COVID-19 and construction series: Midwest U.S. region

Paul Wurth:

You are listening to “The Building Code,” a podcast by Buildertrend where we talk all things technology and construction. Be sure to stick around until the end of the episode where you can find out how to be a part of The Building Code Crew. Let’s get it.

Hey everybody. Welcome to another episode in our regional series looking back at 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, we are happy to welcome Matt Kowalske from Kowalske Kitchen & Bath in Wisconsin. Matt, welcome to the podcast.

Matt Kowalske:

Thanks for having me. I’m excited to be here.

Paul Wurth:

Well, yeah, thanks for joining. We send out a request to a number of different clients, and you graciously got back to us and said you’d hop on. We really appreciate that. Again, the idea is that we want to get an idea about all of our client’s unique experience with this once in a lifetime pandemic. One of the things that’s really great about construction is that the downturn of 2008 and these cycles happen to this industry. In some ways, I think that many people who own a business are used to thinking on their feet, but this thing is maybe a different level. We definitely want to get into that and just understand how you and your team dealt with it and just any sort of lessons learned, obviously.

But first, I think it’s great for anybody who’s listening to hear about you. Can you give the rundown of your business and just sort of the high level what do you guys do?

Matt Kowalske:

Sure. Yeah. We’re a design-build company based out of Delafield, Wis., like 20 miles west of Milwaukee, in between Milwaukee and Madison, focused on kitchens, baths, additions and things like that. We’ve got a staff of 24. It’s a really, really good team, all super passionate and talented. It’s a fun environment to work in.

Paul Wurth:

How long have you guys been doing this?

Matt Kowalske:

Well, that’s a good question. My dad was involved in this business his whole life, so I’ve been around it my entire life. I’ve been surrounded by it from a very young age, so a long time.

Paul Wurth:

Did your dad start Kowalske Kitchen & Bath or did you?

Matt Kowalske:

Well, that’s a good question. He had a similar business. It was called Kowalske Design Studio. 60% of that was commercial and residential flooring, along with the rest and remodeling. 2006, 2007 happened and he got bought out. That allowed me to refocus and rebrand the business as Kowalske Kitchen & Bath and focus more on the design-build side of it.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. The decision you made to say, we’re going to do kitchen, baths, additions. We’re not going to do new homes. We’re not going to semi, custom or spec. We’re not going to do flooring anymore. What led to that?

Matt Kowalske:

The flooring business is tough, and we wanted to focus more on the design side and doing things that are more unique and focusing more on that customer experience.

Paul Wurth:

Okay. That makes total sense. Putting your stamp on the kitchens and the homes and the baths in your area and getting the client to experience … get them to their dream of what they want that stuff to look like was important to you guys.

Matt Kowalske:

Yep. Exactly.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. With kitchen, baths and remodels, you’ve got to do a lot of volume, especially with 24 employees. How many jobs do you typically average a year?

Matt Kowalske:

Yeah. It’s roughly around 70.

Paul Wurth:

Wow.

Matt Kowalske:

The projects seem to be getting bigger and bigger. I don’t have the final numbers on ’20. I think that might go down a bit, and I expect that number to get a little bit smaller every year as the projects get bigger and bigger.

Paul Wurth:

Right. You’re still hitting the same revenue target you need, it’s just less work needed to do it.

Matt Kowalske:

Exactly. Yep.

Paul Wurth:

In this series, Matt, you’re the first company we’ve talked to with a sizable amount of employees, 24 employees, so you’ve probably got a pretty unique experience here. As you look back at mid-March of last year and the total craziness and the unknown that you were going through, what was some of the stuff that you and any business partners you had or co-owners you had were thinking about as it relates to your employees?

