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This week in home building news! Catch up with Az and a colourful array of guests, to hear about who's killing it, who's innovating, and who's getting into strife in the world of new home construction.
Az (00:17)
Good morning and welcome back to the Good Builder Podcast. It is Monday and I hope you all have a fantastic week. We've got a really cool episode today because we're gonna talk about a few things that we've dropped, a few things that we're dropping.
and also a program that we've been receiving a lot of feedback or emails and questions about. And I've actually got a meeting with a pretty cool builder in Brisbane this week about because they want to know more. you might have heard us talking about it. It is the customer experience program, and I think it's one of the most important tools that a builder can have to ensure that their business is humming and to show where they need to improve from that customer perspective. And we're going to talk about how.
You implement it and some of the top things that it does for you. So if anyone wants a bit more information, there'll be a bit more later in the show. But otherwise, you can always get in touch with us here at the Good Builder. Now, before I get into it, a big shout out to MyConstruct They are Australia's number one platform for builders and tradies. They are an Australian building construction software platform that is built by Aussie Builders.
for Aussie builders. They know the game and they know exactly what you need out there. They're taking the industry by storm and you can go and get a 30-day trial if you go to myconstruct.com and they are proud sponsors of us here at the Good Builder and we are proudly aligned with them. So go and check them out and show a bit of support. But you won't be disappointed with the product. I'm sure of that and I've heard from a lot of builders that we're put in that direction that they love it. So go and check them out.
Now, the first couple of things that I'm going to get into are a couple of reports. One that we've dropped that I would have talked about last Monday, and a lot of you out there have downloaded, and we hope it's been a lot of help. And another one that's coming up that is very exciting. So the first one is the Queensland Top 100 Builder Report. And you might have heard me talk about it last week. We put this out with Australian construction data, and the feedback, as I said, has been pretty unreal. And one of the things that we're getting back is
This is just not a top 100 report. It is everything about a read on the market, So that was pretty cool. Here's one line that sums it up: fewer homes, more money. The hundred biggest builders in Queensland wrote about six percent fewer homes than last year, but banked five percent more. You get overthink about that. The average contract was up 11.5% to 540,000.
And materials were not the only thing that moved. Now, there's three ways I would actually use this report if I were you out there. for those that download it and those that may want to go and download it, one, if you're a builder, benchmark yourself, look at the average contract, see where the panel sits, and ask honestly of yourself and your business. Am I pricing where the market's going or am I leaving margin on the table?
So that would be the number one way I would use it. Number two would be read the market before you price your next job. There's a bit of a story there. We talk about where is getting built, all that sort of thing. Have a look at the mix, have a look at the product. If the buyers are trading up and they're wanting more premium sort of product, this changes very much how you quote. So that's how I would also use it as a builder. also for suppliers.
And then three Intel, you can also see who's growing fast, what the average contract value is as we talk about, You can also see where the land is being released and approved, what's hot, where that sort of stuff is going, and where they're going to need materials if you're a supplier. So I would go and check it out. There's a bit of a map in there that I think you could derive from it, and it is an amazing.
sort of piece of intel and that is why we created it. go through it properly, but you can go and check it out and we'll put the link below. And that is a report that we dropped I think a couple of weeks ago. Now the next report that I wanted to talk about, which is very, very interesting and I think probably even a bit more interesting than the top 100, or a few of you builders out there at least are going to find it more interesting, is our Land report that we're going to be dropping. And that's going to drop in about two weeks.
And what this is going to do is get about as comprehensive as it gets. This is the Greenfield residential land across Queensland and Victoria with 25 quarters of data and 36 council areas. What we actually are doing is we're having a look at titled, untitled land, where the two land markets are going, and when you have a look at it.
They're going in completely different directions. This is a bit of a hot tip and a bit of a sneak peek for all the podcast listeners out there. Queensland land is up 90% in six years, the medium block about 485, and the shovel ready supply has really basically vanished. Some of the biggest growth areas are Logan and Ipswich, which are sitting on about three weeks of titled stock, and Victoria is the opposite.
Prices are flat and plenty on the shelf. This edition's going to go a step further than anyone else has ever gone before. And we're also going to capture the untitled pipeline. This is not just what's on the shelf today, but what's actually coming in the future across Queensland and Victoria. And if land is where the margin starts, this is the one to wait for in two weeks. And I would go and check that out.
So that is our next report that we'll be dropping and I'm sure a lot of you out there are going to be very interested in that one. And we've got to give a big shout out to Teralytics, who are our data partner on that report and have provided us with some amazing insights that we're gonna be breaking down.
Now the third thing I'm gonna give you a bit of a heads up about is a pretty cool thing where we have also partnered with another amazing partner here at The Good Builder. There's a lot of partners that like to work with us, and it is very cool. And this one's gonna be a bit more of fun. you know, we love the industry, the building game is pretty serious, and you need all that data like
talk about and we're trying to give you all this intelligence but here at the good builder we also like to have a little bit of fun and we have teamed up with one of the biggest names and tools which is Milwaukee Tools and we're giving you your chance to win something fairly cool. I'm not going to tell you what it is but what I'll say is this it is winter you're on site and this is the kind of gear that you don't know you needed until you got it.
That is all you're getting from me, and you're gonna have to keep an eye on our socials because we'll be announcing it there this week and the a lot of the competition and the mechanics to go into it will be on our social platform. So go and check us out and follow us. Again, I'll put all the link below, but keep an eye out. You'll wanna be in for this one. I think it's a very cool giveaway and a big thank you to Milwaukee Tools for partnering up with us.
