Growing to the Next Level with Technology and Process Improvement (Waterford Homes)

Situation

Waterford Homes was a small, entrepreneur led homebuilder that was closing about 150 homes each year.  Waterford approached MLC New Home Marketing (MLC) to help the company grow to the next level.

Services Provided

MLC first helped the company restructure its hierarchy of roles and responsibilities, so that its organizational structure would be able to support an expanded operation.  The success of the organization can be attributed in large part to its entrepreneurial spirit. This same spirit, however, was causing overload for many employees who wore too many “hats.” MLC helped the company work more efficiently through structured processes that eliminate duplication and overlap of responsibility across functional departments - while maintaining the entrepreneurial flexibility that is an integral part of the company’s culture.

Next, MLC helped the company select technology that would help it work more efficiently and increase capacity within its current size.  The first step was to computerize Waterford’s construction offices so that Superintendents could harness the power of computer technology to help them build homes.  With computers, Superintendents have access to up-to-date scheduling, product details and option data that increases company consistency and communication.  

Then, MLC helped Waterford design and develop an integrated website / CRM system. This system allows inventory data to feed directly into the website, and prospect data from the website to feed directly into the CRM application. In this way, Waterford is able to maintain just a single system. The website won a Silver Professionalism Award from the Sales and Marketing Council of the Greater Atlanta Homebuilders Association.

For all of these technology implementation projects, MLC helped the homebuilder formulate its needs assessments and prepare requests for proposal, as well as select the vendors, negotiate the contracts and oversee the vendor relationships, budgets and timetables.  In addition, MLC made sure that all parties - from Waterford’s outsourced sales force to its company managers - all bought into and were invested in the selected technology.

Outcome

Operational efficiencies were the objective for Waterford Homes.  Waterford streamlined its operations, increased profitability by more than 10 percent, and closed more than 225 homes (a 50 percent increase).  At the same time, its customer satisfaction ratings have improved. And this is just the beginning.  Process improvement and technology acquisition are turning into watershed events for Waterford.