New - Build Your HBF Star Rating with LABC Warranty

Posted by LABC Warranty on 5th September 2022 -

Developers can now build their Home Builders’ Federation (HBF) Star Rating through LABC Warranty’s New Homes Survey.

The HBF Star Rating system, determined by responses to the HBF Customer Satisfaction Survey, is the gold-standard for new home surveys in the UK, and a five-star rating is among the most coveted endorsements for new-build and newly-converted home quality.

Builders and developers don’t need to be HBF members to join, and they don’t even need to be existing customers of LABC Warranty to join the satisfaction survey. However, only HBF members building more than 20 units a year will be eligible to build their HBF Star Rating through the survey.

Even better, for a limited time only LABC Warranty will offer this service free of charge.

HBF is the principal representative body for private sector home builders and voice of the home building industry in England and Wales.

“The star rating scheme is seen as the barometer for a house builders’ performance with regards to customer service,” said HBF Executive Chairman Stewart Baseley.

“The industry is already surveying around 100,000 customers annually and the addition of Premier Guarantee should allow for the opinions of even more to be considered.

“The scheme demonstrates the industry’s commitment to delivering a high quality product and excellent levels of customer service.”

If you want to get started building your HBF Star Rating with LABC Warranty, use the form on this page to get touch – or contact your account manager directly.

About the HBF Star Rating

The HBF Star Rating is assembled through surveys delivered to the owners of new-build homes. The survey asks a number of questions about the customer’s satisfaction with the quality of their home.

That includes areas like –

• Overall satisfaction with the quality of the home.
• Likelihood to recommend your homes to a friend.
• Customer service and handover.
• Design, layout, and cleanliness.

The answers to all of these questions will be made available for your own analysis, and will determined your HBF Star Rating.

How it works

The LABC Warranty New Homes Survey is sent to a customer roughly eight weeks after the legal completion of a new home.

If their email address has been provided, the survey will be arrive over email and direct the owner to an online portal where the survey is conducted. That portal is also open to developers that want to check data on responses.

For buyers without an email address, the survey arrives as a physical version that they fill out and return with a pre-paid envelope.

The survey period runs from October 1 to September 30 the following year. After that period has run, your collated and independently validated survey results will inform your HBF Star Rating for the following year. The results are also used as part of wider research and reflection into new-build and newly-converted homeowner satisfaction in the UK.

That’s not all

Your LABC Warranty New Homes Survey can also be customised with extra questions to really get under the skin of how customers feel about the quality of homes that you build, and the quality of service they receive.

That could be questions around details and features unique to your homes, specific questions about your customer service processes, or anything else that would create valuable feedback for your next homes.

If the only thing that’s really important to you is honest, independent feedback from customers, you may also choose to send the LABC Warranty New Homes Survey without applying for the associated HBF Star Rating.

More questions?

There’s a more information and some FAQs available on the LABC Warranty website here. Feel free to get in touch with your LABC Warranty account manager if you have any specific questions.