The overwhelming majority of new home buyers are happy with their new home and would recommend their builder to a friend, results from the latest industry customer satisfaction survey released show.
In total, 84% of respondents (down from 85% last year) would recommend their builder to a friend with over 90% saying they would buy a new build home again - satisfaction levels that compare favourably with any other product or sector.
The survey is one of the largest of its type undertaken in this country. This year over 90,000 surveys were sent out, an increase of 61% on three years ago reflecting the significant increase in the number of homes being built. 56% of forms were returned, and the results cover the 12 month period from October 1 2015- September 30, 2016.
The industry is recruiting and training tens of thousands of new employees to ensure it has the capacity to deliver even more high quality new homes over a sustained period. A huge amount of work is going on within individual companies to drive up standards whilst a HBF group comprising CEOs and senior managers is looking at the specific issues of customer service and build quality, which are also on the agenda of all other relevant HBF member meetings.
The survey measures a number of areas including whether the home was completed on time, the cleanliness of the home on move in day, the information provided about the home and the layout of the home. The decision to recommend or not is thus based on individual buyer subjectivity and a combination of all factors in the new home buying process and the home itself.
Stewart Baseley, Executive Chairman of HBF, said: “These results clearly demonstrate that consumers are overwhelmingly happy with the service and product that house builders are delivering. However, clearly there are instances when the industry does not get it right and recognises the need to do better.
“As output increases the industry faces a huge challenge to ensure it maintains and improves its track record on customer service and build quality. To ensure it has the capacity to do so it has been recruiting heavily and is putting in place processes that will allow it to recruit and train tens of thousands more people in the coming years.
“Housebuilders remain committed to delivering the high quality product our customers quite rightly expect, and responding appropriately when issues arise. The vast majority of customers are already happy with the service and quality of their home but the industry is determined to deliver even higher levels in the years to come.”
