For the most part, Canadians have garnered the reputation of being tolerant and passive. That is until we lace up a pair of hockey skates, or even worse, become disenchanted with our home builder. The hockey issues can be left for another discussion, but when it comes to home building, here’s an important question: “What causes polite, happy homebuyers to become raging customers?”

Granted, a few people refuse to be delighted by anything in life, and when they are your homebuyers, special skills and tactics are essential. For the most part, however, people do not make a decision regarding one of their largest life investments intending to be disappointed or confrontational.

In fact, at the time of their purchase, most homebuyers believe they have made the best personal decision for themselves and are often eager to recommend their home builder to family and friends. This really is the honeymoon stage of home building, when the excitement and newness can quickly dismiss any doubts or concerns. So what could possibly go wrong?

Well, for starters, to keep a homebuyer willing to recommend you to others there are two key components:

Superior value. The homebuyer must believe that he or she obtained superior value, be it in quality, features, price, service, or — more accurately — a combination of all of these items.

Good feelings. The homebuyer must feel good about his or her relationship with the home builder.

Like oil and gas, it truly is a “head and heart mixed fuel” that is needed to run the referral engine for a home builder. Both their rational and emotional thought processes must be positively engaged before customers will feel willing to refer others. This means that a builder that has the most comprehensive specifications and features, at the best price in the market, can still lose referrals if it is unable to make customers feel good about their relationship with the builder.

Drop the “V” and Add a “G”

If “V” stands for victory and “G” stands for the grave, you can imagine what happens when “raving” turns to “raging.” The total cost of a raging customer is difficult to quantify, but it is certain that a few too many of these can be the death of a home builder. When homebuyers go sideways without recovery by the builder, they can suck the life out of a company. They will diminish your reputation, discourage new customers, and de-motivate your front-line employees. If left unchecked, disgruntled customers can tarnish the company’s brand, reducing your ability to both obtain new customers and recruit the best employees.

The total impact of raging customers is daunting, especially when you consider the new megaphone of social media. If our previous loyalty math indicated that one unhappy customer would on average tell 11 people about his or her experience, what equation is valid today when unhappy customers can now “blog you to the brink” or “yell on YouTube” until you submit? Now more than ever, home builders must look for the source of issues causing customer disappointment, instead of attempting to treat the symptoms later.

Fortunately, most homebuyers want to remain raving, delighted customers. Actually, there is a movie and theatre term called “suspended disbelief” that fittingly applies to the homebuyer audience. It essentially means that a person willingly suspends judgment in exchange for the promise of something. For movies and theatre performances, we suspend our judgment in exchange for the promise of entertainment (no matter how far-fetching or impossible the plot may be). For homebuyers, they suspend their judgment in exchange for the promise of the home builder’s expected performance — with the key being “expected.” Their expectations determine their experience.

Fortunately, most homebuyers want to remain raving, delighted customers. Actually, there is a movie and theatre term called “suspended disbelief” that fittingly applies to the homebuyer audience. It essentially means that a person willingly suspends judgment in exchange for the promise of something. For movies and theatre performances, we suspend our judgment in exchange for the promise of entertainment (no matter how far-fetching or impossible the plot may be). For homebuyers, they suspend their judgment in exchange for the promise of the home builder’s expected performance — with the key being “expected.” Their expectations determine their experience.

“Expectation” is defined as a belief about, or mental picture of, the future. It’s a confident anticipation that something is about to happen. If homebuyers are willing to suspend judgment based on their expectations, home builders must create expectations that they are able to consistently meet or exceed.

In addition, it’s important to make sure that homebuyers’ expectations are realistic. Without educating them about the realities of the home-building process, they may expect perfection, which is impossible to achieve and sure to create disappointments.

If you had a 5-star experience at a hotel or resort that was rated lower, you’d probably tell others because your expectations were exceeded. Conversely, a 3-star experience at a hotel rated higher could still be satisfactory, but you probably wouldn’t rave to others because it did not measure up to your expectations. Again, the expectations determine the experience.

Because new customers are so excited and happy, it doesn’t seem right to dampen their enthusiasm by educating them about known issues, realities, or probabilities. Ironically, this is the ideal time to initiate these conversations. The positive relationship energy at this stage enables home builders to set realistic expectations in a way that actually reinforces the home builders’ position of honesty and integrity, thereby creating a foundation of understanding that is strong enough to support ongoing customer loyalty.

As a home builder, you know the potential problems that lie ahead for your customers, and effectively communicating these potential problems to homebuyers is like inoculating them to increase their immunity — a dose of the disease to prevent an outbreak. As the professional, you are responsible for delivering these realities to homebuyers, and by doing so you have the ability to enhance your position as their “trusted advisor.”

No homebuyers make their purchase decision expecting to be raging or unhappy customers. If your homebuyers are not raving about their experience with you, examine your own expectations for your business — as your expectations will also determine your experience.

Tim Bailey is general manager of AVID Canada, the leading provider of customer loyalty research and consulting to the home-building industry. Through the AVID system, home builders improve referrals, reduce warranty costs, and strengthen their brands. He can be reached at tim.bailey@avidglobal.ca