GuildQuality

If you’ve been a Guildmember for at least three months, then you probably know that we use our own surveying to monitor member satisfaction. We survey all of our users (thousands of them, now!) three months after the member joins, and on the anniversary of their join date in perpetuity.

We absolutely live by this feedback, and view every one of your responses as a gift. Thank you for so many excellent little presents over the years.

Seventeen companies submitted an entry for our Best Examples of Green Building contest, and voting opened today. Click here to review their work and cast your vote.

While you’re checking everyone out, be sure to click on the thumbnails to enlarge the pictures. There’s some great stuff in there.

Voting will stay open through February 29, and we’ll announce the winner on March 1st. The winner will receive a copy of Green Building: Principles & Practice, autographed by the authors — as will one random voter. The winning candidate will also have a feature here on our blog as the first ever GuildQuality Green Building Reader’s Choice Award winner.

Disclaimer: I am not a social media expert, nor am I a social media consultant. I founded and run GuildQuality. Our web-based performance reporting software helps North America’s best construction, real estate, and home services companies monitor, improve, and articulate the quality of their work. We leave the consulting to the consultants.

Over the past few years, I’ve been invited to speak a number of times on the broad subject of the Reputation Economy, and more specifically on Social Media.

People seem to think that we “get” social media here at GuildQuality, and I suppose I can see why: In 2010, we integrated GuildQuality’s surveying with Facebook and Twitter; early in 2011, we launched GuildQuality Reviews; and we recently introduced GuildQuality Maps (we also have other super cool stuff in the pipeline). But perhaps more importantly, we’ve been blogging since 2006, tweeting since the early days, and we’ve developed a decent following. Through all that, we’ve learned some great lessons about what works for us, we’ve seen what’s worked well for builders, remodelers and others, and we’ve enjoyed sharing our observations.

While preparing for my most recent talk on these “lessons from the trenches” (at the International Builder Show last week), I invested some time in the preparation of a white paper on the subject. You can request a copy here.

The white paper is entitled, “Lessons from the Trenches: How great builders and remodelers can leverage client feedback and social media to enhance their online reputation.” It’s a collection of my thoughts on the emerging reputation economy, how we “do” social media, how some great builders and remodelers do it, and some tools, resources, and links to help you go farther on your own.

So click here to request a copy. I hope you enjoy it.

Since 1995, The Hands of Sean Perry Co. has provided quality remodels, renovations and building additions to homes in historic areas throughout North Asheville. The company has been a member of GuildQuality since 2009 and earned back-to-back acclaim in 2010 and 2011 as Guildmaster Award recipients.

“When prospective clients see we are affiliated with GuildQuality, it elevates our company’s level of integrity, and adds a cushion of credibility to our name,†said Sean Perry, Owner of The Hands of Sean Perry Co. “We recently received a $285,000 project from a customer who mentioned a contributing reason for hiring our company was because we are Guildmembers.â€

Because of that ROI, Sean Perry sees the value in marketing his GuildQuality membership. The Hands of Sean Perry Co. proudly displays their Guildmember logo on the homepage of their website, includes their Customer Feedback Summary in all new client packet printouts, and streams customer comments and reviews onto their Facebook and Twitter pages.

Sean also views his GuildQuality membership as a “leg-up†within business roundtable groups. The Hands of Sean Perry Co. has been a long-time member of a Remodeler’s Advantage Roundtable, a partner of GuildQuality. His group includes 22 of the nation’s most influential company owners.

“Our group meets twice a year for a brief series of in-depth strategic conferences,†said Sean. “Throughout the series GuildQuality is a frequent topic of conversation. It’s a terrific opportunity for those of us with a GuildQuality membership to discuss our Customer Feedback Summary scores and share best practices.â€

Sean views his relationship with GuildQuality as a “very positive experience.” He embraces each survey response, review and comment as a tool for growth.

“The feedback we receive grants our team an opportunity to know what our clients are thinking, ask questions and solve problems efficiently.”

For more information on The Hands of Sean Perry Co., visit their GuildQuality Member Profile.

We’re starting a library here at GuildQuality for members of our team. What would you suggest we include?

Some background (from an email exchange with Mark Miles, our COO):

Please share your suggestions in the comments! (We’re specifically looking for business-y books and articles, but please share any book that significantly influenced your life.)

—

Update: Everything below this is an update to my original post.

Here are the books and articles folks have shared with me directly via email (we’ll go through and add links to everything later).

