You are the owner’s first impression. Make it a good one by providing an exceedingly excellent customer experience.
What is Customer Experience? 
Customer service and customer experience, though related, are not the same thing. Customer service is when a company provides support for a product or service and is a single touch point in the customer’s journey.
Customer experience, however, is how your clients feel about your brand, product, or service throughout the entire process of working with you from when they first learn about your company to the lasting impression they have once the project is finished.
Customer experience matters more than ever. Eighty-six percent of customers will pay more for a product or service if they believe they received a “superior customer experience.” (Adobe)
Why is Customer Experience Important?
The customer’s experience when working with you has a significant impact on your company’s growth and revenue. Positive customer experience can lead to repeat work and referrals.
Your clients’ experience will shape how they talk about a project.
Preconstruction’s Role in Providing Exceptional Customer Experiences
Tamara Altom, Project Estimator at Benchmark Construction says, “one of the main roles in preconstruction is you really are in charge of the client’s experience from beginning to end.” You are essentially selling your company throughout the life of the project. But how do you do that?
Gather Information
Tamara calls it “hard” and “soft” information. This is information about the company that you can gather from the internet and by asking the owner questions like who are their primary competitors, who are their end users, what is the size of their company, how do they define a successful project, what are their future goals?
She says don’t just ask the business questions either. Get to know the person. How do they like to work? What is their communication style? Some owners want to know every single step in the process, while others only want updates on major milestones. “You have to be very adaptable,” says Tamara.
Communicate
John Reich, Precon Geeks preconstruction podcast host and Customer Success Leader at Beck Technology says, “We’re there to tell a story to the client and that needs to be in a language they can understand.”
Tamara agrees. She suggests asking the owner what their level of experience is with the building you are building. You need to communicate with the owner on their level, in a way that they understand things.
Ask them for more information like what the driving factor is behind their ideas. Once you meet them where they are, you can explain to the owner the reasons behind why you are making certain project decisions in a way they understand.
Bring the Owners in Early
Benchmark’s preconstruction team builds successful relationships with owners by bringing them into the project in their early stages. Tamara says this is a large part of the customer experience because precon can catch problems before they arise, saving the owner money and helping keep the project on schedule.
And at the end of the day, owners want a GC that will finish the project on time and on budget.
One of the keys to providing customer experiences that owners will rave about is to continue the relationship. There’s never a stop to your involvement. Having the information you need, communicating, and bringing the owners in early will help you become that trusted advisor owner’s trust.
The best projects are ones where the owner walks away having a good customer experience.
Tamara and John discussed how precon can provide an excellent customer experience on an episode of Precon Geeks preconstruction podcast. To listen to the entire episode, click the button below.
