For our customers, the pre and post sales experience is central to buyer satisfaction, and in turn directly influences their willingness to recommend the Bellway brand. We aspire to provide the best possible experience for each and every customer, reinforcing our reputation as a high quality national home builder.
Bellway’s highly trained and dedicated team of sales advisors are the first people our customers meet. They build on this relationship throughout the buying experience, providing help and support from the home reservation stage through to legal completion and beyond. They are committed to ensuring that the whole process runs as smoothly as possible. Following completion, our Customer Charter clearly communicates what our customers can expect from their after-sales experience.
Senior management, site management, sales advisors and customer care teams are highly trained in all aspects of customer service. This ensures that customer-facing employees are equipped with an advanced level of listening and communication skills, to better understand and respond to customer needs in a proactive, professional and friendly manner.
Sales teams follow an in-depth induction plan when joining Bellway, to ensure that they are trained to the highest level in both sales and customer relations. This is further supported by an ongoing customer care training programme, ensuring we continue to offer the best levels of service when dealing with new and existing customers.
Bellway sales offices have been redesigned to provide a comfortable, contemporary and pleasant setting for the sales experience, one in which customers can feel relaxed when choosing their new home. Where possible, one or more showhomes are available to view, providing a sample of the house types and quality of product available.
Feeling part of a new community and being comfortable in an unfamiliar environment is an important consideration in choosing where to live. In addition to the assistance provided by the sales teams, we support customers in making the best decision on purchasing a new home in the right location for their needs.
We have listened to our customers when they tell us what local area information they need to know and have compiled it in an easy to use folder which is available to view in sales offices. Along with information specific to the development and purchase process, the My Space folders contain a wealth of details about the local area. Each folder is unique to the site location and information will typically include:
Development brochures are available directly from sales offices, by request via telephone and from our website. Rigorous controls are in place to ensure that all information provided is as accurate as possible. Good quality computer generated images are used to provide customers with the best possible impression of how the properties will look, both internally and externally.
We also provide accurate and high quality information regarding the pricing and availability of the developments on our website.
Following reservation of a property, our customers will be invited to a meeting with their site manager, allowing them to discuss any technical aspects of the property and the current build stage.
Where the practicalities of the construction allow, we endeavour to provide our customers with the opportunity to inspect the property during the construction phase. This provides our customers with confidence in the quality of the construction of their new home.
Once a property has passed its Quality Control Final Inspection (QCFI), customers are invited to attend a Pre-Occupation Demonstration which takes place prior to legal completion. The customer will be offered an opportunity to inspect their new home unattended, prior to the site manager demonstrating the fundamental workings of the property. Customers are encouraged to ask questions at this meeting and we aim to supply all the information they need to enjoy their new home once they move in.
On the day of legal completion the sales advisor and site manager show the customer to the property. Here, they complete a Quality Assurance Form ensuring the customer is happy with the quality of their new home. We provide a Customer Handover Pack which contains important information about the home and how to care for it, together with the manuals and guarantees for products fitted in their home. We realise that this is a special occasion for the customer and we work hard to make it as memorable as possible. Our Customer Charter sets out what our customers can expect from Bellway.
We are committed to continual improvement across all of our operations. We take our customer service and quality standards very seriously. We use the Home Builders’ Federation New Home Satisfaction Survey results to help us measure the degree of satisfaction with our service. Owners of new homes are asked a series of questions to determine how happy they are with the quality of their home and the service they have received, from first visiting the sales office to the day they moved in and beyond. Based on these factors, customers are asked how likely they are to recommend Bellway to a friend. These measures are used to define and improve standards across our business.
By listening to our customers we can identify where we need to raise our performance, ensuring procedures are put in place to make the necessary changes. Procedure training, spot checks and mystery shopping help to reinforce higher standards and ensure that new procedures quickly become established practice.
| Summary of performance |
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We retained our 5-star homebuilder rating from the House Builders Federation (HBF) (2020 – 5 Star) for the fifth year running. This means that at least nine out of ten of our customers would recommend Bellway to a friend |
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39 of our site managers won National House Building Council (NHBC) Pride in the Job Awards (2020 – 44). |
Performance data
