Why Hunter Quinn Homes earns the top NPS score among homebuilders

The Net Promoter Score is a measurement of customer satisfaction. When a consumer is preparing to make the big investment of buying a home, checking the NPS is an important step toward making the right choice. To influence a buyer to invest in you, the builder, invest in your business’s customer experience and satisfaction. Here’s why Hunter Quinn Homes earns the top NPS score among homebuilders.

Hunter Quinn Homes earned a 78 NPS. In 2020, the average NPS for the homebuilding industry was 31.1. Currently, that figure has risen  to 45. A score between 71 and 100 indicates the company is outperforming its competitors. Clearly, our industry has work to do.

Let’s start with a clear understanding of the Net Promoter Score’s purpose and function.

The Net Promoter Score is a standardized metric designed to measure the customer experience (CX), not just satisfaction. Fortune 1000 companies have been using the metric for 20 years, to gauge their operational efficiency, performance, and customer satisfaction.

The NPS rating is based on a single question:

“How likely are you to recommend us to a family member or friend?”

Homeowners respond on a scale from 1 to 10, with “10” signifying “Extremely Satisfied”. Those customers are then grouped into three categories:

Promoters (9–10): Highly satisfied customers who are likely to recommend the builder

Passives (7–8): Customers who feel they received what they paid for, but are not strong advocates

Detractors (6 or below): Customers who are dissatisfied and unlikely to recommend

NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters. Passives are considered neutral and are, therefore, not figured into the bottom line. NPS can range from -100 to  +100. If, for example, you have 80% Promoters and 20% Detractors, your NPS would be 60 (80 minus 20). 

The score is impacted by industry, market (geographic region and demographic profiles), competition, and customer tolerance levels. This last factor is a big one for homebuilders. Buyers have high expectations, and when those aren’t met, they will be vocal. Word of mouth turns sour, as do your reviews.

As a homebuilder operating across South Carolina, Florida, and North Carolina, Hunter Quinn Homes uses the Net Promoter Score as one of several tools to measure how consistently we are turning homeowners into advocates over time. Our presence across multiple regions provides insight into how expectations and experiences evolve across different markets, both geographic and demographic.

So, what has Hunter Quinn Homes done to exceed industry averages and earn an NPS of 78?

Customer care is built into our culture.

When Will Herring started Hunter Quinn Homes in 2013, he established an underlying mission of customer care. In Herring’s view, the customer could be the homebuyer, a partner, tradesperson, coworker, or vendor. They each deserved to experience excellence.

His background spanned both local and national homebuilders. Herring learned about scale and processes from the production builders, but discovered the value of communication, accountability, and customer commitment from the local builder.

Herring carefully built a team of professionals who shared his vision of service. That extends to community outreach, which includes building for Habitat for Humanity and HGTV’s “Rock the Block”.

“I set it as my task to find the right people with the right mix of skills and chemistry to build the company in a healthy way,” says Herring. “That meant treating and investing in our personnel like a customer. How can we best serve them?”

By emphasizing a culture of service, Hunter Quinn Homes has not only created a strong team, but also maintained a high level of talent retention. Keeping good people contributes to consistency in quality and service—and a significant reason why Hunter Quinn Homes earns the top NPS score among homebuilders.

NPS is not seen as a static measurement.

Hunter Quinn Homes measures NPS at multiple stages of the homeowner experience and evaluates results on a blended, trailing basis, beginning with a post-purchase survey and continuing beyond the warranty phase. By consistently monitoring CX, leadership can identify areas that need improvement. Todd Nowicki, Chief Operating Officer of Hunter Quinn Homes, believes that being open to change and having a system that accommodates them are essential to responding to any increase in Detractor numbers.

“From an operations standpoint, we must remain dynamic and responsive,” says Nowicki, who joined the company in 2017. In 2020, the company earned the Best Customer Experience Award from CustomerInsight. “We don’t wait till closing and beyond to manage customer expectations.”

Emotion impacts your score.

Buying a home is an emotional experience. The choice determines the buyer’s way of life for years to come. They can change the furniture, paint the walls, and replace the flooring, but their experience of buying that home remains the same.

You must understand how that emotion impacts CX. Early feedback often reflects excitement around move-in. With heightened emotion, even simple actions can have a lasting impact, like a phone call with an update on the schedule or a regular check-in with the buyer to keep the connection intact. 

