ULTIMATE BUYING EXPERIENCEIn a continuing effort to keep first-time buyers such as Bergin happy and manage their expectations about the experience, Ideal Homes has implemented a steady stream of customer service programs over the years—focus groups, surveys of past buyers of Ideal's homes and those of competitors, and a customer service coordinator who maintains regular contact with buyers before, during, and long after the closing. Based on feedback from all these channels, as well as that of the sales staff, Ideal Homes revamps one of its product lines each year to bring it closer to prevailing customer desires. A good example is Ideal's former entry-level Medallion line, which shed its vinyl siding exterior for brick, in its transformation to the new Classic line.
Visit an Ideal model home, and you'll be greeted by a sunny “new-home consultant,” who mirrors the early 30s age profile of the company's typical buyer. Before touring the models, you'll first get an orientation on a large touchscreen plasma display, installed new in 2006, that provides essential information on the surrounding community, Ideal's track record in the industry, and the quality, design, and energy efficiency of the home. “The touchscreen does a great job of showing our innovations and sets us apart from other builders,” says sales consultant Jennifer Seale. “Plus, we can update the images as we add new features and programs.”
Does it work? “About one in eight people who visit our model homes end up buying,” says Ideal's 30-year-old marketing director Steve Shoemaker. He and his wife, Jama, bought a Kingsley model in Valencia.
And once a family decides to buy, Ideal is adding new tools to make the process easier. In 2006, the company opened a 4,500-square-foot design center just 10 minutes from Will Rogers Airport. There, under one roof, buyers can view and choose virtually every option, inside and out, that they need in their new home: brick façades, exterior doors and lighting, appliances, flooring, cabinets, and more. “With all the choices they need to make, people's eyes tend to glaze over,” says selection center coordinator Beckie Neff, “so we typically work with them over three visits.”
Buyers can also supplement their trips to the design center with visits to Ideal's Web site, where a new “Builder Vision” option lets them decorate their home and try out different options.
All closings will soon take place in a new office area adjacent to the design center. Ideal runs its own mortgage company and offers a gamut of programs, ranging from 100 percent financing to a new lease-buy plan that lets a family rent an Ideal home for up to a year until they raise the needed down payment or pay off bills. And if a move-up buyer's efforts to sell a home stalls, Ideal will buy it at an agreed-upon price based on current market value, as determined by an independent appraiser, with no agency commission.
These and other programs, such as a “guide to homeownership” with plenty of details on maintenance concerns, have combined to steadily increase the level of buyer satisfaction. Company surveys show that the share of customers who say they would refer others to Ideal has risen from 86.3 percent in 2002 to more than 95 percent today. Typical is Russ Trafford, who heard about Ideal from colleagues when his company transferred offices from San Jose, Calif., to Norman, Okla., the south suburban community that is home to the University of Oklahoma and Ideal's headquarters. “We looked at a couple other builders, too, but Ideal was the clear choice,” says Trafford, who adds that he got “twice the home at half the price” of his San Jose space, as well as the “best-built home I've ever owned.”
THE PEOPLE FACTORInnovative programs aside, Ideal's senior managers will tell you that the quality of its people—both its employees and its trade and supplier partners—is the chief reason for the company's torrid growth record. Every job candidate goes through five hour-long interviews with staff, a three-hour work-history interview, and a thorough check of references. Once hired, employees must attend financial literacy courses, which explain Ideal's operation and the impact of each worker's job on the company's success. Attend those sessions and, whether you are a custodian or a leading salesperson, you qualify equally for quarterly profit-sharing pay-outs, which in 2006 were projected to total about $12,000 per employee, according to Gene McKown.
It's all a part of the company's open management style, which Ideal adapted from the “Great Game of Business” program. “Nothing can improve unless it is first measured,” notes CFO JaRee Stambeck, “and we are very open about sharing with the employees all the details on how we are doing on closings, revenues, and other important details of the business.”
That same open-book approach drives co-owner Booze's relationship with the vendors and construction trades. For example, Booze shares Ideal's annual strategic plan with key subs and vendors and has formed a trade steering committee that meets monthly to discuss sales, construction activity, and quality assurance issues. In addition, he is introducing a new online “Web Information Services” site, where Ideal's building and vendor partners can check progress on jobs, as well as track purchase orders and payments. Each day, Ideal's building superintendents download new information into this system from their PDAs, so crews and suppliers have the latest information.
Says Booze, “Our culture is to communicate and to help our partners get what they want, which is steady work, fair prices, clear specs, and job-ready building sites.”
Rick Ogle, a principal of Brewer Carpet One and a supplier for a decade, says Ideal has gone out of its way to educate its building partners and help them integrate the same kinds of efficiencies and management practices that the builder has implemented in its own operations. Adds Ogle, “They've taught us all to never be satisfied with our success.”
And no one battles apathy more zealously than Ideal's senior managers. Every quarter, each manager takes on an important “rock” or task that must be completed before that three-month period is over. Among fourth quarter 2006 goals: a thorough study of every development in the metropolitan area to assess the market; preparations for certification under the NAHB's National Housing Quality program; and development of the strategic marketing message for 2007.
Meanwhile, with the company's solid record of achievement, public builders have come calling. But for now, says Gene McKown, Ideal is quite content to pursue its “big, hairy audacious goal” of 95 percent employee and customer satisfaction and steady annual sales growth of 5 percent (the increase was nearly 30 percent in 2004). “We feel very fortunate,” says Vernon McKown. “We're in a business where we make people's dreams come true, and we're pretty good at it.”