Jeffrey Mezger
Most of us think of customer obsession as the territory of the digital age, the result
of aggregating online behavior and big data into actionable customer insights. But in the most brick and mortar
of businesses — homebuilding — we’ve been deploying it for decades. In 1996 — back when Amazon was still just another
online bookseller and the first iPhone was still more than a decade away — KB Home was the first large builder to
deliver a personalized homebuying experience in the new-home market. We reimagined what homebuying could look like and
offered our largely first-time homebuyers a luxury they never dreamed of: a home personalized to the way they live.
Homebuilding is in my blood. My parents owned a small building company in Chicago. My
mom was an architect and my dad was a builder. I always knew that building homes was what I wanted to do with my life.
Today, I’m honored to lead one of the oldest and largest homebuilders in the United States, which has built nearly
640,000 new homes since its founding in 1957. A home is the largest and most emotional purchase that most people make
in their lifetimes, a major milestone that embodies their most cherished hopes and goals, and we don’t take the trust
our customers place in us lightly. Since becoming COO of KB Home in 1999 and then CEO in 2006, my fundamental aim has
been to make KB Home the most customer-obsessed homebuilder in the world. My team and I wake up every morning
motivated by the privilege of building our customers’ dreams and putting the great American aspiration of
homeownership in reach for families across our nation. People are our foundation.
The principles of customer obsession apply no matter what business you’re in and whether
that industry has existed for a hundred years or less than a decade. It’s about creating a company culture where the
entire team is focused on delivering a compelling, personalized product with unmatched service in order to produce a
phenomenal customer experience. Below are the core operating principles that have guided me in my 25 years of
relentless customer obsession and which I believe will help any business — online and off — deliver on that promise:
Find out what your customers actually want — not what you think they
want.
We begin with data-driven product design based on thousands of extensive surveys of
actual recent buyers of both new and resale homes across every market in which we build. We gather detailed
information on what mattered most to homeowners when making real-world purchase and tradeoff decisions and use it to
gain valuable product development insights. We also gather data from our own homebuyers’ product choices and post-sale
feedback. We synthesize all of this data to create home designs that reflect what customers say they want most in each
geographic market, such as open floor plans that offer flexible living, seamless indoor/outdoor flow, natural light
and efficient design that maximizes space.
Offer choice in everything you do.
No two customers are alike, and their homes shouldn’t be either. That’s why we build
choice into every one of our home designs and homebuying process. Our customers can tailor their home to their unique
lifestyle, from homesites and floor plans to design options from our KB Home Design Studio, all at a price that fits
their budget. Our approach provides the business advantages of economies of scale while also offering a differentiated
product and an exceptional buying experience. For example, a single-story, three-bedroom home can be ideal for a young
family just starting out that wants to focus their homebuying budget on a dream kitchen and the maximum number of
bedrooms. That same home can also be finished with hardwood floors, granite countertops and a high-tech home office
for experienced buyers downsizing without compromising their standards. From an operational standpoint, it’s
essentially the same house. For the homeowners, the two houses are uniquely their own.
Customer obsession and innovation go hand in
hand.
Many people confuse customer obsession with customer service, but I see customer service
as maintaining the status quo, while customer obsession drives innovation. Spending every day looking through our
customers’ eyes and building their dreams allows us the leaps of inspiration that true customer obsession can deliver.
That’s how, nearly 15 years ago, we looked at sustainability — then considered a niche luxury in homebuilding — and
saw an opportunity. We could offer customers the ability to support the environment while also reducing the overall
cost of long-term homeownership through lower utility bills. We became the first national homebuilder to build 100%
ENERGY STAR® certified new homes and we haven’t looked back. Today, we have built more ENERGY STAR certified new homes
than any other national homebuilder, delivering a level of advanced energy efficiency and potentially lower utility
bills met by only 10% of new homes built in America in 2019. In the years since implementing energy-efficient
homebuilding, we also identified an emerging consumer interest in the impact of indoor environments on health and made
it a key area of our sustainable building commitment. Today, our homes utilize the latest building science and
upgraded air filtration to help our customers breathe easier, and we continue to take a leadership position in our
industry on this increasingly important customer priority.
Create collaborative customer relationships.
There’s no more personal purchase than a new home. It embodies our aspirations,
lifestyle, financial status and hopes for the future. That’s why the relationships we form with our homebuyers are the
foundation for everything we do and as much a component of our homes as lumber and sheetrock. We’re not selling a
home; we’re selling an exceptional personalized homebuying experience. It’s a 360-degree customer experience, and
every homebuyer is supported by a dedicated team to see their purchase through and guide them every step of the way
during the design and building process.
Don’t stop listening to your customers when the sale is done.
A home is the largest purchase most of us make in our lifetimes and the embodiment of
many of our dreams. That’s why I’m especially proud of our outstanding customer satisfaction scores, with 94% of our
new homeowners saying they would recommend KB Home to their friends. We are also the highest ranked national
homebuilder on TrustBuilder®, a third-party, industry-specific homeowner review site, earning 4.6 out of 5 stars and
achieving or tying for #1 on the site in nearly every one of our markets. We follow up with our customers 30 days
after they move in, as well as three, six, 10 and 18 months later, to hear not only about their experience when they
first get the keys but also after they settle in and are really living in their new home. We are committed to
continuously learning and improving our customer experience, so we don’t just want to hear from the person who tells
everyone they know how great their new KB home is — we want to hear about the times when we fall short. We are
particularly pleased that even as COVID-19 has forced us to find new ways to deliver on our commitments, our customer
satisfaction scores have not dipped, reflecting our dedication to partnering with our homebuyers through good times
and challenges alike.
Real customer obsession is a commitment to company culture.
We don’t just talk about Built on Relationships®, we live it every day. We empower our
employee team to put our customers at the center of everything they do. Every team member learns from day one that our
job is to make decisions based on what is best for both the company and the customer, knowing that satisfaction must
be earned. Training is essential, as is empowerment. For us, that means giving our team the authority to make
on-demand decisions for quick responses. Providing outstanding service for each customer and being flexible in how we
handle their experience are crucial elements of our company philosophy, as well as creating an environment where
employees feel valued and love to come to work every day because their work has purpose and satisfaction. Creating and
sustaining this kind of company culture is an essential piece of the customer obsession equation.
I know better than to predict where the next 25 years of innovation will take our
society, but one thing I know is that companies that truly build a brand and culture centered around creating a
phenomenal customer experience to deliver a compelling, differentiated product backed by outstanding customer service
will be at the forefront of the journey. I begin every day excited to see where that future will lead us.