Technology - and the constant pursuit of quality

This time I’ll talk about how technology is changing our expectations of quality in real estate and how we can use technology to help achieve these raised expectations.

Technology raises our expectations of quality in a couple of ways. The first and most obvious is that our interaction with devices such as smartphones and the increased reliability of products such as cars raises our day to day expectations that most things we buy will work flawlessly, every time and always.

The second is that due to social media any failure on the part of a purchase is instantly knowable to everyone in the world and the company involved will act very quickly to fix it before it damages the public’s perception of the product and company.

Technology allows us to meet these ever-increasing expectations and respond more quickly when the quality is not delivered.

The first mechanism by which technology allows companies to raise quality is through more advanced components and more advanced manufacturing techniques. The prime example is the car. In part due to companies such as Toyota with their commitment to constant improvement, we now expect cars to start every time, to work longer without requiring servicing, to deliver ever increasing performance and comfort each year and to be more efficient as they do all this. Improvements in cars mean that a modern car will emit fewer pollutants while travelling on a highway than a 1970 car did while stationary and turned off!

The second mechanism is the gathering of customer experiences and the integration of those results into improved design and manufacturing. This used to be done through limited customer surveys. Now all companies can track the customer experience through electronic reporting built in to the device itself or through websites where customers discuss and review their products and experiences.

So how does this apply to real estate? Well the quality expectation has been raised and companies must respond by improving the quality of their buildings or their reputation will very quickly suffer as customers spread the word about any dissatisfaction through social and other internet media.

Quality can be improved through the use of new technologies in materials and design to improve the inherent quality of any building. Ananda is constantly searching for and integrating these technologies, which range from new door locks to new ways of managing construction.

The other is to integrate customer experiences into the design and construction of every new building to ensure that any issues of quality are identified, fixed and never repeated.

Ananda is very fortunate to be partnered with a real estate developer that is number one for customer satisfaction in Japan. They have been developing systems for years to achieve this success. These systems are currently being transferred and taught to Ananda staff and will pay off in constantly improving quality.

There isn’t a button you can push that instantly improves every aspect of quality in real estate development. Instead it takes constant work on every aspect of design, build and after care to raise the quality standards.

The goal is Total Quality. It’s an ever moving goal as consumer expectations are constantly moving higher, but not chasing that goal dooms a developer to ever greater customer dissatisfaction and the chase itself results in ever improving living solutions for customers - so it’s a race we are eager to run.