homeowner delight. Like modern medicine, the concept of inoculation used by home builders needs to be well understood and properly administered in order to provide an effective prescription for customer loyalty.

Designing for the 2011 Canadian Home Buyer

Many “tried and true” home design features are fast becoming “tired and through” in the eyes of Canadian home buyers.

A home is the largest purchase most consumers make, and the recent economic roller coaster has prompted Canadian home buyers to reassess priorities, change preferences and scrutinize every detail to make sure their new house fits their evolving lifestyle. For Canadian home builders, the need to understand what design features buyers truly want is more important than ever.

AVID Canada Announces 2010 AVID Award Winners

Canadian home builders rated for Best Customer Experience

Reids Heritage Group – Sherwood Homes Collingwood, with headquarters in Guelph, ON, has won the 2010 AVID Diamond Award – Best Customer Experience in Canada, with 100 percent of its homeowners responding that they would recommend their builder to others. Reids Heritage Group – Sherwood Homes Collingwood was also named the No. 1 builder in Ontario and No. 1 builder with fewer than 49 closings in Ontario. Sherwood Homes’ two communities in Collingwood, Georgian Meadows and Silver Glen...

Employment’s Impact on Housing

Does housing activity increase employment or does employment increase housing activity? Either way, you can’t have one without the other.

The drop in July employment brought the national unemployment rate back up one-tenth of a percentage point to an even 8 percent. While this still remains a marked improvement from the August 2009 high of 8.7 percent, it is a long way off from the pre-recessionary lows that hovered at 6 percent or less. Similar to employment, housing activity has clawed its way back, though it remains well shy of the boom days of 250,000 or more starts.

The financing freeze for Canadian residential developers has thawed considerably with the economic recovery, but it’s still not back to pre-recessionary “business as usual.”

It’s time for the Canadian government to address the financial burden it imposes on new homeowners, rather than just bemoaning the shortage of affordable housing. How much money does a Canadian home buyer need to earn just to pay the government-imposed charges on a new house?

Like a sports fan, home buyers don't intend to be disappointed, much less openly criticize their builders. They show up positive and ready to praise. So what can go wrong?