Matt Kowalske:

Well, yeah. I mean, it was an uncertain time when it all happened. Mid-March right? The phones stopped ringing. The leads stopped coming in. We weren’t sure if we were going to be able to work. We got lucky where we were deemed essential in Wisconsin, so our production crew could keep going. That was nice. We had a couple projects, a couple full home projects where the houses were empty where we could keep those guys working. It was just a matter of adapting, figuring out how to keep everybody safe, figuring out what we were going to do with the office staff and just shifting around to make it all work.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. I mean, thinking about your business specifically, kitchen and bath, you’ve got to be in the home. It’s high volume. When the phone stops ringing, watch out because if it stops ringing for three months, then that’s three months of you have no work, in six months or whatever that timeframe is. That puts in a really hard position because, again, if you’re a new home builder and nobody is in there, you can probably keep working, plus you’ve got some time. You don’t have to bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, but you guys are … you got to continue that sales cycle to continue to get jobs to keep everybody working.

Matt Kowalske:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

A lot of stress.

Matt Kowalske:

Yeah, that’s right. Yeah, it was. We were lucky because we did have a bit of a backlog, too, so that really helped us that.

Paul Wurth:

Did all those contracts stay with they or did they continue on because I know there were some people who lost that?

Matt Kowalske:

They did. Yeah. Yep.

Paul Wurth:

That’s good.

Matt Kowalske:

Yeah. There were some conversations about people who were nervous, and they weren’t sure how it was all going to end. I had a couple different conversations with people, but in the end, they all moved forward. We shifted some things around, but it all worked out.

Paul Wurth:

In reality those first two, three months, the phones stopped ringing and there was still that uncertainty. Did you guys have to furlough or let any employees go or what were the actuals of what happened there?

Matt Kowalske:

There was some talk around that and I think … That’s a good question that I don’t really know the answer to. I think some people voluntarily took some time off, but that was pretty short lived. I am fortunate with the people that I have here. They’re super understanding about how difficult it can be in a small business and not having revenue. Our revenue was down in March, like 90% year-over-year. It was a challenge and everybody really stepped up to chip in where they could. It was really nice.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. We’re hearing this theme in this series is that as a business owner, if you’ve got a good culture internally with your employees or if you’ve a great relationship with your subs and vendors and actually your prospects and clients, right, having a good communication during the sales process and those contracts that were signed or even clients that are in jobs, it helped survive this a lot more. I think the is good relationships before this happened, a little later after it happened.

Matt Kowalske:

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t think there’s enough conversation around how important that those sub relationships are, especially in times like this. A lot of people tend to beat up on the subs a little bit and try and get better pricing or those kind of things, but to us, it’s important that their businesses are profitable and that we can help them succeed too to get these projects done on time and with the quality we expect.

Paul Wurth:

Was that a part of your relationship before the pandemic, trying to make that clear to your subs and vendor network that you care about their profitability, their ability to run a business?

Matt Kowalske:

Absolutely. Yeah. I talk to them often about the importance of that and how can we make each other better and help each other out to make our end product better? We’re all in the same boat.

Paul Wurth:

What are some of the things as you relate to how you manage your subcontractor and vendor network on a yearly basis? Do you have meetings with the owners of your subs and vendors? Do you get them all together in a room for like a Christmas party? What are some tips for people if they don’t yet have the relationship that you had that was so important to you during that pandemic? What are some of the things that you do to cultivate that?

Matt Kowalske:

Yeah. I mean, really I just reach out to them. We don’t send stuff out to bid. For us, it’s the same guys over and over. One of them happens to be my brother, which he owns Kowalske Electric.

Paul Wurth:

That helps.

Matt Kowalske:

Yeah, it does, and I have a really good relationship with him. Don’t get me wrong, there are times where there’s tension between us and the subs, and I just prefer to just hammer it out. If that means I go to a job site where I know they are, or I call him on the phone and just talk through it and just reinforce the fact that we’re all in this together.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. It’s important just to drive that home. I mean, you don’t want to treat your employees or your subs like a number because when the chips are down, like they were in March, that’s going to come back to bite you.

Matt Kowalske:

Right. Right. We just had a staff meeting this morning, and I talked to everybody about how much we’re going to need them this year with how busy we’re planning to be and what can we do to make their experience better and more smooth and make it all happen?

