Better Communication Between Builders and Customers with Ron Nussbaum

December 20, 2022
64. Better Communication Between Builders and Customers with Ron Nussbaum

One of the reasons there are so many problems in the home building industry is poor communication.  Ron Nussbaum has developed software to help make this problem better.

Here are some important moments with Ron Nussbaum from the podcast: 

At 5:24  Tell us about the difference your software makes on a construction project?

At 14:45 How does your software improve the relationship between builders and customers?

At 22:18  Once the homeowner is living in the house and the builder is on to the next project, does Nuttnest help with problems that come up?  

Here are some ways to follow Ron:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ronwesley.nussbaum

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ron-nussbaum/ 

Nuttnest Website: https://nuttnest.com   

Ron’s Website: https://moneyronwesley.com  

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moneyronwesley/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Moneyronwesley

Important information from Homeowners Be Aware:

Here are ways you can follow us on-line:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/homeownersbeaware/

Website: https://homeownersbeaware.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-siegal/

If you'd like to reach me for any reason, here's the link to my contact form:

https://homeownersbeaware.com/contact

Here's the link to the trailer for the documentary film I'm making: Built to Last: Buyer Beware.

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Thanks for listening!

Transcript

George Siegal: 0:00

If you've ever been involved in building or remodeling a house, you probably noticed how crucial good communication is to a successful job. There are so many problems in the build process that could be solved if people on the job just communicated better. Now, I've seen many situations where the people building the home actually seemed bothered by the fact the customer wanted to know more about what was going on. And what annoys me most about the construction industry is the fact for most of us, our home is our biggest investment. Communication with us shouldn't be an annoyance for the builder. It should be a necessity. My guest today sees this clearly and has developed software to help the construction industry communicate better with its customers. Ron Nusbaum is the founder and CEO of Nuttnest now. He saw a big problem and created a way to make it better. I'm George Siegal and this is the Tell Us How to Make It Better podcast. Every week we introduce you to people who are working on real world problems and providing actual solutions. Tell Us How to Make it Better is partnering with The Readiness Lab, the home for podcasts webinars and training in the field of emergency and disaster services. Ron, thanks for joining me today.

Ron Nussbaum: 1:09

Hey, great to be here and thanks for having me today.

George Siegal: 1:13

No, glad to have you. I know we made, uh, contact with each other on LinkedIn and, um, I said, wow, this guy is doing something that I think is very relevant to so many of the things that I talk about. So, uh, I'm, I'm pleased to have you on. So tell us what the problem is that you are working on and what you're doing to make that problem better.

Ron Nussbaum: 1:32

Yeah, absolutely. So let, let me, I'll just tell a little story on why we're here now. Doing what we're doing is, uh, I, I spent over a decade in residential construction and from digging the hose to leadership, and one thing I heard all too often was, Hey, we love you. We love your work, we love your guys, but your communication can suck as a company. And after hearing that, And being able to go back and look at escalated customers, and I could link about 90% of my escalated customers to a singular point where there was a communication breakdown. I thought there has to be a better way. This isn't what I'm, I'm not meant to be out e escalators, how e escalated customers' houses fixing problems. We need to have a better way that we can communicate. And I started like just thinking in my mind, what does that look like? And that's where Nuttnest came from and I was able to connect with some great guys uh, to be able to build the platform and get us to where we are now. And our goal is to completely reimagine what customer interactions look like between contractors, builders, home service providers with homeowners, and solve the number one complaint that you hear when you start talking about contractors is communication.

George Siegal: 2:57

Absolutely. I think that, um, almost everybody that I know that's ever built a house, I, I haven't talked to many people that go, yeah, my builder's a good buddy of mine now. And, um, we, we wanna have contact with them because it's a very personal experience. Somebody's building something for you that you're gonna live in with your family. You're generally putting a lot of money into what they're building for you. And I think as a customer, I feel. Okay. They're in a business to make money, but it's kind of counterintuitive to what I'm in it for. I want the best house possible. They're trying to make money. Somewhere in between. I think there's a real disconnect.

