In A Severely Volatile Near Future, CX Can Secure Builders’ Lifeline

If residential real estate and construction business, operational, and production fitness – come what may — in today’s highly volatile, heightened risk environment took the form of an equation, might it look something like this?

CX +TX + PX + SX = RP

That is, consumer experience, plus team-member experience, plus partner (vendors, distribution channels, municipalities), plus shareholders and lenders equal resilient profitability.

It’s common in housing business cycles’ more uncertain and challenging stretches for businesses to “go back to basics,” as they simplify balance sheets and look to reduce their risk exposure. When they do so, they tend to mothball the new ideas and unproven investments, instead focusing all resources where immediate and tangible returns are most likely. In today’s business environment, that could be a costly error and a missed opportunity to tap competence in the area of consumer experience as a way to improve your efforts to mitigate risk.

Permit a brief digression that supports this idea.

In JP Morgan Chase chairman and ceo

For Cecilian, every aspect of an organization’s ability to thrive goes hand-in-hand, from customer experience, to operational experience, on across each part of the equation. He notes:

In the spring of 2019, Sheryl Palmer announced at the Housing Innovation Alliance Summit in Phoenix Arizona the power of CX, and the importance on focusing on the customer! This was a first by someone of her stature to lead with CX in a focal way. Was there a correlation between her being a woman and knowing the importance of purchase power that are led by the average American consumer, a woman?

The vision of connecting with the female consumer starts with leadership.

According to Nielsen, by ‘2028, women will own 75% of the discretionary spend, making them the world’s greatest influencers. Yet, around the world, women are shouldering more of the household burdens, feeling less financially secure and still are facing serious barriers when it comes to equality. Our recent research looks at how companies can rethink their approach marketing, innovation and designing services for women. The data shows that just paying lip service is detracting women, encouraging disloyalty, and causing fatigue.'”

As JP Morgan’s Dimon suggests, externalities that business leaders do not control weigh heavily right now, laden with risk, volatility, and threat. Dimon’s letter to shareholders states:

We normally don’t worry about — or even try to predict — normal fluctuations of the economy. In all times, we are prepared for difficult markets and severe recessions, as well as for unpredictable events, not only so we will survive them but also so we can be there for our clients when they need us the most. However, sometimes there are powerful underlying structural trends that we must try to understand since their impact can be so large, with widespread impact on many parts of human existence.

One such powerful “underlying structural trend” for every business leader in homebuilding, development, investment, and manufacturing to try to understand better is not an externality at all. It’s a matter of recognizing what may be hidden in plain sight, the impact and power and potential of women in every dimension of building’s value chain.

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