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. I recommend just drop off their favorite beer or liquor every Friday. That’ll usually do it. That’s a little tip from me you can take. When you talk about you and your team and your… because it’s such a large team as it relates to … A lot of our businesses, they keep it pretty tight. Three to five employees and then they subcontract everything out. When you’ve got 24 mouths to feed and employees, obviously that was stressful during the unknown time, but let’s talk about processes. Did you guys have to go remote and did you have to implement some new ways to communicate internally?

Matt Kowalske:

Oh, of course. Yeah. Yeah. Again, I was lucky with the team that I have and they were all working from home. I think the showroom was shut down for four to six weeks. It was clear to me right away that they were still going to get the work done and I wasn’t going to have to manage tasks, I was just still able to manage the outcomes. They got it done. Yeah, I mean, Zoom’s been a big part of it. Getting digital contracts signed through Buildertrend has been a huge help. We’re still adapting and learning on all those platforms how they’re going to help us.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. Having something like the backbone of Buildertrend there was good, but just a renewed focus on it, utilizing it, utilizing Zoom meetings. As it relates to your clients not being able to psychically communicate with them, did you set up some sort of more frequent cadence or anything? Was there any changes in your client communication?

Matt Kowalske:

No. I mean, we went … As much we can, we’re doing online meetings. There’s still a lot of touch and feel to this business. People still want to come into the showroom and touch the samples and look at it all together, but we’re just trying to do as much as we can online virtually.

Paul Wurth:

I guess for you, I think the scariest thing might have been that sales process. I’ve been in sales my whole life. Maybe we’ll focus there just to cap this. When the leads stopped, what did you and your sales team do? Was there any sort of proactive paid ads or anything like that to get the ball rolling again?

Matt Kowalske:

No. We had a pretty full pipeline. People just stayed the course and continued to follow up and stayed with our processes that we knew and kept going the best we could.

Paul Wurth:

That’s great.

Matt Kowalske:

It worked out pretty well.

Paul Wurth:

You had a process in place already where it wasn’t shooting from the hip and somebody had their leads in a notebook somewhere, it was all in one place and you guys just forward.

Matt Kowalske:

Yeah. Exactly. They’ve done a great job of keeping this year’s marketing side of Buildertrend updated. Everything’s there. They can work remotely and still follow these leads through the pipeline.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. You can see that part of it too, like who’s following up and what the status of those proposals are. That’s pretty huge.

Matt Kowalske:

Exactly. Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

You guys are gearing up for a huge 2021 it sounds like. Can you tell me a little bit about what you’re expecting next year?

Matt Kowalske:

Yeah. We’ve got a lot of really good projects lined up. As you know, labor, whether it’s skilled or unskilled, is basically impossible to find. We’re looking at possibly some strategic acquisitions and kind of vertically integrating the whole thing so we have more control over the supply chain and the process in general. Lead times for product are accelerating. We really need to be out in front of all that, getting stuff ordered and hopefully having a little bit more control over that.

Paul Wurth:

Wow, that’s super smart. So you guys are just trying to take whatever steps can and everybody’s in different positions in the stage of their company, the capital they have access to and the region they’re in, but you guys are looking at here are the problems we know is happening because of the effects of COVID-19 with vendors and supplies and manufacturing, and you guys are taking some steps maybe to mitigate as much as you can.

Matt Kowalske:

Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Last year, we made an acquisition of a cabinet company in Milwaukee. Along with the facilities that we have there now, we got some of the staff, which fit in really, really well here. It’s branded. It’s under a different brand. It’s under MKE Cabinetry, but those are the types of things we’re looking at to really get us through the next couple of years.

Paul Wurth:

Super smart. Well, it sounds like you guys took the initial hit and now things are looking good for 2021. That’s awesome to hear. I will say, for someone like yourself to be a business owner during an uncertain time, to have 24 employees and everybody is still employed there, I mean, that’s just an amazing accomplishment, so great job by you.

