Translating a customer-centric vision into an actionable strategy within a home-building company can be a challenging task. Where to begin? Start by measuring and addressing the most important metrics with Constructive Intelligence Analytics.
Measure your Online Engagement alongside other builders
A key part of Intelligence Analytics, Online Engagement Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), reports on several important engagement metrics via a leader board to provide you with data insights to map your competitive position (anonymously) next to other builders using Constructive, as well as tracking how your position changes over time.
“The Online Engagement KPIs help builders identify how they’re tracking engagement-wise in relation to other builders using Constructive,” explains Nigel Stacey, Data Engineer.
“It will show you exactly where you’re improving and excelling over time, plus there’s a helpful ‘tips’ column explaining how you can improve your ranking within each metric with links to best-practice, expert recommendations.”
11 Online Engagement metrics you should be tracking, and why
1. Client Registration Rate Ensure as many clients as possible are registered for their Portal/Selections to make sure they’re getting the best possible experience and can self-serve information while reducing the number of incoming calls and emails you receive.
2. Net Promoter Score (NPS) Industry standard NPS monitored over the lifetime of each job, and across all jobs, will give you the input you need to improve your customer experience as a builder. Tracking your lifetime changes of NPS across departments and staff will deliver actionable data. You can also evaluate how your NPS ranks in relation to other builders using Constructive.
3. Survey Response Rate Collecting feedback is essential to improve processes. Continuously strive to increase your survey response rate with automated, milestone-triggered surveys and integrated reminders.
4. Jobs with Selections Loaded Aim for as many clients as possible to utilise Online Selections for their colour selections to give clients cutting-edge tools to specify the finishes of their home, anytime and from any device. As a bonus, you’ll reduce the amount of time spent in the colour meeting.
5. Selections Jobs with a 3D Model Empower your clients to see their selections on their own, individual home design in 3D, inside and outside — and from any angle. Colour and material combinations can be changed with a simple click and instantly visualised in context, giving clients a tailored visual understanding of their choices. Offering 3D Selections to as many clients as possible will improve your customer experience and engagement.
6. % Client Selections before Appointment The more prepared your clients are for their Selections appointment, the better the outcome: the more decisions they’ve made beforehand means less time in the meeting and a smoother path to finalising their choices. At Constructive, we’ve observed builders with a higher completion percentage of selections prior to the appointment have a higher average NPS score.
Aim to increase the percentage of mandatory selections your clients have made before their appointment by giving them access to Online and 3D Selections as early as possible. Include as much pricing as possible, (see our guide to Selections pricing here), to help them resolve any budget decisions at home in their own time. You’ll also want to consult with your Client Success Manager who can help you ensure your Selections template is intuitive and set up for success.
7. Average days to Selections Finalised Keep an eye on how long it takes for selections to be finalised. Allowing clients to make their selections online, and giving them access to a 3D model to test out their choices interactively in real-time means clients will feel confident in cementing their decisions, equating to fewer post-appointment changes and a faster journey to the construction stage.
8. Photos per Job A visual journey for clients to monitor how their home is coming along; downloadable and shareable on Facebook to engage their friends and family. From a client’s point of view, the more photos they receive, the better, so try to increase this number.
9. Documents per Job Allowing clients to securely access important job-specific documents at any time, from any device in a self-serve, proactive manner demonstrates transparency and efficiency. The more information you can include, the more informed, happy and confident your clients will feel, so consider uploading additional educational, static documents to assist your clients and improve this KPI.
10. Notifications per Job Industry-standard suggests your customers expect some sort of communication or update about their home every two weeks during pre-construction, and weekly during construction. With Constructive, you can automate Activity Emails every time a Milestone is completed, or a photo or document is uploaded, and Progress Emails — a mix of explaining what has happened on a client’s build, what to expect next and some educational information, triggered when a Milestone is completed. To improve the number of times you contact clients about their build, create an automated Milestone communication strategy for efficient ways to generate consistent communications and keep clients happy!
11. Client visits per Job The number of times a client returns to their Portal. Continually trying to increase this number benefits clients as they’re kept informed, can self-serve documents and information and make selections on their own terms, but it also benefits you, as a builder, through improved customer experience and fewer incoming calls and emails.
These are all accessible via Constructive Intelligence Analytics, our powerful, yet easy-to-use, PowerBI reporting application. Request your free Demo here.
Ways to improve your online engagement to achieve consistent customer service
Once you’re tracking your Online Engagement key performance indicators and have established a baseline, it’s time to look at ways to improve your metrics.
Most builders have some customer-obsessed employees but may struggle to amplify and scale their good work across the business. You can overcome this challenge and improve your numbers by:
- Embracing automated communications through software like Constructive to make sure each client consistently receives the same, excellent experience.
- Encouraging the use and continual improvement of customer metrics internally by regularly reviewing the Intelligence Analytics Online Engagement KPIs leader board.
- Ensuring you’re measuring both outcomes and customer perceptions with regular surveys.
Here are some practical tips from our experts on improving client online engagement:
Aim to achieve a 97% Registration Rate
“A minimum of 97% client registration rate will deliver time-saving benefits internally, like reduced calls and emails and educated clients who understand the full process of their building journey with you,” advises Emma Lord, Client Success Manager at Constructive.
More practical tips on boosting your registration rate:
Reduce incoming inquiries with these registration rate-boosting tips
Improve your survey response rate
Start by creating a survey schedule to make sure you’re collecting feedback multiple times throughout each client’s build.
“Surveys are best sent at the completion of large milestones where the build is typically handed on to the next division in your business”, explains Lisa Petts, Client Success Manager.
More information on what to include in your survey schedule and advice on how to increase your survey response rate:
Boost response rates with an automated survey strategy
Deliver consistent, customer-centric notifications
“Let your clients know what’s happening immediately via email every time a milestone is completed, or a photo or document is added, before they call or email you to ask with automated notifications,” says Lizzie Mooney, Client Success Manager.
“With Constructive Customer Portal, you can set triggers for your custom-branded Activity Emails to auto-generate whenever there is any activity on a client’s home, consistently keeping them informed and drawing them back to their personal build Portal — easy!”
Here are some other easy ways to automate notifications with Constructive:
Exceeding client expectations with an automated Milestone communication strategy
Embrace metrics to become truly customer obsessed
By examining your Online Engagement KPIs, you’ll have the data you need to benchmark your results next to other builders and a baseline to improve upon, ultimately reducing the amount of time spent in the selections appointment and speeding up the pre-Construction process.
