How residential construction companies respond to homeowners’ demands for digital experiences and easy and frequent communication will be a key factor in determining business success over the next decade and beyond, according to the 2020 Digitally Savvy Homeowners Report from Buildertrend. According to the report, over 95% of respondents indicated ease of communication and collaboration and real-time updates on projects would be important factors when working with a residential construction business.
The report also finds that 86% of homeowners would find an online dashboard helpful if they were working with a residential construction company on a construction project. The report, commissioned by cloud-based project management software Buildertrend and conducted by The Harris Poll, finds that homeowners rate ease of communication and collaboration equally with project price when choosing companies to work with.
“Homeowners and buyers are already using online tools to search for homes and identify top-rated contractors, so it makes sense they expect a similarly seamless digital experience throughout their building journey,” Dan Houghton, co-founder of Buildertrend, said in a public statement.
In addition to providing survey results, the report also illustrates trends for renovating and design across different generations. According to the report, baby boomers (defined as individuals born between 1946 and 1964) and Generation X (born between 1965 and 1979) are motivated to “modernize” their homes in renovations, while millennials (born between 1980 and 1998) and the silent generation (born between 1925 and 1945) are motivated to renovate in order to improve aesthetics and design. Bathrooms are the most common room for renovations, while millennials are more likely to renovate their kitchens than any other generation.
The Buildertrend report finds that the millennial generation will dominate the industry for the next decade and the digital preferences of the cohort must inform actions of residential construction companies. Millennials are more likely to use multiple methods to research the costs of renovations than any other generation and a HomeAdvisor report found that millennials completed more home projects per household than homeowners from any other generation between 2017 and 2018.
The report stressed the importance of understanding how customer expectations have changed. There is a growing customer demand for highly personalized, convenient, and digital experiences across all platforms. Additionally, customers increasingly expect ease of use, streamlined processes, and transparency when they interact with businesses. The report suggested offering online dashboards to provide real-time access to project updates can help meet the consumer’s desire for communication. In fact, the report finds that homeowners who engage with digital updates from their contractors more regularly during a project are more likely to spend more money than those who do not. As a result, touting digital offerings that can streamline communication in the bid process can help remodelers and contractors win bids, according to the Buildtrend report.
The 2020 Digitally Savvy Homeowners Report was conducted online within the United States by the Harris Poll from December 18 to 20, 2019. The online survey polled results from 1,201 U.S. homeowners over the age of 23.