Matt Kowalske:

Thank you. Yeah. And really, they deserve all the credit because they, like I said, is just a talented, passionate bunch. It’s inspiring to see what they’re doing and the projects we’re pushing out. It’s incredible.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. Lessons learned are you’ve got to have a great culture, a great relationship with your subs and vendors and some great systems to have a good communication with your clients. Those people that have had that pre-pandemic have seemed to really weather the storm. If you don’t have that yet, priority list for 2021. Those three things.

Matt Kowalske:

Right. Yeah. Exactly.

Paul Wurth:

All right Matt. Well, we really appreciate your time. Thanks for being a client of Buildertrend all these years. We appreciate that very much.

Matt Kowalske:

Cool.

Paul Wurth:

Thanks for all the information here. We wish you the best in 2021 man.

Matt Kowalske:

All right. I appreciate it, brother. Take care.

Paul Wurth:

All right. Okay. Of course, that was Matt from Kowalkske Kitchen & Bath. I really appreciate the time from Matt. It was a great recap of his year and what we’re looking forward to in the future. Next in our Midwest region podcast, we are going somewhere closer to home for us, which is Omaha, Neb., just south of us in Missouri and Kansas. We are going to be speaking to Dana Webb from Ashlar Homes. It’s a great conversation. I won’t spoil it here, so give it a listen.

Can you tell me just a little bit about, or tell the audience, just a little bit about your company and then also, you and your role there?

Dana Webb:

Sure. We’re a production builder. We build about 100 homes a year. We sell off of the furnished model homes and we typically are the developer in the communities that we build in.

Paul Wurth:

Great. How long have you guys been around?

Dana Webb:

The company’s been around for about six years.

Paul Wurth:

Okay, so fairly new and doing a pretty high volume. You guys are based just outside of Kansas City right?

Dana Webb:

Yeah. I guess it’s been around longer than that. I should take that back. I’ve been on the staff for coming up on five years.

Paul Wurth:

Okay. Yep. And you guys are based out of Kansas City, you do about 100 homes a year, which is great. We’ll definitely get in to see how COVID-19 and then the increased demand of homes has affected you probably in the positive. But first, tell us your name and your role there and what your day-to-day is, Dana.

Dana Webb:

My name is Dana Webb. I am the quality control and customer warranty part of our company. My role is going to the homes and doing the home orientation, which is the first customer walk, and then going back to the home the day of closing and doing the final walk. I take the homeowners through the mechanics of the home, walk them around and show them everything. The day of closing, I go back and we go through that … we make a punch list. The day of closing, we go back and mark off the things on the punch list. I go through and teach them how do the warranty process.

Paul Wurth:

Oh, this is great. This is really a system that we see in, again, high volume, typically production, semi-custom home, companies like yourself, but I think it’s probably something that even smaller volume companies, remodeling companies, new home builders who are doing custom, they could probably do that because what kind of reaction do you get from homeowners? Are they very curious and relieved when you’re taking them through this stuff?

Dana Webb:

Very much so. I mean, you can’t take for granted, you think sometimes people know the mechanics of the house or how a house works, but generally they don’t know a lot of things, even where to turn off their water. We start in the basement and go through every single part of the house and then go to every single room and just teach them things that they may know, but if they do, that’s fine. If not, I mean, even as simple as opening a window, just showing them how to do that. You can clean it and turning off water under sinks and just little things. I think it makes them feel comfortable.

Paul Wurth:

For sure. Seriously, that’s a great takeaway. Any custom builders or remodelers that are not doing that right now, that’s an easy thing. Take somebody through that. They’ve never done it before. Let me recall. You’re going to do the homeowner orientation. When does that happen in the build process?

Dana Webb:

That would be a week before the close date.

Paul Wurth:

Okay. If we know as a construction company that we’re getting close, maybe a month or two out, let’s schedule the homeowner orientation that’s onsite, that’s a walkthrough just introducing them to everything and then doing what you just talked about. How long does that typically take?

Dana Webb:

That first one, the home orientation, takes about an hour.

Paul Wurth:

I’ve got to believe that’s an hour well worth it because it’s just all customer service, right? If you can show them one or two cool things about the house that they didn’t realize or how easy it is to open this window this way and clean it out, that’s got to be some good things that you’re getting customer service wise, right?

