When a low-ranked team finishes its season No. 1, you can bet there’s an exciting
story to be told. Such is the case with Mattamy Homes, which operates eight home-building
divisions throughout the United States and Canada. Today, the company is proudly
hailed by our competitor J.D. Power & Associates as No. 1 in Canada in customer
satisfaction. Just a few years ago, however, things weren’t so rosy for all
divisions of Mattamy Homes. The company’s rise to the top of its game is encouragement
for any homebuilder looking to improve its position in the marketplace.
Mattamy Homes began building in the Greater Toronto area in 1978, but until the
past few years split into fast growing divisions both in the Canada and the U.S.
One of the fast growing divisions called the East Greater Toronto Area (EGTA Division)
went to over 1400 closings in 2005 in just a few years. With such growth for the
EGTA, the division had been struggling to maintain high levels of customer satisfaction
resulting in dampening referrals. Motivated to improve the position of the entire
company in customer satisfaction, the entire Mattamy company hired in AVID Ratings
Co., a customer loyalty management firm, to lead them through their customer satisfaction
improvement initiative.
The Transformation
Changing a company’s culture can be like transforming a caterpillar into a
butterfly: it is a lot of hard work, but the payoff is spectacular. Mattamy’s
metamorphosis was no less impressive and can be attributed to a great relationship
between AVID and Mattamy that resulted in maximum results. In particular, the solutions
AVID provided helped Mattamy EGTA division go from last in the company in customer
satisfaction to the No. 1 division within all of Mattamy Homes.
The transformation began in 2003, when AVID Ratings started to survey all of Mattamy’s
customers companywide in both the U.S. and Canada to gather key data that would
help identify problem areas and potential solutions. This initial, analytical step
is crucial because it put in place a constant monitoring system to uncover individual
and departmental weaknesses, as well as shed light on any dysfunctional aspects
of a company’s culture. AVID then conducted onsite audits to observe firsthand
the home-buying experience and customer interaction both on and off the construction
site applying the AVID Score Card which compared their internal operations with
the leading companies in customer satisfaction.
Great Leadership within Mattamy
Mattamy’s top executives entered into this process with open minds and a commitment
to do whatever it would take to make the company the best in customer satisfaction.
Starting with Peter Gilgan, who proclaimed that the company would be No. 1 and empowered
his team to make necessary changes to their organization. In particular, Mary Jane
Dekort, EGTA Division President, capitalized on the challenge to take the company’s
worst division and transform them to the best. Under exclusive consultation by the
AVID Consulting Team, she proceeded with significant changes that took nearly 2
years to complete. The entire Mattamy EGTA’s dedication to the process was
crucial to its phenomenal success.
The AVID Scorecard, developed to compare a company’s performance with
the best practices of leaders in customer satisfaction, lists 125 dimensions of
performance in 25 key categories. A regression analysis of the findings, combined
with the onsite observations, and score card results were compiled and a strategic
plan was delivered by AVID which gave the team the information they needed to proceed
with improvement. In Mattamy’s case, AVID determined that the homebuilder’s
was missing a key element: a process map that clearly and efficiently laid out every
aspect of the customer experience.
AVID Process Mapping – Key for Understanding
For the next six months, the AVID team mapped the processes of the entire organization.
The results of the process reengineering were many, but one of the most significant
was the restructuring of an existing department. These changes, along with tremendous
leadership of the entire executive team at the EGTA, resulted in significant gains
for the company. Within two years, this program successfully turned Mattamy’s
lowest-rated division, EGTA, into the No. 1 rated division in the company which
enabled the entire company to be rated the No. 1 builder in customer satisfaction
for the Greater Toronto area.
Further success continues to spread to other divisions. In 2006, Mattamy Homes–Halton
Division was the first Canadian company to win an AVID Award™ presented by
Professional Builder, recognizing it as the highest-rated customer experience
among builders of 500 or more closings throughout North America beating all other
U.S. homebuilders in this category.
Today, AVID continues to provide Mattamy Homes with corporate-wide research services,
customer satisfaction awareness, report/data integration and organizational consulting.
Peter Gilgan, founder and CEO of Mattamy Homes, is focused on making Mattamy Homes
No. 1 in customer satisfaction in each of its markets, and he has fully utilized
AVID to be Mattamy’s partner for success.