Alan Pinstein also shared a link to this short list.

Roy Anderson, President of Soft-Lite L.L.C., knows the power of a strong reputation. His vinyl replacement window and door manufacturing company, headquartered in Ohio, has a total of 400 dealers nationwide. The company is a five-time winner of the Window and Door Crystal Achievement Award and is also a recipient of the Friedman Corporation Customer Appreciation Award, the Window & Door Top 100 Manufacturers, and the Door and Window “Companies to Watchâ€. Roy has been recommending GuildQuality to his window dealers’ non-stop for the past two years.

“GuildQuality is simply a fantastic marketing tool that offers a way for Soft-Lite dealers to improve their service and grow sales,†Roy said. “If you’re doing something well, why not tell the world?â€

Soft-Lite boasts a recommendation rate of 91% and a Construction Quality Score of 93%. Their dealers in 2011 using GuildQuality include Guida Door and Window, Keystone Windows of Pennsylvania, Kingsford Siding Windows & Patio Rooms, Larmco Windows and Siding, Unique Home Solutions, WeatherTite Windows and Window Nation.

Roy and the Soft-Lite executive team value GuildQuality’s real-time, web-based customer feedback, citing GuildQuality’s Scorecard as an impressive tool for dealers to measure their strengths and weaknesses.

“The immediate feedback helps me identify and quickly resolve any concerns. If something is wrong I can quickly alert my dealers and their installers. Homeowners will not often say  that they’re unhappy with the worker standing right there, and that’s why GuildQuality’s customer satisfaction surveying is so important,†Roy said. “We are able to see honest viewpoints through GuildQuality’s third party service and immediately make improvements. Our customers are quite surprised that we proactively review all of our GuildQuality surveys, and, when they hear from us regarding a critical comment, it reassures them that we care about their experience with us.â€

Soft-Lite rewards their teams for consistently going above and beyond and providing outstanding customer service.

“We love to recognize and reward good employee performance,†Roy said. “Our dealers are goal-oriented and very driven to maintain high customer feedback percentages and positive reviews.â€

For more on Soft-Lite visit their GuildQuality Member Profile.

GuildQuality recently had the opportunity to honor seven James Hardie contractors with a Service Excellence Award. The award recognized those contractors who provide outstanding service and quality in the home, as measured by customer feedback.

James Hardie contractors were invited to participate in the award. The applicants’ names were submitted to GQ, who surveyed a representative sample of their customers from 2011. Survey questions included the homeowner’s feedback on the salesperson, installation process, construction quality, materials used, and whether they would recommend the contractor to a friend.

Working with James Hardie, we selected the following winners:

- Simmons and Associates
- Owen Enterprises
- LaPelusa Home Improvements
- Living Improvements
- Rittenhouse Builders
- Twin Cities Siding Professionals
- Siding Repair Systems

See below for photo taken at the Dallas conference. Congratulations to the winners!

Treehugger’s Lloyd Alter published a glowing review of Abe Kruger and Carl Seville’s new book, Green Building: Principles & Practices in Residential Construction. As it so happens, we were giving away two autographed copies of this great book as part of our Best Examples of Green Building Contest. NOTE: The deadline for entries is Valentine’s Day!

From Alter’s review:

The complete review is here.

We don’t normally exhibit at conferences and trade shows, and as such, we have very little in the way of physical marketing collateral. However, we have a bunch of events in the first half of the year that required us to produce some materials. One of the first pieces arrived today: A “popup” banner. Here it is set up, and below is the actual image.

Thanks to Southwest Exteriors for letting us use a screenshot of their member profile page, and to Structures Building Company for sharing that review via one of our own member satisfaction surveys (the iPhone screen shots are from our demo account).

We designed this one for the remodeler- and replacement contractor-focused events we’re attending. We’ll likely produce a few more, with each one more tailored to homebuilders, developers, etc. As Guildmembers, you know better than anyone what resonates with our target market, so if you have any suggested edits or improvements, please share them!

Guildmember since 2010, Customs Kitchens recently tied for grand prize at the San Francisco Bay Chapter of National Association of the Remodeling Industry’s annual awards for its complete renovation of a Bay Street home on Alameda’s Gold Coast.

The project, completed in 2010, also won a first-place award for historical preservation of a residence. The company also won a merit award in the category of residential interior renovation costing more than $100,000 for a Piedmont home.