Dana Webb:

Yes. My boss was very thorough in thinking that through, then I’m the person that handles the warranty, so a lot of times during that walkthrough, I’ll bring up things of, this is a common warranty claim, so let me show you how to do this just in case this happens once you move into your house. I’ll talk about what possibly had come up as common warranty claims over the past five years since I’ve been working here.

Paul Wurth:

That’s great. I just put myself in the shoes of the new homeowner, an expensive home, maybe my first time or maybe my first new build, that’s got to be going through my head, is like, geez, this is a lot. What happens if this goes wrong? You’re just trying to anticipate some of those things, calm them down and then make sure they understand, here’s the best avenue to get us that information because if they’re communicating with you guys on the warranty side in a million different ways, it makes your job harder right?

Dana Webb:

Correct. Yeah. I walk around with an iPad and have a checklist and then we make a punch list. We tell them at the end of everything … Now, they sign off on it and then I say, I’m going to upload this into Buildertrend, you can view this. You’ll have it. We’ll revisit it when we come back for the final walk. The superintendent is there with me just in case there’s some questions that they can answer or they need to that has been happening along the way of construction.

Paul Wurth:

That’s great. Again, an hour well spent from your company’s perspective. Have you guys ever thought about taking a video of that homeowner orientation and then uploading that to Buildertrend so that they can go back and review all the cool stuff you showed them because it’s got to be a whirlwind for them?

Dana Webb:

Yes, it is. We call it their fire hose. A few months ago, we had a staff meeting and my boss, Shawn Woods, said that he was going to do a video of that and also a video of the most common things that come up as warranty claims because whether they enter it in Buildertrend or if I’m talking to them on the phone, trying to tell them on the phone and how to fix something, like the common things, fireplace, there’s a different way to get that working, just do some of those videos and then I can just send it to them. A lot of people don’t even know how to reset their GCFI. Just explaining that over the phone is really hard, there’s a little button, and so taking a video of that.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. I mean, I’ve been in construction technology for 14 years, and I still didn’t know that. That happened to me in my house. These outlets outside weren’t working. I was like, this is ridiculous. I had to call my dad’s friend who’s an electrician. He literally just … I mean, he took a little pity on me. He was just like, honestly, it’s just right here, so that’s a good one to have.

Dana Webb:

Your outlet outside is one of the most common warranty claims, yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Right. Because all you got to do is do the flip inside, right?

Dana Webb:

Exactly.

Paul Wurth:

Well, I know that now after some shame. Okay. Great. Yeah, send us one of those videos. Yeah, that’s some good content for your social media and YouTube and stuff like that, too, because if one person has that pain point, almost everybody else does. That’s kind of the rule of thumb.

Dana Webb:

Exactly. But at the final walkthrough, the realtors are at … We have our own sales agents, so the sales agents are at the first one. They come to the last one as well, but that meeting only took about 20 minutes.

Paul Wurth:

To really hand over the keys and make your client feel really good and have a couple quick wins, it’s like an hour meeting and then another 20-minute meeting, right?

Dana Webb:

Exactly.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah, that’s a good takeaway. You guys offer, obviously, a warranty. This is, again, very, very common within production and semi-custom homes. How long is your warranty? What is your standard deal?

Dana Webb:

We follow the 2-10 Home Buyers Guidelines, so we do the one year of workmanship and then the two year of the systems. The 10 years is your structural.

Paul Wurth:

Nice. So 2-10 Warranty, if people remember who listen to this show, we had them on a couple months back. They’re a partner of ours, so check out the … I’m drawing a blank. What is our resource?

Oh yeah. Check out the Marketplace in Buildertrend. You’ll find 2-10 there and there’s a partnership deal we have with them, so that’s cool. All right. Let’s get to the topic at hand and why we brought you on, Dana. Obviously, we wanted to hear about you and your business. You having a couple hundred homes and being a production semi customer builder is going to have a different perspective than some people we’ve had on before that are doing smaller volume custom homes and remodels, so this is great. When March of 2020 came or mid-March and we all realized that this a real thing that’s going to have a huge impact on our lives professionally and personally, what was that like for you and the team at Ashlar? Can you take me through some of that stuff?

