FIND YOUR DREAM HOME
The homebuilding industry is so competitive and the incentive to cut corners and lower prices so great for builders, that when companies go above and beyond to ensure that the quality of their product exceeds customers' expectations, they deserve to be recognized.
Today, Mattamy Homes falls into that category. The builder, which has developments in Southern Ontario, Ottawa Ontario, Calgary Alberta, Minneapolis Minnesota, Phoenix Arizona, Jacksonville Florida and Charlotte North Carolina, has been awarded the prestigious J.D. Power award for Highest Rank in Satisfying New-Home Buyers for the third consecutive year!
Each year, J.D. Power and Associates conducts a survey of new home purchasers across Canada to rank all builders by customer satisfaction. They ask questions to evaluate companies like Mattamy in 8 different categories, which are, in descending order of weighted importance: Home readiness, construction and site teams, warranty service, sales staff, price and value, physical design, home quality, and design centre.
This year, Mattamy scored 893 out of a possible 1000 to top the field, with industry-leading rankings in all 8 categories. Congratulations are in order - a three-peat victory in customer satisfaction is truly something to be proud of!
All Builders Continue to Improve
Another point worth mentioning about this year's survey results is that overall customer satisfaction has increased across the board for all builders for the 4th straight year as well. This is great news for consumers!
"Builders should feel proud of their achievements in satisfying new-home buyers over the past four years," says Mark Thibeault of J.D. Power. "The majority of builders -- not simply a select few -- have contributed to this overall improvement, which bodes well for homeowners."
The questionnaire also asked respondents about their primary source of information on builders and their products and the most overwhelming answer to this question is telling, if not entirely surprising: recommendations from friends, family and colleagues. The study also found a clear correlation between those who rated builders a 9 or 10 out of 10 and those who were willing to provide a recommendation for that company to friends and family. (Again, not rocket science here.)
"When prospective buyers are in the market for a new home, they look to a trusted resource to assist with their decision-making resource," says Thibault, "and those builders with a track record of high customer satisfaction performance will have a distinct competitive advantage in a softening housing market."
It is great to see that builders here in Canada are taking customer satisfaction really seriously, and that homebuyers are willing to repay the best of the best in the industry by referring them to their friends and family. After all, for all the talk you'll see on this blog outlining innovative ways to find new home information on the web, you still can't beat good old word of mouth recommendations when it comes to finding a builder you can trust.
Here at NewHomeAssociation.ca, we strive to provide the most comprehensive information about new home developments in Ottawa (and soon other major markets.) In light of this study, however, do you think we could improve our existing offering by providing an area within each model profile for clients to leave testimonials for builders and their products as well? We'd love to hear your feedback, so please let us know what you think in the comments!
Surprising how a company that illegally(code) wires a furnace to close a deal, trys to build on land covered in human waste and illegally dumps landfill gets these awards. For more, visit:
http://oakvillehomes.wordpress.com/
@RamblinThoughts - I've been over to your blog and while you do make some good points, it seems to me like you had one bad experience with Mattamy and have gone on a bit of a negative publicity binge as a result.
When I was searching for a new home in Ottawa last year, I found Mattamy to be the most helpful and supportive throughout the searching and decision process, and since purchasing, I really have found their after-sale service to be impressive. As far as I'm concerned, that says a lot about a company, because it's so easy to just ignore your customers after you already have their money!
Based on my experience, if JD Power had called me to ask about my opinion of Mattamy, I would have rated them highly as well. I don't see how you can question the ethics of JDPA (as you do in one of your posts) for reflecting what a proper sample of homebuyers expressed as their opinions of Mattamy (and other builders.)
No one said Mattamy was perfect or aything close, and like in all industries, I'm sure all builders push the limits from time to time to try and make more money... that is the name of the game after all. No, that doesn't make it right, but it doesn't make them evil incarnate either as your blog would imply.
Basically my point is that this survey was meant to measure Mattamy's customer satisfaction and clearly their customers were satisfied, so why shouldn't they enjoy some recognition for that fact, despite whatever other issues they may face.
Just my two cents (or dollars maybe...)
James Redley
Kanata Ontario
@Ramblin and @James - Great points, both. I would be interested to hear from someone at Mattamy to get their side of the story in terms of alleged code violations, etc. there are always multiple sides to every story, of course.
At the end of the day though, I have to agree with James that the JD Power survey was meant to measure the overall satisfaction of new homeowners and we don't really have any reason to believe that the questions were dishonestly worded... certainly if money or some other corruption were involved, there are builders with far deeper pockets than Mattamy who could buy the prize!
Consumers gave their opinions, JD recorded and published their findings, and we're just reporting it here because we believe customer satisfaction - especially post-sale - should be a priority among all builders.
Daniel Smith
Editor
New Home News
You both make good points and yes, I'd be hard pressed to prove any corruption in the results of the survey. What I have a problem with is that Mattamy used illegal wiring, unethical sales techniques and put my family at risk in order to close a sale. As well, the Town of Oakville allowed this to happen. We were not trying to get out of the sale, actually liked the house but this and other issues I am not allowed to tell you, made the experience bad. When a home builder does illegal and dangerous things to close a deal and no one cares (town of oakville major recipient of donations), yes I do find a survey company painting them in a postitive light to be somewhat wrong. I guess it is whether or not you feel that ethics are a part of business and whether or not a business can use such practices to close a sale at the risk of the buyer. I do appreciate your opinion and I'm not the only one with bad Mattamy experiences..