There's a big difference between building a house and building a home. The former is defined by four walls and one roof, whereas the latter has a much deeper meening and is often the embodiment of lifelong dreams and aspirations.
Meeting Thomas Noreila, the CEO of Trähus on a crisp and sunny day, I have no doubt about which of the options Thomas prefers to build for his customers.
"We are in the home building business", he says and continues. "We chose to specialize in restoring old, wooden houses for our customers. Wood is an amazing material and with the right skills and tools can turn the most run-down building into a beautiful home".
Profitability was weak
Listening to Thomas talk about his favorite restoration projects, it's hard to believe that just a year-and-a-half ago, he was very close to calling it quits.
Profitability was weak and multiple customer complaints had resulted in costly rework having to be done on already completed projects. Something had to be done.
Finding the problem
"The big eureka moment for me was when I realized that all the rework and customer complaints we experienced had less to do with the quality of our work and more to do with not meeting customer expectations.
Successfully completing a project requires close communication and collaboration between all project team members, - including the homeowner."
Improved communication
"Armed with this insight, we took deliberate action to always include the customer in all building phases and ensure that the customer is always kept in the loop and is able to influence the direction of the building project.
We chose to use Buildbite as the tool for enabling our transformation, and we never looked back".
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"I'm still positively shocked about how the results. But we did work hard on pulling off the transformation. This is a very traditional business and many skilled craftsmen aren't used to using smartphone applications for documenting their work. For some, it can feel intrusive and seen as a sign of distrust towards the craftsmen.
The breakthrough for us was when we started using Buildbite's sharing capabilities directly with the customer and the craftsman would receive praise from the customer directly in the project task chat for all to see."
Thomas Noreila , CEO