Ron Nussbaum: 3:33

Yeah. You know? BU builders and contractors are really good at what they do, and that's the building aspect of things. Creating that dream house for you, making it so it is that amazing place, but there's stuff they're not good at. And there there's balls that get dropped along the way and creating processes or creating software and technology that can allow people to be really, really good at what they do, but still not drop the ball. That, that's where my passion's at and moving the construction industry forward and changing that mindset around it to where you say, like, it's kind of counterintuitive what they're doing. I want the best product. They want to make a profit. I want to create a world where everybody feels they're on the same page and we create some lifelong customers to where you're like, man, that was an amazing experience. I'm glad that builder made money on this project because my house is awesome and it's everything that I ever wanted. And we were able to communicate effectively throughout that process. That's where I want to get to. So you, as an end customer are happy that contractor is profitable so they can stay in business and move on to that next house? Yeah. I've built,

George Siegal: 4:52

I think I've been involved in four or five construction projects for me personally, and I'm Oh, for five, I, I've never felt like, wow, this, this, this worked out the way I wanted it. So tell me how the software works and how will it improve things, because I know a number of things that, that I think are, are issues that, that I've run into problems with. One is when they throw change orders at you two is, uh, the cleanliness on the job site three is thinking that they even care. I mean, how has the software improved what I think are three pretty big things?

Ron Nussbaum: 5:24

So what's amazing about what we're doing is we work kind of as air traffic control for contractors. Cause that contractor or that builder that comes out and you do those initial plans and everything with 95% of your questions after they leave. They're probably not the person within their company to talk about. We help direct that traffic. I like to say we're like air traffic control for contractors, builders, and home service providers. So instead of you picking up the phone calling John the builder who's probably out working with another customer at the time to ask a question about when are guys going to be out there, or a color choice or something like that. We're putting you in direct contact with the right person at his company to answer that question. So my goal is to have one cause solutions. So when you pick up that phone and reach out, you are getting an answer, right then instead of getting, Hey, I'm not the guy, sorry, that's Bill. I'll get Bill to reach out to you. Or, Hey, I'll run over. I'll talk to Bill and I'll get back to you. That's where that ball gets dropped. And then next thing we know, a little fire starts because you didn't get the answer to what you were looking to get an answer for. You are getting aggravated about it. And Bill, don't even know you are looking to get an answer to this right now. So we want to create direct lines of communication with the right people. And that's one of the biggest downfalls that we have in the building industry and contracting is when I was running operations, I would get sales questions, I would get marketing, I would get all these questions because people would look up on the website, say, Hey, Ron Nussbaum, he's the guy here. I'm gonna reach out to him. Well, Chances are I probably wasn't the right guy, and then I would have to go find the right person. And then chances are I'd get into a conversation at the coffee pot, and then next thing, I'm not getting back to you, and then you're getting aggravated about something that I dropped the ball on that could easily been solved. So we're creating those direct lines of communication as well as we're creating a feed. Think of like an Instagram or Facebook feed, but for your project. So you can go on there. You can see in real time what's going on on your build? Who's there? What are some updated pictures? What was my last communication? What did that look like? So all of this is happening in real time. So the communication piece and everything is getting put back into your hands so you are not afraid to reach out. Because I think a lot of times what we see customers say is, I'm just not going to make the call because they can't answer my question. And then, Then that, then we have that breakdown before the question is even asked, and I want to get to a world where customers are willing to reach out because they know they're going to get that answer. It's time for

George Siegal: 8:27

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Ron Nussbaum: 9:12

So the great thing is, is that builder, that contractor, they pick who these points of contact are at their company, and if they don't want to give that up, then if they're going to be the one receiving the questions, receiving the cause and the pro, uh, one of the things that we help with is scalability, because that's not scalable if you want to continue to grow. I always recommend the, the main guys take some of these phone calls. Because you're gonna be able to nip some problems in the butt before they become major issues. You're gonna be able to start to see some trends. But the goal should be is who's the person at your company that can answer these questions? So every time that customer reaches out, you know exactly what's happening. And then doing training and putting the pro processes in place to where you have good customer communication, you train on this. Your guys know what to say. The expectations are set out there in giving up some of that control. Uh, and if you don't want to, we'll more than find to route that communication to you. But understand that the expectations from us at Nuttnest is going to be, we want to have one cause solution. So if you want to take those cause. Be prepared to have answers and not beat around the bush and not give direct answers.

George Siegal: 10:35

Yeah, that would require looking within. Um, but I, I, I think if they're using your service, they probably realize that they need to, um, have some help there. Now I read this article. Um, from real estate, which new home construction survey. I thought this was really interesting. I, you know, I, I guess you could tell me if you feel it's accurate or not. 66% of buyers feel some form of regret about the home building process, including 26% who wish they had purchased an existing home instead. That's a pretty high number of people that aren't happy with the experience.

Ron Nussbaum: 11:06

Yeah, absolutely. I, I would. I would agree with those numbers. I mean, we, we look at, from a, a construction perspective, 35% of time on a job site is wasted because of miscommunication. So when you start talking about the overall impact, On the customer experience in the business end because we can't get people on the same page. It's a huge impact and I, I think now we're starting to see a lot of people move out of just what you just talked about, building a house to buying a house, but then they're doing renovations in running into the same problems as if you would go build a new home.

