CUSTOMER SERVICE IN MANAGING DEFECTS FOR RESIDENTIAL PROPERTIES

Abstract

Having spent a hefty sum on the purchase of their dream house, the expectations of new homeowners will inevitably be high. As such, homeowners are expected to examine every detail of their houses to search for possible defects that might have been caused by poor workmanship and inappropriate choices of materials and design. Similarly, the developers are expected to provide swift and regular follow-ups when they investigate defects reported by homeowners. The real estate industry has begun to place increasingly more emphasis on customer service. City Developments (CDL) set up their service office at Robinson Road in 2001 to provide before and after-sales services for their customers. Other developers in the market had, similarly, made necessary changes to their respective service systems to accommodate the ever-changing needs and expectations of homeowners. This study will focus on the level of customer service provided by the different developers while managing defects and how the changing needs and demands of homeowners are being met through the various customer service systems. It will also provide a deeper insight into the operations of the customer service departments managed by the different developers and the different ways in which the disputes between the developers and the homeowners are being handled or resolved. Questionnaires were distributed to six developments developed by three different developers to find out the homeowners' views on the customer service provided by their developer during defects management. Through a cross-tabulation carried out, it was found that there was no significance difference between the customer services provided by the developers.