One of the most common responses to this question is …. ‘We get the site manager to do it’. And our heart sinks at that remark. He may be a nice chap, but he is probably the worst choice a developer could make when it comes to a professional handover.
As developer you have just invested anything north of £200K building someone’s new home and you’re going to let a man in muddy boots handle the handover? It has to be horses for courses, otherwise why wouldn’t BMW save a load of time and money and just let one of the workshop mechanics hand over your brand spanking new series 5, instead of investing in smartly suited men and women who have been trained for this very task.
Clearly the site manager will know everything there is to know about how the property has been constructed, the features and benefits of its design, how to programme the heating etc, etc. of this there is no question. BUT it is all about presentation, packaging, and how you say what you say. Why don’t Apple just bung their latest i-phone in a cheap brown paper bag, it’s still the same i-phone? Because if you are about to part with £850 on a mobile phone, you expect, you need, you desire the sort of experience a beautifully crafted and superbly designed box delivers. It is all part of the evolution of consumerism.
Otherwise, why do we spend sizeable sums to design, decorate and furnish houses and apartments and call them ‘Marketing Suites’? Why don’t we do what we did in the ‘60s and just paint the newly plastered walls white and hand it over ‘as-is’? Because we have all moved on and these things now matter. They matter like a ‘shrinkage crack’ matters to a purchaser – we all know that it’s not important and that over the first few months of occupation, more will appear, and the property isn’t going to fall down as a consequence. But the purchaser doesn’t want to see them when they move in – they want as near to perfection as we can achieve. This is one of the reasons why a contractor isn’t the best person to inspect a property before it legally completes, because they struggle to accept that what may be nothing much to them, can be a big turn-off to a consumer.
So, who best to handle the handover? A smartly dressed man or woman, trained to do this very specific job. They must look good, be well turned out, have sound product knowledge, be friendly but at the same time professional. They need to welcome the purchaser to their new home and when they leave and hour later, have confirmed in the buyer’s mind, all the good reasons why they purchased that property from that developer.
Home Demonstration is a very important service element, and After Build conduct hundreds, if not thousands of them every year. Get it right first time.
Want to discuss your needs further?
Call Mark Fawcitt (Director of Customer Development) on 07342 037810 or Email: markf@afterbuild.com)