George Siegal: 11:49

Yeah. And then that gets into the whole thing. I, I was telling you before we started about my documentary film, the Last House Standing that, uh, focuses on how we buy homes, we reward other people's mediocrity because we're buying homes that aren't, uh, capable of handling the disaster that could hit that area. So now you get into older homes versus newer homes, but h but here's where the problem is. We interviewed a builder in, um, Oklahoma, who I asked him, whose responsibility is it to be building a safer house? Is it the responsibility of the home buyer to request it or the home builder to do it? And he said, it's the home buyer's responsibility because builders don't wanna invest in all that stuff that the home buyer might not want. So then it comes down to tougher building codes, which are very hard to get changed. So the reality is buying new is your best shot of getting a safe house, but the builder has to be building a safe house.

Ron Nussbaum: 12:42

Yeah, I mean, I, I think that opens up a whole nother discussion on what is, what is happening out in the building industry. And I think as we make a move towards technology, which is what we're seeing is the, the big shift that's happening in construction right now headed into 2023, is a shift towards technology and the more that happens, the more it will start to open up people's eyes on what are stuff that's available and how can we learn better, uh, from a contractor's perspective and a homeowner's perspective, I think everything's in research and one of the things that we find is Nuttnest as we've brought out is we're an add-on service. We help builders close more dealers, because now you can say, Hey, when I leave here, you're gonna download the Nuttnest app. This is how we're going to communicate. It's gonna be your direct line to us. But what we're finding is as customers use that they have that great experience. It starts to become something that they're asking for and they want to see, uh, with other contractors because once you have that great experience, you are O for five. I hope your nets, the net builder you use are contractors, are Nuttnest, uh, contractor. We get your one for six.

George Siegal: 14:06

I don't think I'll ever do it again.

Ron Nussbaum: 14:07

You wanna do business with contractors and builders that use our platform?

George Siegal: 14:13

Yeah. It's gonna be hard for me to put my toes in the water again. Now, third, here's a statistic that I think really makes your software valuable. So you're probably gonna see this in your next brochure. 32% of people would not recommend their builders or contractors to others, including 11% who would turn down a financial incentive for referrals and 9% who wouldn't recommend their builder under any circumstances. I mean, repeat business, word of mouth, that has to matter to these men and women building homes. And that's where I think you really have a huge opportunity.

Ron Nussbaum: 14:45

Yeah, absolutely. And just like what I was just talking about with creating those lifelong customers and people that love the contractors they work with, and it is just about bridging that gap because it, it is not that builders and contractors want to do a bad job. These are some of the best PE I I spent over a decade in the industry, out in the field. Like I said, from digging the holes to leadership, some of the best people you will ever meet, they'll giving you the shirt off of their back. It is that we just don't have the appropriate processes in place and the appropriate software to be able to help move the ball forward, and we're finally getting to a place where that's becoming possible. With software like Nuttnest and other CRMs and stuff that have been put out there, it starts to move that bar on what customer service looks like in the construction industry. And it starts to allow us to create lifelong customers. And that's my, my mission is to just change the mindset around construction and completely grow that, cuz I, I personally think we get a bad rap. Uh, we, and we allow it to happen. Uh, we need to go out there and say, Hey, no, we want to be good at this. That's why we're implementing these processes, these procedures in place, and become really good at it. And then change that mindset. Yeah, I think

George Siegal: 16:16

builders could have a lot better, uh, a reputation too though, if they proactively said, we're gonna build the best, safest house possible. And I know that's a tough thing to do, to say to somebody who has a business where they're trying to make money. Look, spend more and maybe people will buy it. You know, I, I'm not saying that's a slam dunk solution, but as someone who, who does films and sees damage every year, things wiped out, things destroyed. It would be nice to see somebody step up and say, okay, enough of that. Let's, let's stop that.

Ron Nussbaum: 16:48

Yeah, I, I, I think, like I said, that's a great conversation to have and what does that look like when we're pumping out neighborhoods all over the country, one right after another, and with who knows where we're headed in a trajectory for the housing market. What does that start to look like?

George Siegal: 17:11

Yeah, it'd be great too if there was more transparency. So if I hired you to build my house I got to see who the subs are you're gonna be working with and maybe check out who they are. Um, what seems interesting about your software? Does it give the home buyer more of a chance to, to, to feel some of the other parts of the job other than just what the builder or the salesperson is telling them as they're going through the process?