For Custom Kitchens owners, Jerry and Joy Wilkins, restoring an entire home in their own town was an opportunity of a lifetime. Check out these articles for the full story on the award winning California home renovation:

Longtime Telegraph Avenue remodeler taker Berkeley Architectural Heritage award

Alamdea company brings older home back to its former glory

I think I’ve shared this before, but after searching for it in preparation for my IBS talk next week, I realized I hadn’t posted it anywhere here on our blog. Below is an excellent infographic describing the relationship between reviews and local search, from local search optimization company 540|SEO.

GuildQuality is searching for a Development Director. This person will lead our engineering team, work directly with me on product strategy, and, from time to time, help us recruit more great developers and designers. We’re searching for a player/coach — a person who enjoys building applications, leading a team, and thinking critically about the direction we’re taking the product.

We’re putting off some big projects until we find this brave soul, the biggest of which is a complete rebuild of the GuildQuality application. Before we launch that work, we intend to bring someone on who can embrace our culture, our product, and the wonderful history and data we’ve amassed with our Guildmembers since 2003. With all of that goodness, he or she will help us build an (even more) amazing product and an (even better) environment for talented developers and designers.

Ideally, we’ll find someone in Atlanta or Boulder/Denver, but we’re interested in talented candidates regardless of their location. If this sounds attractive to you, read more about what it’s like to work at GuildQuality, and get in touch: geoff@guildquality.com.

2/15/2012 Update: The poll is live: Vote now.

2/1/2012 Update: To clarify, this contest is open to Guildmembers & non-members alike, homebuilders & remodelers, architects & developers, commercial contractors & residential contractors, etc. Unfortunately, if you are a Rhode Islander or a Québécois, or if you live outside of North America, then you are ineligible. My apologies.

The contest: GuildQuality will feature pictures and brief descriptions of our readers’ best green building projects here on our website, and readers will vote on their favorites.

How to enter: Before February 15, email marketing at guildquality dot com at least one and as many as nine pictures of your company’s best green building project, along with a 50 to 200 word description of the project.

Voting: On February 15th, we’ll post all of the candidates’ projects, their pictures, and descriptions, and call for a vote! On March 1, we’ll declare the winner. (We’re actually building our own little polling widget specifically for this vote.)

Fortune and glory for the winner: Glory will find the winner in the form of a feature here at GuildQuality.com, along with a special Green Building Reader’s Choice Award logo for use on the winner’s website or in print. As for the fortune…

…the winner of our contest will receive a copy of Green Building: Principles and Practices in Residential Construction, a comprehensive new guidebook (it weighs 3lbs!), authored by Atlanta’s own Abe Kruger and Carl Seville. We’ll give a second autographed copy to a randomly selected person who cast their vote for one of the winners.

Lingguang Song, Ph.D, of the Department of Construction Management at University of Houston offered this review of Green Building:

So enter today! To recap:

1) Email your entry to marketing at guildquality dot com before February 15;

2) Include at least one and as many as nine pictures of the project;

3) Include a 50 to 200 word description of the work.

GuildQuality will join Southern Living magazine to kick-off the 19th year of the Southern Living Custom Builder Program on February 24th and 25th at Wild Dunes Resort, just outside of Charleston, South Carolina.

The Southern Living Custom Builder Program is a network of the South’s top custom home builders brought together by the magazine. Members of this one-of-a-kind program enjoy the benefits of being connected to the Southern Living brand, exclusive territory rights, Showcase Home opportunities, and much, much more.

Southern Livingkristen_bryan@timeinc.com by February 3rd for more information. is actively looking for new members to attend the conference, please contact Kristen Bryan at 205-445-5076 or

We are looking for a friendly and organized individual to join our GuildQuality support staff as a Member Services Representative.

The position will be focused on providing support to our existing Guildmembers. The right candidate will reply to inbound support requests via email and phone and conduct occasional training sessions via phone and web conference. Excellent organization and time management skills are required.

The position will report to the Member Services Director. All candidates must reside full-time in Atlanta.

In addition to being a strong cultural fit, candidates should have the following skills and experience:

- great communication skills, verbal and written;

- proficiency with MS Outlook and MS Excel; and

- experience in customer service is a plus, but not required.

Our company culture is results-oriented, and we are highly-focused on creating value for our members. Read more about what it’s like to work at GuildQuality.

If you know someone who would be a fit for this position, please have them send their resumé and cover letter to careers@guildquality.com.