The Importance of Omnipresent Branding After Completion
It goes without saying that the way you represent your brand to your clients from reservation through to handover is important. This is when you and your customers are in most frequent communication, and both parties have a role to play in the success of the completed property sale.
However, once move-in day has arrived and your buyers are happily living in one of your homes, instead of ending your chances for brand enhancement, there are in fact many more opportunities to promote your brand and secure your reputation as a housebuilder that buyers can trust, with three key strategies, listed below.
Increase Brand Recognition
It would be easy to assume that because someone has bought one of your properties, they are going to recognise your logo or brand name anywhere they see it.
But consider the mental stimulation and excitement that accompanies buying a new home.
This is a life-altering moment, possibly a first homeownership or an upgrade to a larger home, maybe even to accommodate a growing family or a new relationship.
It is a great privilege for housebuilders to be a part of one of life’s great milestones with their customers, but the emotional attachment to the situation can work against them if the housebuilder doesn’t put in the extra work required to cement themselves in their client’s mind.
Einstein Marketer says, ‘When you’re everywhere, people recognise your brand and when that happens, they’re more tuned into your brand message. Increased brand recognition leads to more recommendations’. So, to increase your referrals, keeping your brand fresh in your buyers’ minds is a must. But plastering your logo across everything from curtains to toilet seats is not the way to go.
And as time passes, especially once the construction is completed on site, the opportunities to increase brand awareness diminish. Developers therefore need to find ways to maintain that recognisability until the homebuyer plans to move home. And this period of time can extend further than might be imagined. Most first-time buyers (34.7%) expect to stay in their first home for 4-5 years, while the average UK homeowner moves every 23 years. This is a long time for developers to ensure their brand remains at the forefront of their homeowners’ minds.
Providing a thoughtful handover immediately convinces your homebuyer that you are a developer that cares.
This positive reinforcement not only works on move-in day, but for many years to come, each time your homeowners need to reference these materials for any information they require.
Classic Folios creates beautiful Completion Manuals, which we tailor-make for each of our developer clients in their own colours and branding. Each folio is bound in leather, fabric or synthetic material, and can be fronted with a plot specific address plate, engraved in aluminium or brass.
The opportunity to increase your brand’s presence with your buyers can also be achieved by providing added extras.
Welcome gifts can add a personal touch to your handovers that goes a long way to leave a positive impression on move-in day, and can also work as a continuous reminder of your brand. Smaller, personalised items like bespoke engraved key rings can act as everyday reminders of your brand, while something that will be used for important moments in the home, like engraved champagne flutes and food boards brings your brand into more formal celebrations.
Reinforce Brand Messaging
Coastal Digital advise that, ‘Getting your brand’s message across to customers as many times as possible can really make a positive impact on your results.’
To keep your brand’s messaging clear in your homeowners’ minds once they are living in one of your properties, it is important to keep that message fresh in their minds.
If you are a homebuilder who emphasizes community-building in your company ethos, for instance, then this should be acted upon with your homeowners. This messaging can be emphasised by organising and hosting events for your developments’ residents to get to know each other.
Alternatively, or additionally, providing a handover package that details community facilities and recreational spaces can enforce your brand as one that cares about community-building. Handover literature can provide details of all local amenities and recreational spaces, to help you enforce this message.
Similarly, our digital solutions allow you to share this information through notifications, document uploads and calendar invites. You can also communicate your brand’s messaging through the tailor-made branding we offer with our digital products.
Community-building is an example of a brand’s promise that can make a strong impact on buyers, even encouraging sales, and one that can be enhanced post-sales.
Other examples might include sustainability, which can be enhanced through our Sustainability and Community Guides.
Developers can seize the opportunity post-completion to show that their brand’s message isn't just empty promises, made to secure sales – they live by their values. This can go a long way to create brand ambassadors.
Happier Customers
Ensuring that your handover materials and aftercare practices provide the information and services that your homebuyers need and want will leave them in no doubt about your commitment to them and their wellbeing while they are living in one of your homes.
One important aspect of aftercare that can leave the strongest impression is your practices and responses when things do, unfortunately, go wrong.
Ensuring that your aftercare includes a stringent complaints and defects reporting process will set you in good stead for great reviews from customers who have had to use these services.
These processes need to be explained in the content you supply for your homebuyers. Whether that content is provided in print or online, it must detail how a customer can initiate a complaint or report a defect in clear language that is easy to understand.
Providing this information is also a requirement for any housebuilder registered with the NHQB.
Our printed Completion Manuals provide this information in detail, with instructions for homebuyers on what they must do in the event of a defect, and which defects are considered emergencies. And our residential portal, Spaciable, features a Defect Reporting tool, which allows homebuyers to immediately report any issues they need to bring to your attention.
The information also extends to details on what is considered normal wear and tear, which prevents unnecessary calls to your customer care team for repairs that the homeowner is responsible for carrying out themselves.
If you act well in a moment of worry or crisis for your homebuyers, they will remember this reaction and it will work in your favour for referrals and your reputation in general.
The ongoing reinforcement of the idea that you are a homebuilder to be trusted and relied upon, thanks to effective handovers and aftercare, can make the difference between a happy customer who writes rave reviews or a disgruntled buyer who feels they were forgotten once they’d received the keys to their new home.
Nowadays, happy customers are essential to a brand’s online presence. After all, happy customers often share photos of their new home and any extras provided by their homebuilders online, thereby marketing your homes and brand to all their friends and family. And carrying out case studies with happy customers provides excellent material that can be used in marketing on your website and social media channels.
For more information on how our products and services can enhance your brand post-sales, get in touch at: https://www.classicfolios.com/contact
