The rapid pace and progression of technology are shaping clients’ expectations on where — and how often — they expect to hear from you about their home build.
An automated digital Milestone strategy is now essential for keeping clients informed, but also to streamline processes internally, saving time and reducing incoming calls and emails. Here are some efficient ways to generate consistent communications and keep clients happy!
Photos, photos, photos
Clients love seeing photos of their build in progress. It’s an ideal way to provide them with a reassuring visual of progress on site.
While more is obviously better, a minimum of one photo each week uploaded to your clients’ Portal will automatically generate a weekly visual email update.
To encourage photo-taking, and find out who is performing well at keeping clients informed, you can set weekly reminder emails in Constructive to go to your Construction Manager reporting how many photos each individual Supervisor has loaded in for the week.
Frequency — how often do clients want to hear from their builder?
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.
Be pro-active, not reactive, with Activity Emails
Let your clients know what’s happening on their build before they call or email you to ask. Every time a Milestone is completed, or a Photo or Document is uploaded, you should be immediately notifying your client via email.
Across many clients and builds, this can be time-consuming and difficult to keep track of if you’re creating these manually. With Constructive Customer Portal, you can set your custom-branded Activity Emails to auto-generate whenever there is activity on a client’s build — easy!
Keep clients educated and engaged with Progress Emails
Progress Emails should include more information than a standard Activity Email and can be automatically triggered when a Milestone is complete.
To keep clients engaged, include a mix of:
- Explaining what has happened on their build
- What’s happening next
- Educational content
Here are some good examples of educational content you might want to incorporate:
- How to prepare for your colour appointment.
- What is required for finance approval?
- Video content around what to expect during the construction phase.
- Preparing for your final account, and how to make your final payment.
- Handover/Warranty pack information.
Delays between Milestones
What happens if you find you have a delay between Progress Milestones? We asked our resident expert — Business Development Manager, Steph Schumer, for her recommendations on how to keep the communication flowing when there are unavoidable delays.
“I recommend incorporating some generic, but informative, emails to be staged out throughout the clients’ build process. You can nominate these to be sent “x” number of days after a particular stage. Some examples would be referral information, testimonials from past clients, supplier brochures or even vouchers they can use post-handover,” advises Steph.
Takeaways for consistent, convenient communications
- Consistent activity on clients’ Portals to auto-generate Activity Emails
- A minimum of one photo uploaded each week
- Set up Progress Email triggers on Milestones: what’s happened, what’s coming up next, educational info
- Pre-prepare content and videos around colour appointment preparation, administrative tasks such as contracts or approvals, and generic informative emails to fill in any delays.
Ready to automate your customer centric progress updates?
Save time, automate communications and free up resources. Let clients know where their home build is at before they ask.
Get started with Constructive.