Dana Webb:

Sure. It affected us in ways that our … the municipalities that we work with, some of them were not ready for what happened. They don’t do things digital. We pretty much do everything in Buildertrend. Everything’s loaded in there. We do as much as we can digital. That was a hurdle that we had to overcome with them. Extra phone calls for finding out if our permits were ready because you couldn’t go into those city halls. We had to make extra phone calls for inspections because they were either short of staff, so that was a pretty big hurdle for us. We’re actually pretty excited because most all of them now are online. I was that person actually that was driving around dropping off permits, picking up a permit, going back, scanning it in, so it’s saved us time in the long run because now those files are already scanned in. They email them to us and we just upload them directly into Buildertrend.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. We talk about that a lot that inside construction and government, those are two industries that have been really slow in adopting technology, in virtual meetings and scanned documents. A lot of people talk about how this pandemic, for all the negative that it’s definitely had on small businesses, restaurants, entertainment, things like that, but for some industries, it pushed people into technology like they had to, where they should have probably been a few years ago. That’s a good one. For you guys as a company, I know there was definitely, for most people, that first 30 days or 60 days was pretty hairy. Nobody really knew what was going on. Did you guys see a pretty quick halt in terms of your activity for leads and looking at homes for you guys?

Dana Webb:

Not necessarily. We didn’t really slow down or anything, we kind of had a steady pace going. We didn’t slow down, sales continued. We all kind of held our breath and waited. We did see some, like I said, in the municipalities. There were some suppliers that got slowed down because of shipping or just their other states where we might have ordered things, that was slowed down. Unfortunately, we know small businesses and other businesses have suffered during this, but to be honest, we’ve had our best year ever.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. And you’re not alone. We’re hearing that a lot from our clients, which again, on one hand is really great. It’s good for you. It’s good for us. It’s good for the industry. And again, we always want to, as you just said, feel bad for the companies that it’s not and do everything we can for them, but it’s definitely been a good thing for our industry, which has been great. Now, for me, when I talk to our clients who are really good about communication, whether that’s with their subs, suppliers, vendors or clients, most of these people were understanding about the delays that happened. Did you guys find that to be true as well?

Dana Webb:

You mean with our subs for the delays or our customers?

Paul Wurth:

Your customers understanding that there are delays in the chain of events that happens when you order something, supplies, things like that, were they pretty understanding of their closing times getting pushed back?

Dana Webb:

Overall, I believe so because I think during that time, we were all, as a world, as a nation, were scared. There was so much unknown. But all in all, people were. The biggest thing I remember was appliances. You just couldn’t find those or everybody they ordered. Our appliance supplier actually stepped up and they gave temporary ones to those homeowners, which was just, I mean, the best ever. There may be a whole different scenario when you walk in that you think, what did they just do? There’s a white one, there’s different colors. But at least they got something. They were supplied with it. Some people did have to wait almost five months though right when things hit. They had to wait about that long before they got their real appliances.

Paul Wurth:

Wow. That’s a huge thing that the appliance company did for you guys, your vendor did for you. That’s amazing.

Dana Webb:

Very much so. We just got … Well, actually, I take that back, it’ll be coming, our last person will get their dishwasher next week.

Paul Wurth:

Which company was that? Which vendor?

Dana Webb:

We use Ferguson, which is Factory Direct out of Kansas.

Paul Wurth:

Well, that’s great. Well, shout out to them. That’s amazing. If you’re in Kansas, around there, go support that company because they stepped up there. That’s amazing. You guys are in Kansas and Missouri. Do you guys work in both Kansas and Missouri or just one state?

Dana Webb:

Two. We’re close to the state line.

Paul Wurth:

Okay. So when you talk about regulations that came down and where your people could be, couldn’t be, what type of equipment you needed to have and safety equipment you needed to have on staff, was that pretty similar between the two states or did you guys have to juggle a couple of different regulations?

