The No. 1 Complaint About Your Builder

According to a recent survey on Zillow, 32% of homeowners identified this as their number one complaint, and I’m about as surprised as I was when the sun came up this morning. It’s an issue I’ve been talking and writing about since I started Albatross Academy, because it’s so pervasive in the construction industry. There are precious few builders who do this really well, and the ones that do, are usually elite builders, and if you read until the end of this blog, I’ll tell you why.

Communication Breakdown

Yes, maybe it’s predictable, but the irony is stronger than the smell of regret in a McDonald’s restroom. With so many ways to communicate, POOR COMMUNICATION is the number one complaint of homeowners about their builders, ahead of their projects going over budget and schedule. WHAT?? Homeowners care more about being kept in the loop than they do about their money and their time??? While I believe that these three issues are all wrapped up in one big shmozzle of pain, that still takes me aback for a second. But If I think back to my own experiences, this is absolutely the case. Clients absolutely HATE feeling like their project is happening TO them, that they have no agency, like this is a runaway train that has started down the track, they just pay massive bills every month, and then at some point, the builder tells them when it’s over. That is the most helpless feeling for homeowners and it’s so unnecessary. To be clear, I’m not talking about builders who take a deposit, and then stop answering their phone. That’s a crime. I’m talking about builders that don’t communicate very well, leaving their clients to wonder if their build is on time, on budget, and if the builder needs anything from them at all. So why does this problem persist if it’s such a big deal?

Born This Way

The root of this problem is actually very simple, and it comes down to who a builder is at their core. At the risk of oversimplifying or generalizing, we can put builders into one of two buckets. The first bucket contains builders who started in the carpentry trade as an apprentice, because they wanted to build things. They like being outside, they like working with their hands, they don’t like being in an office at a desk all day looking at spreadsheets and sending emails, that seems like a job for chumps. They work for years on the tools, as they gain more experience, they work with their boss or owner more closely, and they take on more responsibility, then one day, the light bulb goes off and they realize they could be doing all the same tasks, but make way more money and have the flexibility of their boss, if they started their own company. And so they do. They get their first clients, usually starting small, doing small additions or renovations, then they get approached to build a custom home or better yet two, and here’s where things get funkier than James Brown. Now they find themselves sitting at a desk hopefully looking at spreadsheets and answering emails all day. There are two things that can go wrong here. Number one, they often HATE it. They were born to build things, not sit at a desk making phone calls and looking at a screen, remember? Number two, they’re often not good at it. They’re builders, they’re not real estate agents, or sales people with a client base they need to massage (figuratively). When they’re apprentices, their bosses don’t tell them “this is how you make clients feel valued and seen.” They tell them how to build things. So when you combine the fact that they HATE doing it, and aren’t taught how to do it, you have a recipe for disaster.

The second bucket of builders contains builders that come from another industry where the client is viewed as a customer in a retail sense, OR a builder that has been trained well by a great builder. They understand that if they want the goodwill of a client, they must a) do a good job building the place, b) keep the project on budget and schedule, and c) make the experience enjoyable or as close as possible for the client. A builder who can do that will never be without work. In making the experience enjoyable, communication is a critical piece. Clients want to feel informed, valued, and part of the process, and only reaching out when there’s major news to share, or worse yet, only bad news, will weaken the trust in the relationship.

All Systems Go

If you’ve ever been in a romantic relationship for long enough, it’s not enough to just say “we need to communicate better,” as we have a tendency to revert back to our old habits around communication, I’ve been told. I’m speaking for other guys, not me obviously. Knowing my default mode isn’t to overcommunicate both personally and professionally, I have to set up systems to manage and regulate my communication, and this is what I advise clients to do. If your builder gives you a stare like you’re explaining quantum physics when you ask what their communication plan is, then you’ll likely need to drive that bus yourself. What you want in a communication plan is to follow the RIM Method.

RIM Method

The RIM method refers to the regularity, information, and method of your communication. The Regularity refers to the frequency of your communication, how often do you want to be updated on the project by the builder? Everyday isn’t reasonable, there won’t be enough change to warrant information exchange. Every month is too long, too much happens, and you’ll be too late to change course if need be. I would advise clients to schedule communication every week, no less than every other week. Friday is a good day.

The I is for Information, and this is where you’ll define what information you want to know in this weekly communication. To be clear, these shouldn’t be budget meetings, those should be monthly. In this call/email/text/site meeting, you should know at minimum: what the crew got done this week, what’s coming next week, and what budget/schedule implications are as a result of the crew’s work that week.

The Method is how you want this information communicated, is it a call/text/email/site meeting? This is very much up to you, the client, but my preference is for a site meeting, Friday afternoons. Bring beers, donuts, gatorade, whatever, make sure it’s viewed as a positive experience, reinforce positivity, and you’ll get positive vibes back. If you do a site meeting, make sure someone types up a synopsis of all things discussed, and decisions made and emails this to all present. You’ll be amazed at how many site meetings end with many things discussed, but nothing decided. Ask for definitive answers to your questions.

The critical piece here in implementing systems is to stick to it. Once your builder agrees to what you’ve proposed in the RIM method, don’t let them lag. If they’re not in the habit of regular communication, they won’t like it at first, but as I found when I started doing this with clients, it made me step up my game as a builder, because I had to examine the project and have answers for the clients, that I otherwise may not have investigated. It became part of my ritual as a PM, to be constantly reviewing my projects, through that lens.

So this is my remedy for the number one complaint of homeowners for their projects. If builders can get this right, they will incur a lot more grace from their clients if the project is trending over budget and schedule. It will feel like a team effort, like everyone wants the same thing and it’s a collaborative effort. Most importantly the client feels a sense of agency, and not like just a bystander flushing money down the toilet.

Thanks for reading, if you have any questions or comments, reach out at aaron@albatrossacademy.ca