Ron Nussbaum: 17:36

So yeah, we want to build transparency in the construction industry and it it's up to that builder and that contractor on what that commu, who that communication's with. But by putting the customer in the driver's seat for that communication in reaching out, we start to create a different dialogue than the what we've had in the past where it's the builder or contractor saying this or that. Uh, we're given that customer a voice because they feel they can reach out cuz they're reaching out to the right person now. They're no longer call picking up the phone and possibly talking to a receptionist somewhere. Or like you said, the sales rep who's probably moved on to the next deal and it is just not the right person to talk to. Uh, we want to make sure that we're putting that homeowner in touch with the, who's running the scheduler, the project managers, the people on site, the, the people that are actually able to answer the questions instead of saying, sorry, hey, I'm not the right guy. Let me get back to you.

George Siegal: 18:42

Yeah. I'm always a little, uh, skeptical about sales guys. We bought a house, um, in, in Texas that was on a golf course first of all, one of the dumbest things any human being could ever do know if you're not in the right spot on the golf course. But the sales guy told us the way the house was positioned, it wouldn't get very many golf ball. Well, we got pelted by golf balls on a regular basis. I mean, it was unbelievable how many golf balls would hit that house and sure we're the last line we're stupid because we should have gone out there and probably played around and see how many times we hit that lot. But I think salespeople will say anything. So you really do. I think what I'm curious about with your, your pro, your software is it gets you beyond that and where you can keep track of things during the process.

Ron Nussbaum: 19:26

Yeah, right there from a customer perspective, you go right into Nuttnest app and that's where you look at your project. That's the controlling factor. Like I said, we've created like a live feed in there, like Facebook and Instagram that allows you to see exactly what's happening. What was my last communication? What are the updates? Who's at the place right now? Uh, what is to come? So you have that information real. Right there in front of you.

George Siegal: 19:56

I think that's huge. I mean, when I've seen houses that have been destroyed or damaged by disasters, a lot of times when the walls are opened up, you find bags of food, beer, cans, all kinds of garbage. I mean, if you could actually be watching what's going on during the process, and a lot of that's not the builder's fault. I think a lot of it is the the supervisor's fault who's out there watching them, and I think a project is only as good as the guy that's watching the people doing the work. But if you're giving people access to see that stuff, I think that's huge.

Ron Nussbaum: 20:26

Yeah, absolutely. And that's what comes in with that transparency, uh, in providing that. W we aim to just completely disrupt what communication looks like in the construction industry. And I, I try not to use that word because I, I think it's become way overused. I'm a non-technical tech founder. I come from the construction industry. I, I, I partnered with people that are really good in the tech space, and that allows us to put out an amazing tech product. But at the end of the day, we're here to solve a problem. I'm not, I didn't just dream something up and say, Hey, we're gonna build this and push it out there. This is from real world statistics, uh, problems I dealt with just like yourself on five different builds from a customer perspective, you felt that pain. I felt that pain from being the, the supervisor on the job site to being the homeowner and having worked on my own house, I've felt the communication breakdown, pain, and I, I think we can just do better and that's what Nuttnest is here to do. It's to help contractors, builders, home service providers do better every day.

George Siegal: 21:41

Yeah. That article was very encouraging for me because I, I don't feel like I'm the lone, rogue asshole out there that, that has had a bad experience. It sounds like it's something because when I've talked to friends who have, have built homes, everybody seems to have their, their challenges and their issues, and I know it's a very difficult thing to do. A lot of it is, you know, sometimes you just can't control things, but you know, like once you're in a house and you find out the things that were done poorly, , um, it sounds like d does this take you beyond the build or like, so six months after I move in and I find out that problem X is cropping up on my house, once the builder is moved on, does it, does it still help the buyer?

Ron Nussbaum: 22:18

So this, your information stays in there, so you can go in there and look back in that project. Reach out to the representative at the company for any after service issues as well. Uh, a lot of contractors have annual service programs and builders have annual ma, all that kind of stuff that comes. This allows you to reach out to the right person at the company to get that stuff scheduled and have somebody come out there and take a look at it. So if you are having an issue, you get back in there, you reach out to the correct person. So you're not just calling the company, you're calling that sales rep. And then you're kind of stuck in that rabbit loop where, oh, we have an issue. No one, you know, and no one wants to be the one to bring it up at the company or bring it to the next person, but we're going to direct you to the person that handles that kind of stuff. So it becomes an efficient, uh, it can have a remarkable recovery. When there's a problem, somebody can get out there and we can have a quick solution to it.

