Over a quarter of homes completed by British housebuilders now have homeowner’s feedback reviewed by the builder via a valuable online customer satisfaction report, according to new figures released by NHBC.
Following targeted efforts by the industry to drive up standards, the number of builders using NHBC’s unrivalled customer satisfaction reports has doubled in the space of just one year.
Major companies including the likes of Barratt, Taylor Wimpey and Persimmon are among the 21 firms now taking advantage of the system. Between October 2012 and September 2013, these builders reviewed feedback from over 28,000 homeowners – an increase of more than 17,000 from the previous year.
Introduced in 2004 in response to the Barker Review, NHBC has been carrying out homeowner surveys and analysing the data for over nine years, sending out over 100,000 satisfaction surveys a year at eight weeks and nine months after legal completion.
The eight-week survey results are used to power the annual HBF five-star rating scheme, which have resulted in huge improvements in customer satisfaction, with the number of housebuilders scoring over 90% - and therefore achieving a 5 star rating – on the question “Would you recommend your builder to a friend?” rising from one in the first year of the survey to 22 builders last year.
Last year, NHBC launched a new online platform which enables builders who take the reports to easily review their feedback in much more detail than before and also compare their customer satisfaction levels with those of their rivals.
For builders, there is also the opportunity to add a number of bespoke questions to the surveys, allowing them to tailor the questionnaire to meet their specific requirements, be it to find out more about the sales team on site, customer services at head office or running in issues following completion.
Mike Quinton, Chief Executive of NHBC said: “The big increase in builders using our customer satisfaction surveys is a clear sign of how seriously the industry takes the views of new homeowners.
“Customer feedback is one of the best ways to ensure builders use their time and resources effectively and helps to drive up standards across the board. Builders are using our unrivalled system to readily access their homeowner’s feedback, drill down into results on a site-to-site basis and benchmark themselves against their rivals.”