Woodhouse is the only timber frame company using a Client Dashboard process to ensure a smooth, communicative, and straightforward timber frame journey.
Making the earnest commitment to embark on your timber frame house journey is a thrilling time. It can also be an emotional one. Balancing your long-held, timber frame house aspirations with the reality of budgets and timelines can sometimes feel overwhelming.
Our clients repeatedly praise how smooth and enjoyable our process helped to make their timber frame journey a smooth one. A big part of this accolade is due to the Woodhouse Client Dashboard, which helps clients navigate the overall process from initial design through post-delivery. With our Client Dashboard process safeguards a successful outcome from day one.
Don’t expect this at every other timber frame company. Our Client Dashboard is a unique feature that reflects how dedicated we are to taking care of our clients. Here’s how it came to be.
Correcting an Industry-Wide Issue
It’s a common industry practice for a client to commit to their timber frame house journey with a company before having adequate, in-depth discussions about design expectations, budgets, and timelines. This methodology is risky. Time is invested to create the initial design. If it’s outside the scope of affordability (a common industry issue), the client begins their timber frame house journey with crushed dreams and expensive plans they may not be able to use. Alternatively, they may select lesser-quality materials and finishes to meet their budget. This approach gambles with their long-term satisfaction with their timber frame house.
We found a better way. Our Client Dashboard serves as a project-vetting process and mode of communication to continually confirm the three main components of a project — design, budget, and timeline. It empowers clients to track their home’s progress, updates, and milestones, all through the convenience of a secure, personal online portal.
“Our Client Dashboard ensures that a balance exists between the designers, budget, and schedule,” says Woodhouse president and owner, Pat Seaman. “It’s a living, organic process updated at each design iteration ensuring that communication concerning these variables is accurate and timely. All this means the budget is transparent, easy-to-understand, and above all, accurate every step of the way.”
Client Dashboard Basics
Your confidence is of utmost importance. Our Client Dashboard process follows a specific sequence of events to bring concerns to the surface and pinpoint critical expectations before you make a significant financial commitment.
After initial discussions with your Regional Project Manager (RPM), we start with an internal meeting (just the Woodhouse team at this point) that outlines your budget and design intent. Your RPM does due diligence researching project costs and timelines based on your project’s location. If these variables are aligned, the process moves to the next step, a Client Dashboard Meeting. If there is not an alignment, the RPM will go back to you to explore solutions.
“We want to get someone excited about something that is feasible,” explains Jay Hodgson, Woodhouse RPM for the Northeast who was initially hired specifically to develop our Client Dashboard process. “It’s better to make difficult decisions upfront rather than struggle with them months down the road. An exceptional experience hinges on clients feeling educated on their project’s costs, duration, and expectations.”
Once your project is considered attainable, you meet with your RPM and design team to reconfirm discussions and use that as your project’s starting point. We begin drafting your custom timber frame home design and you receive your online client portal. This portal keeps all the information regarding your designs (including links to a photorealistic 3D fly-through of your timber frame house), timeline updates, and budgets, all organized and accessible. You will also find a checklist of what you need to do to keep things on schedules such as attaining permits or loans.
“The client dashboard reflects who we are as a timber frame company, that we go above and beyond to build someone’s dream,” Hodgson says.
Start Here
Curious about how our Client Dashboard process will look with your timber frame house dreams? Contact the RPM in your area for a friendly, honest, and detailed conversation. Alternatively, try our Dream Home Budget Calculator, a free resource that can help you determine the cost to build your vision of a perfect timber frame home. You can also visit our gallery page and get excited over what we can design for you.