George Siegal: 23:21

Now having come from the work, the construction side of the business, do you see that there's an issue now with finding quality subs or, or just the workers to be out there? And I've heard that from a lot of people that I've spoke with is they say it's hard to, to fill a crew sometimes it's hard to get people that wanna work, that wanna show up that are skilled. Does that create a bigger challenge for everybody when that, when that happens?

Ron Nussbaum: 23:47

Yeah. I mean, anytime when you can't get the right people there, but I, I think that's, that comes down to training and expectations on what you are looking for. I, if you're going out and finding the cheapest subs you possibly can or the cheapest labor, and you're not investing anything in that, Those, those are the results you're going to get. So if, if you're willing to invest and help move the ball for everybody around you, those problems start to go away. Uh, I've been. I've had a, a, a couple people reach out from the commercial construction realm of things to use the Nuttnest platform to help run job sites. Not from a customer contractor perspective, but from a general contractor, to subs, because they feel like they, by doing that they could have better communication on their job sites and then create better products, be more efficient, create a better bottom line, and a better experience for everybody. So the same thing can. co-inspire to residential construction as well to where we can possibly help out on that end and start getting everybody on the same page so you don't have the communication breakdowns that we're talking about where we don't have people showing up to do the work, which is then creating backlogs and creating problems for the end customer. And at the end of the day, the end customer is what matters. So if I'm a builder or a contractor and I'm out there and I'm having issues with laborers showing up, I, I think I am I'm a lifelong learner. I'm going to look at what I can start to do better to get people to that job site and how can we invest in all laborers and all subcontractors to help bring them our way? Because if they're not on your job site, they're probably on somebody else's job site. They're not sitting at home doing nothing. I can guarantee you that.

George Siegal: 25:50

Now, does your software handle change orders? Because that's one of the biggest problems in a build experience when you realize, okay, I don't want the pink walls. I'd rather have the blue, and then you find out, well, there's a 20% markup and this and this and this. I mean, does it make it more efficient for the, for the home buyer side?

Ron Nussbaum: 26:08

So you can have all that date, all of that documents and everything in there. So it is seeable. We're, we're purely a communication platform and that's what we want to be really good at. We're not an Angie's List, we're not a c C.R.M., uh, we don't want to muddy the waters cuz we want to fix the problem of communication. So that's our main focus. Now could we grow into something else down the road? You never know. But right now, communication is what we're here to fix.

George Siegal: 26:40

Yeah, it certainly seems like an important thing to fix. So, uh, it's, it's great to hear that you're on this Now, you as an entrepreneurial guy, you know, people that listen to the podcast might have an idea or something that they wanna do, a business idea. What would you say to them? Would be a good push to get them moving cuz a lot of people just have ideas and they go, I, I just haven't done anything with it.

Ron Nussbaum: 27:03

I would just take action. I'm a big component of taking action. It took me a couple years to get where I was in front of the right people to be able to move this forward. Uh, stuff doesn't just happen overnight, but it won't never, it would never happen. If you don't start taking action in putting yourself in a position where you can generate some results, and I, I think that's the biggest thing you have to do. You can't be scared. You have to step out there. And I like to say the universe is never wrong. It's just up to us to figure out what we need to do with the current situation we're in or what the current connection, what we need to make out of that.

George Siegal: 27:47

Very good. So Ron, what's the best way people can get in touch with you and that they can learn more about Nut Net?

Ron Nussbaum: 27:54

Yeah, so you can find me on LinkedIn, uh, or Nuttnest.com. Go on there, schedule a demo and I personally do 'em, so if you want to talk, see exactly what our software looks like, feel free to go on there, set up a time, and I would love to show you what we're doing.

George Siegal: 28:10

Well, it sounds like you're doing great stuff, man. I wish you nothing but success with it, uh, because like I say, that's a process that could certainly be smoother and uh, it's good to see somebody coming up with a creative way to make it better.

Ron Nussbaum: 28:21

Yes, thank you. And, uh, like I said, we're gonna change to complete, completely change the industry and, uh, what communication looks like. And I'm glad for people like you that want to have that conversation and talk about the what needs to change.

George Siegal: 28:37

I'm all about making it better and I'm glad to see you're doing it. Thanks, Ron. Appreciate you coming on.

Ron Nussbaum: 28:42

Awesome. Thank you.

George Siegal: 28:44

Thank you so much for listening to today's Tell Us How to Make It Better podcast. You can get all the information about Ron in the show notes, and if you have any questions for me or ideas about future podcasts, there's also a contact form link in the show notes, and I would love to hear from you. Thanks again for listening. See you next time.