Quality Measured

The company's primary focus, Jones says, is on delivering a home that is truly complete. "When you give somebody a complete home, the amount of calls coming in for service are greatly reduced, and you can really focus on that customer once they're in the home."

Construction and sales teams at each Centex community are rated on how they treat customers. To foster a healthy competition, quarterly awards are given to the teams earning the highest scores.

There's also a quality assurance walk-through prior to delivery. A third-party inspection firm rates superintendents on the completeness of the home. If anything is left undone, superintendents are rated on how quickly those items are finished.

The builder is particularly adept at keeping customers informed of their home's progress. Passing the buck is frowned on.

Salespeople are highly rated for their product knowledge and efforts to make the buying process pleasant. Jones says constant training is the key. Area sales managers visit communities several times a week to ensure agents are following up on a timely basis with prospects and customers.

"You've got to put in place tools that measure set requirements for communicating with customers and completeness of the home before delivery," says Jones. "Then you need to act on non-compliance. That's the hard part."