By Mike Brewer, Senior Advisor to Synergos
When originally given the opportunity to write about ‘Engaging our Customer’ the natural place for me to go was how we meet with and speak to our Builder customers. It’s what a typical article would have been focused on, but these aren’t typical times.
Things have changed over this past year. I’m Mike Brewer, the Founder and CEO of the Brewer Companies, and although I still am in the role of CEO, I no longer am the owner. This change in situation has me writing from a different perspective than I would have a year ago. As my byline says above, I am now part of a much larger organization and on a new team – Synergos.
Synergos holding company was formed to acquire construction groups to solve significant issues that plague residential homebuilders today. To date, Synergos has purchased Framing, Electrical, Concrete, and HVAC companies, and now added a Plumbing company.
The significant issues alluded to are the inherent breakdowns that currently exist in how building homes has historically taken place. This points to the title of this article or Engaging with your Customers.
The success of this group of companies coming together depends on how we engage and communicate internally during the building cycle, streamlining the process and systems between every layer of the entire organization.
Fundamentally homebuilding is the same as it was 50-100 years ago. Yes the tools have gotten better – most being battery operated – and the materials have changed substantially, but the fundamental way a home is built depends on the coordinated actions of many disparate parties, all contracted to perform in a seamless manner. All this being driven by a builder superintendent, trying to herd cats updating schedules and juggling phone calls and emails daily.
There are over 250 alerts, notifications, phase schedules and inspections in the building of an average tract home. Multiply that by the builder superintendent having between 20 and 50 houses or more at different stages of the build cycle and it becomes apparent that it’s impossible for them to be successful every day. This leads to “dry runs” for the subcontractor base, adding cost to both the subs and the builder in the form of carry costs.
With the Synergos model, it takes the responsibility from the builder and hands it to us as the provider or the ones responsible for delivering a high quality, completed on schedule, product to our builder partners. They have a few interactions along the way centered around inspections, but the build process becomes our responsibility to a certain point in the build.
In order to be successful and deliver a superior product on time, requires us as trade contractors and tradesmen to engage with one another in an entirely new way. Where historically there is little if any trust between the trades, in this new model, we are all one company. We’re out to produce the same outcome, as our intentions are all aligned.
The challenge with this is mentioned above. Trust is where it all begins. Where there is little trust between trades in the historical way of building a home, we now are building trust with each other. It is a work in process, as this latest deal is less than a month old, but we have been working on several projects together in the Phoenix, Arizona market over the past year. Each one of them outperformed the “normal” process by up to 40%. What does that mean? We deliver a home 40% faster than the open market of various trades being awarded the work. How do we do that? It goes much deeper than a bunch of executives strategizing buying companies. Just because several trades are all owned by the same group, doesn’t mean everyone trusts each other. It’s earned. Earned by the actions we all take and the respect we afford each other during the construction cycle.
What does it mean to the builder? Lower costs with less time spent on the front-end build for their superintendents. With Synergos managing the process coming out of the ground within our group, organizing the build schedule internally, producing a high-quality outcome, the builder can focus on the critical backside of the build.
Panelization of walls is not new. What may be new is taking into account the other trades in the group. What does the job look like when the HVAC, Plumbers, or Electricians show up after the home is framed? How much cleaner of a job site are they working in? How much time can be saved, which equates to them earning a bigger paycheck and producing more units in a given amount of time.
This is all about new ways of communicating and coordinating action from the bottom to the top. By actually doing what we say we will at the technician level, having our internal superintendents working together fulfilling on shared schedules, and producing a home in a consistent, on-time manner, we can share our accomplishments with our builders.
So far it has been a resounding success. The future appears bright. In the current environment – with the shortage of labor, supply chain constraints, and who knows what the next pandemic may bring – we are committed to a model that helps everyone up and down the chain be more productive, efficient, and profitable. All of this leads to getting the home buyer into their home more quickly.
About the Author
Mike Brewer is the founder and CEO of the Brewer Companies, Arizona’s largest plumbing company. He is past president of the ASA of Arizona, a business leader, serial entrepreneur, and champion for the construction trades. Since the acquisition of his company, Mike now serves as a Senior Advisor to the CEO of Synergos, a team of trade leaders dedicated to reducing the build cycle times for clients. For more information on Synergos, click here.
