Moneynetmortgagesearches If a minor complaint ignored can turn into major disagreement, then no wonder smart housebuilders are using this principle to offer customers help with small matters on the grounds that this should lead to a high level of satisfaction. Up until two weeks ago, they had lived in the same house for 35 years and it was not without some anxiety that they planned their move from Watford.”I knew that we could call on the services of a handyman during our first week but as I am fairly good at DIY I didn’t give it too much thought. But because I have never dealt with cavity walls before and I had no idea where the pipes and electrics were it took me two hours to put up one curtain rail,” says Mike Robinson. “The man sent to help diplomatically pointed out that I was doing everything wrong. I was glad to pass it on to him.” By the end of the day all the windows in the three-bedroom house had curtain rails.All customers are offered this service for a day during the first week in their new home.

Since Nicholas King first introduced it, they have noticed a significant improvement in customer satisfaction. Small but irritating details such as a sticking door or loose handle can be dealt with at once, quite separately from larger problems thrown up during the quality control inspection.Laing Homes is another developer that offers a similar service at the discretion of its different regions. Sarah Bailey, sales and marketing director for North Home Counties, is piloting a scheme called Toolbox on a development in St Albans “Before someone moves in we ask what they would like done. Some wish to wait a few weeks and others want someone on moving day either to move boxes, plumb in the washing machine or put up light fittings. But we are prepared to do anything – keep the children occupied or walk the dog if necessary.”As a definition of good service, it is simply a matter of not accepting second best, something the building trade has not woken up to fast enough, believes Steve Lidgate, chief executive of Laing Homes.

“People do expect there to be certain product defects, but what they will not tolerate is being told that someone will be there on Thursday and then not turn up.”In this respect, word-of-mouth recommendations could be worth a great deal more to the industry, and there are lessons to be learnt from the US. There, some 42 per cent of new business comes from customer referrals, whereas in Britain that figure is between 10 and 12 per cent.”We can see from our company in California that buyers will not accept anything less than a first-c ass service. They expect it when buying a pizza, let alone a house, and they tell their friends,” adds Steve Lidgate. “We have to put our hand up when we make a mistake.”Customer care proved to be the area of the industry in need of greatest improvement according to a survey carried out more than 18 months ago by Malcolm Pitcher, marketing consultant of PCL.