Product Reviews

I recently sat down with some clients who were keen to build a new home and I asked them how they came to their decision on who to build with?

I'm currently working with Content Living products and I've certainly been impressed with the product, the service, the reputation of the building company and the people who work behind the scenes. It's an efficient organization, that focuses on keeping costs down on the internal side of the operation, so it can pass on those savings to its clients, without compromising on the quality of the final product.

But how does a client get to see or understand that? Every builder will tout for your business and give you all the reasons why they are the better option. And with different build sizes, materials, promotions and the myriad of other stuff being thrown at you as you walk around a display village, you really have very little chance of comparing apples with apples.

These clients made it through the maze by focusing on just a few key elements - had the heard of the builder previously, which meant to them that the builder had been around for a while and would therefore be pretty safe, so far as a financial obligation. Had they heard anything negative about the builder in the media. Was the builder pretty up-front and transparent in what they were offering.

They recognized Content Living had been around for 25 years and built over 21,000 homes during that time, in WA. The display home was full of standard inclusions and not upgrades, or special promotional gimmicks. And finally, they looked on a Product Review website and couldn't find anything negative about Content Living.

Be wary of trusting all Product Review websites and even posts on some of the "real" websites. The good things they picked up about Content Living was as mentioned, no negative feedback. Obviously it wasn't 5 star reviews all the way, but what they did see was mostly 5 stars and when it was a 4 star, a genuine interest as to what we could do to make the experience better for the client, based around what they had noted. In other words, the ability to "listen" and a desire to "improve"!

They also noted that some builders were offering incentives to clients for their review, which they correctly assumed skews the persons thought pattern and ultimately the review. Secondly, a lot of responses from some of the other builders were defensive and bordering on argumentative, when they received a negative review. In addition to this, they also noted that most builders replies were coming from a nameless "online team", or similar wording. Content Living was always responded from the bloke at the top - Gino Bastow - in person. Which they correctly took to mean that the overall level of accountability throughout Content Living would have to be significantly higher than with other builders.

A great result for the clients and we're now on the way to providing them with their dream home in lovely Baldivis.