Longer-term feedback captures the homeowner’s view of our communication, warranty support, and follow-through, all of which are critical influencers of customer loyalty. The goodwill gained through the early stages can be eroded with a few missteps after the closing. 

Because emotion plays such a strong role in NPS results, impactful moments—like move-in and warranty interactions—tend to influence scores disproportionately. This is where Promoters are earned or lost. Pay attention to every step in your processes, learn what factors work and what could cost you. Monitor your NPS responses over time and steps within your process and adjust your system accordingly.

NPS is not a vanity metric.

NPS was created to measure loyalty over time, not to serve as a singular metric. In homebuilding, this distinction matters. A positive experience at closing does not always translate into long-term satisfaction. 

By studying the responses—not just looking at the numbers—we’ve learned that the homebuyer experience is strong in early early satisfaction (buying and closing). Our honesty, accountability, and communication build customer loyalty.

We can see a clear opportunity to continue strengthening long-term customer satisfaction as we strive to increase our NPS even beyond the current high score. Our focus is on earning more Promoters over time, not managing the metric itself. It’s not the number that matters, but the customer satisfaction responses that we need to understand and address. 

When evaluating a homebuilder, buyers often consider reviews, referrals, and reputation. Increasingly, they are also encountering NPS for homebuilders as a way to understand customer loyalty and long-term satisfaction. In such a competitive industry, it’s critical that builders learn what the Net Promoter Score tells us about the homebuyer experience.

NPS for homebuilders should be used to measure how homeowners feel during the homebuyer experience and beyond—after they have lived in their home and interacted with the builder long after move-in.

By continuing to gauge customer satisfaction, we are in a better position to understand what the Net Promoter Score tells us about the homebuyer experience.

For that reason, NPS for homebuilders is most meaningful when viewed:

• Across multiple points in the homeowner journey: How was the buying experience, closing, move-in, and warranty process? Pinpoint the perceptions across the path to purchase.
• Over a trailing twelve-month period: Monitor any changes within a buyer’s satisfaction, both positive and negative. Identify the source and make adjustments as needed.
• With attention to trends, rather than one-time results: A one-time result is a blip, while a pattern identifies the strength of your process. Look at trends within segments, like a particular community, home design, geographic area, demographic, and department.

The Net Promoter Score provides us with valuable insight for long-term customer management. Industry research consistently shows that higher NPS scores are earned through behaviors that reduce friction and increase positive emotion, including:

• Proactive and clear communication: We strive to stay ahead of situations, alerting homebuyers rather than having to resort to damage control required as a result of not actively communicating.
• Meeting commitments and timelines: Our teams manage the details and recognize that a failed promised or missed deadline costs us in customer satisfaction.
• Making customers feel valued beyond the transaction: Long-term satisfaction is required to increase the percentage of Promoters and decrease Detractors. Serving our homebuyers does not end with the warranty period.
• Resolving warranty items efficiently and respectfully: A satisfying warranty experience is a major factor to achieving high NPS over time. This area is where many Promoters are gained.

NPS improves when these customer service behaviors are consistent and embedded across the homeowner experience.

While NPS for homebuilders is a valuable metric, it is not the only way to evaluate a homebuilder. The benchmark works best when viewed alongside other factors, such as:

• Referral activity and repeat business: Your past buyers are your best referral source.
• Warranty performance: Show buyers that they still matter after the sale.
• Long-term homeowner feedback: Continue to measure customer satisfaction to ensure your success.

For buyers, understanding how a builder measures and uses NPS is often more meaningful than the number itself. As the builder, it’s your job to communicate the meaning of your NPS to the buyer, as it can be a significant differentiator when they’re making the decision to buy. 

At Hunter Quinn Homes, NPS is used as a learning tool. The survey responses help us to identify where the homeowner experience is working well and where it needs improvement. Our goal is not perfection, but progress. Success is measured by whether homeowners feel confident recommending us to the people they care about most.

That trust is earned through communication, follow-through, and accountability that continues long after move-in day.

With clearer understanding of what the Net Promoter Score tells us about the homebuyer experience, use the tool to your benefit—and, more importantly, to effectively support and retain your customers over time.

Leadership expert and author of Start With Why: How Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, Simon Sinek said, “People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe.” 

We adhere to this philosophy, and it’s why Hunter Quinn Homes earns the top NPS score among homebuilders. When we care about delivering an exceptional customer experience, our customers respond by awarding us a top-ranked NPS.