Benefit to HBAs

• Offering the survey to members is another value add for membership with your association, as only CHBA members can participate. See the next section on benefit to members for how it adds value.
• HBAs receive free copies of the full survey results for your area (by request). The more your members participate, the better the data will be. 
• You can use that data for HBA advocacy – show government and other industry organizations what local residents really need in their homes, right from the source. The survey touches on why people would buy their next home, what types of homes people want (including home size, lot size, etc.), what sort of public amenities are important to them (including proximity to transit and work), and how important energy efficiency is to them.
• You can use that data for HBA communications – the contents make for interesting social media tidbits that can start conversations on your social media platforms among the public and builders, and good stories for your blog or newsletter, or for media, especially if you can provide them with corresponding high-quality images (possibly sourced from your awards competition or directly from your members).
  

Benefit to Members

• Customers are asked about what resources they used to find their builder – using that information, builders can make marketing decisions that will have more impact for a lower cost.
• Customers provide substantial demographic information, allowing builders to create consumer profiles to market towards in their area.
• Customers tell what they were looking for in a home, and what they could live without – by understanding how homeowners prioritize features and finishes in the home, builders can make homes more appealing at every price point, and market those features of existing models that appeal to current trends.
• Launched in 2015, the survey has enough history to be able to see emerging trends – giving builders insight into which features are climbing in desirability and which ones are on their way out.
• Participating builders get complimentary access to their customers' response data, providing valuable feedback.
• Even smaller-volume builders benefit by participating. If a small-volume builder thinks their client sample size is too small to make use of, they can still get great data if enough builders in their area participate, because all CHBA members receive the entire survey results completely free – that includes the national report, and access to the raw data, allowing them to tap into the feedback from larger-volume builders’ customers.
  
  

Process and Timeline

It takes several months to collect data and prepare the survey results. While the exact dates vary each year, the process is as follows:

1. Member Recruitment
   In this phase, which typically lasts 2-4 weeks, CHBA National and HBAs actively promote survey participation to members. The goal is to get as many builders and developers to participate in the survey as possible. The action we ask members to take at this time is to fill in a very quick (2 minute) form that indicates their interest. HBAs are encouraged to also promote survey participation. Having concrete data to point to during advocacy conversations can go a long way.
   
   
2. Member Participation
   CHBA National follows up with builders/developers who have indicated their interest by emailing them a customer contact information excel template and asking them to return it as soon as possible. If the builder/developer completed this step, they have successfully participated in the survey. There is no hard cut-off date for this step, but the sooner we get the information from the builders, the sooner we can move on to the next step. No action is required from HBAs in this step.
   
   
3. Customer Participation
   CHBA National then contacts all of the customers that the builders/renovators provided contact information for. We introduce ourselves and the purpose of the survey, and provide each customer with a unique link to access the survey. CHBA National follows up with customers several times over a period of a month or two. No action is required from HBAs in this step.
   
   
4. Preparing Survey Results
   Avid Ratings Canada directly receives all of the customers’ survey answers and prepares the data for industry use. Avid, with CHBA, prepares a final survey report to be available for purchase (free for CHBA members). No action is required from HBAs in this step.
   
   
5. Survey Published
   The final study results are made available for purchase (free for CHBA members), and sales continue throughout the year until the next survey is made available. CHBA National promotes the purchase of the survey results at this time, and HBAs are encouraged to do so as well. HBAs can also obtain a free copy of the full survey results to use in your own advocacy and marketing.
   

How Builders Participate in the Survey

For full details and to see what information is given to members, visit the Survey Participation page.

To summarize:

Step 1: Builders sign-up to participate by registering here.

Step 2: After they sign up, CHBA National will email builders with an excel file and instructions on how to enter their company data. The data submission is fast and easy, and should take less than 15 minutes. All that’s required is contact information for their buyers from the last two years.

Step 3: Buyers are contacted by CHBA National (or Avid Ratings Canada if the builder is an existing Avid client) and invited to complete the survey.

Step 4: Participating CHBA Members receive a complimentary report on their buyers’ feedback once the survey results are released. The full survey is available for free for all members (a $495 value).

Promotional Toolbox for HBAs

This dropbox contains sharable graphics, images, and relevant links to more information that you can use to promote participation, as well as text that you can drop into emails, newsletters, or on your website. We also have a recorded webinar on how to use the survey on the members’ only webinar page of our website. If there is any material that you need that we haven’t supplied, please contact us (eoc@chba.ca) for support.

How Members/HBAs Access the Survey Results

The new survey is available for each year after the survey results are released. Orders are placed through the National Office and members and HBAs receive free access. The survey remains available throughout the year until the next one is out. It is available for purchase for non-members.