Now we're to get into a bit of the media section where we've been receiving a lot of emails lately and actually a few questions. As I said, I've got a meeting this week with the Brisbane Builder who I'm more than happy to go out and have a chat about this particular program, which is the customer experience program. And obviously, if they've approached us and want to talk about it, it is because they are good builders. And I think that is really cool, and that's what we're here for. We want to make the industry better, we want to make you guys better.
We want to give you all the intelligence and tools that we've learned along the way, learn from you guys as well and girls and as well out there, and and share that amongst our community. So I hope this next section helped. And if you have any questions, get in touch like this particular person did. now.
We have gone over this program before, but I wanted to go over it properly. Of every tool that a builder can put in their business, I actually reckon the customer experience program is one of the most critical pieces of the puzzle. It's not the flashiest, I think it's one of the most important. And it's because your next job doesn't usually come from marketing.
It comes from the last client telling their mate you were good to build with. And it is a much better way to run a business. And if you can do it by word of mouth, they always say word of mouth is the best marketing. But with everything that we got going on nowadays, with all the tech and the social platforms and things like that, word of mouth can spread like hotcakes. So this is why I think this is so important. I've implemented it a lot of times in a few builders. And again, I do attribute this to a lot of GJ Gardner's success when I was there.
When we ran this program and then used the intelligence from it to run that most trusted campaign, which helped grow the business about 700 million in 12 months. So that's pretty cool. And it was all about trust. this was back in about 2017. And we're talking about de-risking a build now and what the customer wants. If you've seen our other reports, this de-risks the build and
also allows you to communicate the de-risking of how you build to the market. So I think this is the most critical piece of infrastructure for a marketing manager, marketing team, for your communications, for your business operations. Okay.
So what it actually is, is it is a program that you put across the major stages of your build and you get in contact with the customer basically at each of these stages are some really key questions that allow you to assess a few things outside of the customer experience too, including your internal team, your communication methods and what they actually think of how you are building at the moment, which is all about the customer experience program.
and typically the way we've done this is either through an automated method where we've used some sort of technology platform and we've either used text or email to get the customer experience program going and the elicit the responses back from the customer at each of these major stages when a payment claim was submitted,
or the other way you can look at it is if you make a call at every one of those stages and you have a call team and we've done it that way as well, both produce great results
And it typically gives you a good overview of the build process
And be able to address issues before they get too big Now
So, what does a proper customer experience actually do? Here's the top five for you. And as I said, if you've got any questions, get in touch and would love to go over it with you. Number one, red flag alerts. The moment a client's not happy, you know. A low score at any stage pings you straight away, and you can fix it while it's still fixable and not read about it in the Google review three to six months later. That's the number one thing that we put into the customer experience programs.
and what it should do for you. Number two, it tracks the whole journey from sales to contract, slab down to handover to maintenance, one quick text at each stage, one call at each stage, one tap for the client, and you actually get answers, So you get that whole complete journey and you're also able to assess how you do in each of those stages of the journey and where you need to maybe pick up your game or as I said, you do very well.
And you can amplify that through your marketing. So this is why I think this program is so powerful. Number three, staff scorecards. Now, when you talk about a customer experience program, most people don't think about this. They don't think about the the internal aspects and scorecards and how you can use this program to assess how your staff are doing, where they do really well, where they could potentially go into a position and do even better.
or whether they need a bit of training and a bit of help. You see each person on your team and you see how they're landing with their clients at every stage, who your customers love, where the wheels maybe come off, and that's gold for running your business and your team. And you typically don't ever see that. So that is the third thing that I think is really important for a good customer experience program. Number four, the recommend score.
An NPS score, net promoter score if you've heard of that. Sure you know if your business is actually healthy and will you be recommended? And that's when you know you're delivering a good customer service. And you can also benchmark your builds over the year and see where you fell over that entire year and and see what your NPS score is on average. And that's really important for a business. And number five.
I think I just talked about it actually, but benchmarking. Not just your own trend, but how you stack up against other builders.
And also getting that verbatim feedback from customers to say anything we could do better or what do we do really well. And that's what we did at GJ Gardener Homes. That was one of the things that we did in our customer experience program. And that question, that open-ended question with how can we do things better really made an impact on how we ran the business.
And also made an impact on how we communicated the business because when they talked about how we do things really well, we just amplified that back to the market because it was so important to the customers because they mentioned it. So we're getting it and we're just echoing it back to the market. Now, if you want more info on this, as I said, please get in touch behind the scenes. We're doing some work in this space with a few builders, as I said, and we'll leave it there for now. But if it's something you've been thinking about, we'd love to hear from you.
So there you go. That is the episode for Monday. We've got our top one hundred. We've got our land coming out.
We've got the Milwaukee Tools giveaway. So keep an eye out on that. Lots of stuff happening here at The Good Builder. We've got the customer experience program or down pat there for you to have a listen through. Listen back to it. And we're going to write a few articles on the website about it. And as I said, if you've got any questions about it, please get in touch with us here at The Good Builder. And we'd love to talk to you. And other than that, we're going to have another cracking week. Keep an eye on us on socials because there might other cool things coming out.
And we've got some great headlines for the week to keep you informed. So thank you once again for your support. If you haven't already, like and subscribe to the podcast, share it around to builders and tradies and suppliers who need it. And we will catch you next time on The Good Builder. Catcha.