Focus on Four Main Factors According to a study of remodeling customers by GuildQuality, a firm that specializes in customer satisfaction research for the remodeling and home building industry, four key factors affect the customer experience above all others. "We found that when a customer has a bad experience or feels that the process wasn't easier than expected, the top four reasons they list...

While survey firms do big business among big builders, most remodelers keep their customer satisfaction research in-house.

Everyone has values that they hold sacred to running a moral and ethical business. Why? They can be motivated by deep personal conviction. Others may look at values as a best business practice. Either way, if you put them in writing and integrate them into your company culture, they will produce tremendous results.

If you're paying attention to us as much as we are you, you'll notice that there are some changes in this month's issue. After studying the results of this year's readership survey, we discovered three important themes that led us to reorganize our editorial content in 2006. Based on your survey responses, we have created three distinct channels of content — Best Practices, Solutions and ...

Your average house is a very noisy place to live. Forget crying babies and vocal teenagers; think of all the fans, blowers, pumps, HVAC equipment, washers, dryers, dishwashers, refrigerators, freezers — cycling on, cycling off, all day long. Home offices and media rooms add to both the noise level and the need for quiet.

A contract is never complete. For remodelers, who are used to projects with a beginning and end, that can be a difficult concept to accept, says Tom Cooper, who teaches a contracts course for NAHB. "Because situations change, laws change and because of things we haven't thought about [yet], we continually revise these documents," says Cooper, a professor emeritus of building science at Alabama'...

JG Development of Blue Mounds, Wis., builds and remodels timberframe, post-and-beam, panelized and log homes. It belongs to Wisconsin's Energy Star Homes program and has "grown to be the company out in this area that will do anything," no matter how daunting, says owner Jeff Grundahl. "Usually I'm the first one to tell customers not to tear down," says Grundahl.

Making a sales presentation in a prospect's house allows the homeowner to be at ease and to envision the remodel on site. Getting the homeowner into your office might be a harder task, but once in the office, the prospect has fewer distractions and can see more products in person. Both approaches have advantages; Jud Motsenbocker asks remodelers John Murphy, Robert Frazier and Ph...

Building material prices are expected to remain high throughout 2006 as a result of the effects of Hurricane Katrina, according to the Association of General Contractors. Widespread shortages of natural gas and crude oil following Katrina caused a 20 to 50 percent spike in the price of PVC piping, roofing and insulation, which is expected to remain near those levels in 2006.

Curbless construction On page 18 of the universal design article in your November issue, you show a picture of a curbless shower. Our firm has been contracted to create such a shower. We would appreciate it if you have any further information or could point us in the right direction to obtain more information on how to design and construct such a unit.