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Client Spotlight
Newton, Massachusetts
The Green Company
Thanks to its unique brand of customer care, The Green Company has an impressive 97.5% of customers
who would recommend to others and 55% of their actual sales coming from buyer referrals. This fact,
in combination with the excellent customer experience surveys, puts this builder #1 in North America.
But that wasn’t always the case. In fact, the company’s customer satisfaction ratings didn’t
really start to take off until 1998, when the Newton, Massachusetts-based builder began its journey
of professionally measuring customer satisfaction and letting the results guide them on how it would
better serve homebuyers. Since that time, the company has garnered the prestigious National Housing
Quality Silver Award and two other top placements in the NRS Award program. In 2006, however, their
customers gave them the top rating which makes The Green Company the best in the business.
Founded by company chairman Alan Green over 50 years ago, The Green Company has grown from a small builder
working on Massachusetts’s Cape Cod to a leading builder serving Boston’s suburbs. The company
has been catering to empty nesters for over 25 years and is on target to close about 100 homes this
year in the high $300,000 to $700,000 range.
Today 65 employees work together on every aspect of the home-building process, from design and marketing
to construction, sales, customer care and community management. “We need to be involved with all
aspects of our communities to do a good job,” says company president David Caligaris.
One thing the company realizes is that not all empty nesters are looking to downsize their home. Plus,
many of these buyers still work and lead very active lifestyles, so the social and community aspect
of their new neighborhood is very important to them.
To create that sense of community, The Green Company provides numerous physical amenities for homeowners.
These include a centralized post office, swimming pools, tennis courts and meetinghouse — places
that bring people together. “We provide these physical spaces up front so they are there from
the beginning of the project,” Caligaris points out. The builder even helps the neighborhood social
committee get events up and running.
Most of the events promote the lifestyle of living in the neighborhood, where homes are built in clusters
of two or three. Though the homes share common space, they each have an individual front courtyard that
a homeowner can personalize. To highlight this feature, the builder sponsors courtyard garden tours,
which is just one of the many ways this builder uniquely adds a special touch to home ownership.
Another way the builder brings homebuyers together is via its ambassador program, whereby the company
asks current residents to attend events with prospective homebuyers and honestly share their experiences
with them. “They are our best salespeople,” Caligaris says.
Along with getting to know some of the residents, prospects are offered the opportunity to tour the
town and area businesses to help them feel more comfortable about making the move.
As vice president and principal Dan Green states, “The company is selling a lifestyle, and the
house comes with it.” Not only does the company believe in this goal with customers but
“buyers really feel that we deliver on that promise,” says Dominique Sampson, vice president
of sales and marketing.
To appeal to a wide variety of tastes and budgets, The Green Company offers eight models in 11 house
styles ranging from 1,100 to 2,400 square feet. Over the past few years, the builder has the rare distinction
of impressing homebuyers with its reasonable cost of upgrades. Caligaris credits this to a transparent
purchasing process that includes an options catalogue that lists all of the prices up front. Also, the
builder offers a reasonable allowance, which helps cover some of the cost of upgrades. Plus, the company’s
knowledgeable home coordinators do a tremendous job explaining the added value of optional home features
that are offered to its buyers, so they can choose the ones best suited for the way they like to live.
The Green Company has earned a reputation for reliability, too. The builder gives homebuyers a closing
date when purchasing agreements are signed, and will go to great lengths, without compromising quality,
to make that commitment — even switching vendors if it means more reliable deliveries.
Closing dates couldn’t be consistently met without the ardent support of plumbers, electricians
and other major rough trades. “They’re the ones that have the most adversity to deal with,”
Caligaris says. “We’ve had guys laying shingles when it’s below zero.”
This devotion comes from treating their trade partners like internal team members and making them feel
like they are part of the process. As a result, “whenever a tradesman sees a need, he does what
it takes to get the company back on track,” says Caligaris.
The Green Company also ranks high for having its homes clean and ready for occupancy. Several
pre-inspections are done as part of its quality assurance program. In addition to regular builder reviews
and quality checklists at each step of construction, separate independent walks are completed by the
design center and an independent builder, prior to Customer Care doing the final walk-through with a
homebuyer. The key for The Green Company is that most every problem has been corrected before
the home is presented to the homebuyer at the pre-closing orientation. In this way, orientation lists
are small and most all items can be completed prior to conveyance.
To show its appreciation, the builder presents each homebuyer with a sterling silver Tiffany & Co.
key chain, a photo album showing their home being built, and a laminated card with every department’s
phone number on it — from Sales to Customer Care, Residential Services, Community Management and
emergency contacts — to assure them that they are connected to the company, even after closing.
With such systems in place, employees can be more spontaneous in the ways they wow customers. For example,
one sales rep arranged for customers to be lifted up inside a bucket loader so they could get a sense
of the view they’d have from their new home.
At their Wislowe’s View community in Plymouth, Massachusetts, The Green Company wows buyers with
residential services to meet the needs of new homebuyers. Handyman services, charged by the hour, include
things like move-in assistance, furniture set-up and assembly, window treatment installation, countertop
sealing, fireplace pilot lighting, tile grouting and caulking, picture and mirror hanging, light bulb
replacement, and much more. Residents can also opt for home improvements services, such as storm door
installation, cabinet and molding installation, finished basements, and more. They even offer spring
and fall maintenance packages that bundle various services buyers want every year, as well as a home
watch program for those who will be away.
One thing that consistently surprises new homebuyers, however, is the call they get from Alan Green,
the company’s founder. When prospects sign a nonbinding reservation, the chairman calls them for
an informal chat and to answer any questions they may have. “That really is unique,” Sampson
says. “It’s amazing how people really love that call.”
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