Doing What You Love

When I started my home building business it was because I loved the process of building homes. I liked meeting with customers and helping them create a plan for a new home. I liked talking through what they needed – some call it sales – and helping them select the floor plan and features their family needed.  I loved helping them establish a plan and setting into motion and interacting with the customer as their dream took shape – some call it building the home - and became reality.

I was terrifically fortunate because I almost always had great customers. The ones I could not make happy I fired. Yes I fired customers more than once.  And I loved introducing the customers to their new home – some call it the final walk-thorough. I even enjoyed helping the customers learn to manage their new home.

Then came my companies growth and over time I became isolated from the customer and the construction process.  The only time I heard from a customer was when there was a problem and they were already angry. Because I was isolated from the customers the ones that I would have fired were now the only ones I was dealing with. The bigger the company got the more of my day was tied up with these customers. They were to be sure a small minority but it is the 90/10 rule; Ninety percent of your problems come from ten percent of the customers.

My employee were doing what I loved and started the company to do and I was handling the problems. So I reinserted myself in the process. I did a preconstruction meeting with every customer. I also scheduled regular interactions during the process so I could talk to the customers; a pre drywall inspection and a final walkthrough. Even if I did not do the entire walk-through I made sure I was there.

And I made sure I visited each construction site every week whenever possible.

I started having fun again. I got to know the customers so if there was a problem they did not meet me for the first time under stress. I could identify customer and construction problems before they became bigger problems.  

You cannot do everything but that does not mean you cannot do some of the things you love. It will keep you excited about your business. If you look back on the early days of your company as the fun times recapture some of that feeling. If you are excited it will show and infect your employees,  venders and even your customers.

Original Content Copyright 2011 Thomas Robinson