Dana Webb:

We had to juggle a little bit because Kansas wasn’t as strict in the beginning as Missouri was. Our office is in Jackson County, which the county had a stricter mandate than some of our other areas.

Paul Wurth:

Wow.

Dana Webb:

We had to juggle a little bit.

Paul Wurth:

Okay. How did your company, just internally, handle communicating that with your employees? Did you guys have regular meetings or what did that look like for you guys?

Dana Webb:

2-10 provided us posters, and we printed out the posters and put them up. On the job site, we put them up and then we put them up in our office. It was really nice. It had a hand washing thing and it just went through a very detailed information. We got those out there and then just started communicating with our staff. We had the mask mandate. We had shut down our model homes at one point. Then when we reopened those, we spent extra time cleaning those. I mean, we clean them, but even more, wiping the door handles, cleaning the surfaces. The same within our office, extra cleaning. If someone does get exposed or get COVID, they’re quarantined. We’re sensitive with the mask wearing.

Paul Wurth:

Okay. The way you guys are set up as a business, did you guys regularly see your clients come in physically? Did that shift a little bit or how does that look for you guys?

Dana Webb:

Yes. That’s one of our big changes that has happened. We would typically do our pre-construction meetings in our showroom. It’s attached to our construction office. People would come in there, pick out their selections. But just in the past few weeks, we’ve changed that to Zoom meetings. That is a change that we’re going to keep forever. We’re going to do all of those that way. The reason is because it allows us to have the meeting recorded. During that time, we can actually show the homeowners documents. We can make changes on CAD and other programs actually right while that meeting is going on. Some of those changes can even just be completed as that meeting is going on. It’s a really good change.

Paul Wurth:

Oh, wow. That’s a big improvement because otherwise, you would have been in person, something might have been lost in communication, translation, just verbally. You would have to go back to your desk, make those adjustments, get those things approved with another meeting or some sort of email communication, but you’re saying this can just all be done in one swoop, recorded so everybody is on the same page.

Dana Webb:

Yeah. If you think about it, it helps the homeowner and us because then you have this recorded meeting and you know everything that’s going on. The people that work on down the line, that do the things that need to happen, they can just go back and listen to that recorded meeting. We’re not dropping any balls along the way.

Paul Wurth:

That’s amazing. Cool. That’s a great example of a positive coming out of this is that that sort of push people needed into technology. Once you actually do it once, you sort of understand the value of that accountability, that having recorded and everybody on the same page. A lot of those are the same themes that we talk about with Buildertrend for years is why you should be using that because everybody’s in the same ecosystem and everything is being recorded and documented. They are definitely some advantages there. That’s awesome.

Dana Webb:

Yeah. We’ve used Buildertrend, but we’re using it even more and more because so many things are more digital. I think I would say more of our team is onboard of using it. There is a few of them that maybe were hesitant, but now they’re seeing how important it is to have all that information in one.

Paul Wurth:

That’s great. Any other big changes that you guys saw just from march of this year or last year until January this year that were due to COVID-19 or some sort of result of COVID-19?

Dana Webb:

I mean, the biggest ones that we noticed were that we had our best year ever, and we don’t see it slowing down, already now in 2021. The big change was that we did make the improvement for the pre-construction meetings. Those are probably our biggest ones. We did learn from it. One thing we’ve learned was to be more flexible. I mean, that’s going to be key for all of us as a team for us to flexible. Another thing that we did, we are going to spend the majority or our marketing budget this year on making videos that are 3-D walkthrough so that a customer can see that house before it’s even built. That’s something we’ve learned. Also, people that don’t even live around here can look at that as well.

Paul Wurth:

Wow. That’s great. Yeah. There’s a lot of people talking about utilizing video more and then sharing that with pre-construction clients, prospects, even clients during the process just because it’s a great way to communicate what to expect in the build with that 3-D stuff. That’s great. Let’s talk about 2021. It sounds like you guys are going to have… You had a great year last year. What do you attribute that to? Is that the demand? Is there just not that inventory out there? Is it interest rates? Is it a combination of both?

