Before the COVID-19 pandemic, when custom homebuilder Jeff Sweenor reviewed blueprints and spending plans with his clients, it was sometimes a haphazard task.
First, clients – many of whom live out of state – would need to travel to Sweenor’s South Kingstown office. Then meetings were conducted with the builders and the clients huddled around a table, scrutinizing budgets and complex plans for homes often valued at more than $1 million.
The pandemic has changed that.
And that change is a good thing, according to Sweenor, founder, CEO and president of Sweenor Builders Inc.
Like so many others, the company was forced to turn to videoconferencing when stay-at-home orders and other safety protocols were enacted last year to slow the spread of the coronavirus. And there’s no going back.
Sweenor said he now invites clients for virtual presentations in which he displays designs, budgets and videos of building or renovation projects. What he discovered was a better way of communicating with clients and his team, something that he might not have been willing to try without the worldwide crisis.
And this new efficiency came at a good time.
‘There was definitely a learning curve.’
JEFF SWEENOR, Sweenor Builders Inc. founder, CEO and president
The homebuilding industry is experiencing a major surge, and adapting to videoconferencing and other technology has allowed Sweenor to take on additional work. Before the pandemic, the company received about three inquiries a week from prospective clients. Now there’s an average of three inquiries a day, which has translated to three new contracted jobs a week. Sweenor said his business is booked with projects into 2022.
“It’s been a boon for us,” Sweenor said.
John Marcantonio, executive director of the Rhode Island Builders Association, said his members have relied on technology such as the Zoom videoconferencing platform and 3D cameras to not only survive but thrive during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Marcantonio said he sees a robust homebuilder industry in the state as being partly attributable to a shift in behavior toward technology, both on the part of builders and their clients, during the pandemic that will likely be permanent.
“Housing has radically changed – because the way we live, work and play has radically changed,” said Marcantonio, who noted that he does not “foresee things going back to the way they were.”
In a trade that in some ways still relies on technology and principles that were developed centuries ago, builders who have adjusted to serve the “housing market the best will be the busiest,” Marcantonio said.
“Many companies, the more-sophisticated builder types who had the capability and resources to begin with, have embraced technology, more so now than ever,” he said. “You have to adapt.”
When the pandemic first hit a year ago, Sweenor worried about the future of his company, which he started in 1989 and has built to more than 30 employees. After all, the financial markets tanked immediately, travel was restricted, the economy came to a near standstill and businesses started closing.
Still, the construction industry was deemed essential and remained active.
During the first weeks of the pandemic, Sweenor Builders scrambled first to learn how to adapt to the Zoom platform.
“There was definitely a learning curve. We had never used it before,” Sweenor said. “Probably the most technological advancement we had here was a conference call.”
So, while his construction sites operated and adhered to safety protocols, his office operation transformed. “We did everything on Zoom,” he said. “It was remarkably effective. I was shocked.”
Practicing and becoming proficient with Zoom led to discoveries, such as utilizing the platform to conduct budget and design presentations. It also cut meeting times in half “because everything was to the point; you don’t seem to go off on tangents as much, and there wasn’t a lot of side conversations,” he said.
The basic screen-share feature turned out to be a godsend for meeting with clients and conducting design work. “The most effective thing for us is the ability to have a face-to-face call but yet be able to share the screen and look at what we have created for you,” Sweenor said.
“It created a completely different experience,” he said, as he could see his clients’ reactions to design proposals. It is now a permanent feature of his business, and he has wondered why he had not thought about utilizing the technology before the pandemic.
It wasn’t that Sweenor was a complete novice to the ways of the web.
His company has produced videos for its YouTube channel for several years as a marketing tool. Last year, however, it started a web series called “Sawdust” that has a “This Old House” feel to it. The videos are designed to help prospective clients visualize what occurs on a construction site.
“I use it to differentiate us from other builders,” said Sweenor. “We tease it on social media, but it lives on our YouTube channel.”
His business also is integrating the use of 3D camera technology for walking clients through a property over the internet. Sweenor’s team takes video of a property using the special camera, providing clients with a virtual tour of a property.
“The biggest silver lining is what [the technology] has done to our industry,” Sweenor said, “and the amount of business we have generated from it.”
Cassius Shuman is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Shuman@PBN.com.
