Their success story: Improved project communication

RDC Fine Homes works hard to continually set new industry standards and differentiate themselves from their competition. Their project management systems are no exception.

After years of trying to find the best solution for his team, subs and clients, Bob Deeks, company owner and president, turned to Buildertrend.

“Around 2016, we started looking for an alternative and spent about two years looking at all the various options, before we landed back on Buildertrend,” Bob said. “I had some colleagues who were using the platform and they had very good things to say about it. Particularly around the ease of use and how seamless their staff was adopting it. I really liked its client-facing approach as well as the graphics on the screen were easy to navigate and very user friendly.”

It wasn’t long before RDC Fine Homes was seeing the benefits of Buildertrend with total buy-in from the team and an improved communication process for their subs and clients.

Industry

Custom Homes and Renovations

Location

Canada

Established

1993

Winning solution

Communication features

Their story: Healthy homes for happy families

In 1993, amid a recession, Bob Deeks took the opportunity to pick up a small construction job and soon after, decided to open the doors to his company, RDC Fine Homes. Over the years, what initially started as a relatively small renovation company grew to become a specialized, custom homebuilding and renovation leader that promotes homeowner health, comfort and energy efficiency in Whistler, British Columbia.

“We had been looking at better ways to build, specifically around how we recycle better because we were doing a certain amount of teardown,” Bob said. “In the early 2000s, I came across a label that is still being used today, which is called Built Green Canada, an energy efficiency and sustainability label. That really has become a key part of our brand and what we do, focusing on high-performance houses.”

RDC Fine Homes continues to set themselves apart with a focus on sustainable construction. This is done through high-performance homebuilding technologies, net zero emissions and other initiatives that create low environmental impacts.

Net zero or carbon neutrality is the process of completely canceling out the amount of greenhouse gases produced by human activity. This is achieved by reducing emissions and implementing methods of absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

“Today, most of what we build is getting built and labeled to the Canadian Home Builders’ Association Net Zero Label,” Bob said. “In fact, we just labeled the first renovation in British Columbia, the second label in Canada for a net-zero renovation, so we’re excited about that. We have a second net-zero renovation underway right now.”

RDC Fine Homes side view
Custom home exterior by RDC Fine Homes

Their goal: Ensure client and subcontractor buy-in with cohesive communication

When looking for the right construction software platform, Bob’s top priority was to find something that his team would adopt completely with the support they needed for learning and understanding the platform and its project management features.

“I wanted a tool that my team would use 100% and that was easy to learn,” Bob said. “Looking at Buildertrend initially, my first reaction was, this looks like an easier platform for the team to get up to speed on, it has a user-friendly interface and also offered unlimited resources for help. I’d say that was one of the key selling points, and Buildertrend has absolutely delivered on that commitment to provide excellent assistance on how to use the platform.”

In addition to buy-in from his team, Bob wanted the ability to implement internal and external communication features that would allow cohesive processes for his subcontractors and clients.

Their solution: Effective internal and external communication tools

Not only are they using almost every feature within Buildertrend’s construction project management software with 100% buy-in from their team, RDC Fine Homes is successfully using the Customer Portal to sustain critical client relationships and their communication processes.

“It’s really worked out well for us,” Bob said. “I’d say 75% to 80% of our clients have engaged really effectively with the tool. We have a lot of offshore clients who live in other time zones. I go in every day to check the logs and see what clients are doing. It’s always great to see they have logged in. Some of them log in every day to look at the progress photos and the daily logs.”

Bob even uses the Customer Portal and its communication features during the sales process to show clients how they’re able to follow their project every step of the way.

RDC Fine Homes Modern White Kitchen
Modern White Kitchen by RDC Fine Homes

“Buildertrend provides a much better communication tool,” Bob said. “When I’m in the sales cycle and presenting to clients, I show them that they can log on and see what’s on the Schedule. They can go in and check the Daily Log. They can look at the photos and they can align what they see in the Schedule with what’s been checked off with the photos that are on the Customer Portal. This gives them trust and confidence in knowing that we’re doing what we said we were going to do.”

Their subs were quick to adopt Buildertrend for communication and scheduling, as well.

“We have at least 90% of our trades who now use the platform in some degree to go get information, provide their RFPs, respond to them,” Bob said. “And they’re engaging within the Schedule tool. So, over time, it’s really been performing in the way I hoped it would.”

Buildertrend’s real-time communication process allows their subs to stay updated with schedule changes and timeline shifts right in the Buildertrend app. Their time is never wasted by showing up to canceled jobs or projects that aren’t ready for them.

“Buildertrend makes it easy for our project managers to communicate on a real-time basis to let subs know that the schedule is still intact, and we’re still expecting to see you here,” Bob said. “Or if there’s a schedule bump, they get a notification that says their scheduled date has been moved.”

Features such as the Schedule, Daily Logs, file sharing and Customer Portal, partnered with unlimited tech support, made Buildertrend the solution RDC Fine Homes needed to set their project management and communication process apart from their competition.

Their success: Construction tech for teams, subs and clients

“Our biggest success is that everybody’s using it,” Bob said. “We have worked really hard to make sure we use 100% or as much of the platform as we can. It’s been very successful. We certainly are performing exponentially better today financially than we were five years ago.”

And because they’ve seen such great success with our construction software platform, Bob can’t imagine running his business without it.

“I could not operate my business in the way I do today without Buildertrend,” Bob said. “I would be so disconnected from what is going on onsite. I think we’d have a hard time as a team living the core values we promote to our clients.”

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