Dana Webb:

I think it’s a combination of both. We’re trying to get houses to a good price point. Moving forward for the year, most of our, well, all of our subdivisions, we’re going to own the development, like I had mentioned. We’re going to be the only builder in there. We don’t know of many other builders in the area that are focusing on just simplifying the floor plan and bringing it down to a more cost-effective cost for the customer.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. What is the advantage, I guess, from the client’s perspective of a company that is exclusive to the neighborhood, the developer and the only builder there? Does it create more of a cohesive neighborhood or everybody’s at the same price point house wise? Is that what the advantage is?

Dana Webb:

Yeah. I think so. If that developer has it, then the developer is the one that’s controlling that development and the infrastructure all goes in the way that they would want it. Just having ownership of all of that is a good plan, from what my boss has explained.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. No. No. It makes total sense. Well, it’s amazing you guys had a really good year despite all of the different hurdles we had to jump through. You guys look at 2021, is it just more of the same? Do you guys want to continue building more homes and adding staff where needed and that kind of thing?

Dana Webb:

Yes. We actually are. Right now, we’re currently in … we have seven subdivisions, we’re getting ready to launch a brand new subdivision. It’s pretty close to our office. It’s going to have about 200 homes or plus that will be in that one. We are adding staff. One of our biggest things that we’re pretty excited about is that we use Buildertrend for pretty much everything. I mean, for the Warranties, To-Do’s, Schedule, Daily Logs, everything we use it for, but during this time, we are going to start launching to start using the purchase ordering. All of us are so excited about that because we see so many areas where it’s going to cut down on cost. That’s something that we’re right now they are working on in the office, so getting ready to launch within the next month or two.

Paul Wurth:

That’s awesome. Yeah, that’s a big shift. I mean, by no means when you use Buildertrend, and most of our 17,000 clients know this, is that you don’t have to use it all. Typically, it comes in phases for companies. They’re ready to use another part of it. A big phase is POs. That’s a big one for people is that we’re going all in on the financials and there’s so many different efficiencies that are created by doing it all virtually. We’re excited for you on that one. In the upcoming 2021 year, we’re going to have, hopefully, Buildertrend University, our physical sessions we have once a month here in Omaha. Two-day sessions, deep dives. Some companies bring three or four people in. Look out for that. Maybe we’ll have you up here in Omaha to have a beer with you when we open things back up. We’re all looking for that. But it sounds like, Dana, you and the team at Ashlar are going to have a great year. We’re super excited for you guys.

Thank you for coming on and giving us your story. It was great to hear. You guys have a different, unique perspective with your volume. Where can we find more information about you if I’m in the Kansas City area? You guys have a website I assume.

Dana Webb:

We do. It’s ashlarhomeskc.com.

Paul Wurth:

And you guys have a …

Dana Webb:

We have a Facebook page, yes.

Paul Wurth:

That’s what I was going to say. So social media, where do you guys like to post on social media most? Is it Facebook typically?

Dana Webb:

Yeah, that’s pretty much all that we’re doing right now. We have an internal sales team. We have a sales team of five that work, our realtors and then a sales manager, they’re the ones that do most of that, of the posting and getting information out there.

Paul Wurth:

Cool. We’ll check you guys out on Facebook, maybe some other social media next year. We’ll be on the lookout for those 3-D walkthroughs of those houses.

Dana Webb:

Yeah. I’m excited about those.

Paul Wurth:

All right. Well, Dana, thank you again so much. We appreciate you and your business and we wish you the best in 2021.

Dana Webb:

Thank you. We appreciate you guys, too.

Paul Wurth:

Thank you again for tuning into this episode of “The Building Code.” Make sure you subscribe and like wherever you listen to podcasts. Also, head out to Facebook and join The Building Code Crew. And finally, drop me a line at podcast@buildertrend.com. We want to hear from you, suggestions on guests or topics, anything. Thanks so much for joining and we appreciate you.