Reconnecting with homebuyers through innovation

BESIX RED is a property developer active in Belgium and Luxembourg. BESIX RED uses Ziggu to keep homebuyers informed from the purchase process to delivery. Since 2018, the customer portal has run on Project Oxygen in Auderghem, Brussels, a building of 89 units, and 90+ buyers have used it. Oxygen convinced BESIX RED to roll it out further.

• Sector: Property development
• Country: Belgium, also active in Luxembourg
• On Ziggu since: 2018
• Buyers in the portal: 90+
• Pilot project: Project Oxygen, Auderghem, Brussels (89 units)
• Used for: Documents, Conversations, Client updates

Why did BESIX RED go looking for a customer portal?

BESIX RED set up an Innovation Board to find and test things worth adopting, and Ziggu came in through it.

“We created an Innovation Board in order to stay aware of the evolution of our activities but also to scout promising solutions that could be implemented into our business”, says Nicolas Goffin, Head of Portugal at BESIX RED and a member of the Innovation Board. “We identify innovative opportunities and team up with them to help them grow, offer the leverage of a large Group like BESIX; and create reliable partnerships where we both work together towards one common goal: the satisfaction of the end-user.”

For CEO Gabriel Uzgen, the reason sat with the buyer rather than with the technology. “New criteria, such as sustainability, innovative services and experiences, have become as important as location”, he says.

He is blunt about the cost. “Paradoxically, new technologies have also led to a more impersonal communication. In today’s virtual world, behind our smartphone, screen and computer, we tend to lose the physical human contact. Technology should first help to re-build/reconnect this link between the client and us; and facilitate the communication process with them.”

What happened on Project Oxygen?

Project Oxygen in Auderghem, Brussels, 89 units, was the pilot. “Very quickly after having implemented Ziggu to our residential pilot-project Oxygen (89 units), we received very positive feedback from our clients”, Nicolas Goffin says. “Ziggu was immediately accepted and experienced positively.”

Damien Janssens de Bisthoven, Project Manager at BESIX RED, ran it from the inside. His team posted photographs of the site to the portal and moved the correspondence out of individual mailboxes.

“But more important, the digital platform gathers all questions, comments, documents of our clients at the same place. That way, we are saving a lot of time managing these questions via Ziggu compared to before when using  our individual email inboxes”, he says.

“We have learned by using Ziggu that the more efficient you communicate, the easier the realisation of the project is and, at the end, the higher the client-satisfaction is.”

What did a buyer make of it?

Jean-François Despret bought an apartment in Project Oxygen in February 2017 and expected to move in in January 2020. Nearly three years of waiting for a home that existed on paper.

“We had a very positive feeling when BESIX RED invited us to their Ziggu Customer Portal”, he says. “When you buy an apartment that only exists on plan, you need to have solid confidence in your property developer. That confidence is largely based on the relationship you build with the team and the company. A good customer portal is, of course, an efficient and practical means to facilitate that relationship.”

The wait was the hard part, and it is where the portal earned its place. “We bought our home in February of 2017 and we will probably move in January 2020. As you can imagine, it is a very long wait for us. I love the level of engagement the portal brings and the emotional connection it allows with your future home, anytime I see pictures or updates on the platform.”

He is precise about what he used it for. “Plans, work descriptions, legal documents (purchase deed, sales agreement, …) are readily available at one place. Even the signed purchase orders for the kitchen, bathroom floors are all there. Without forgetting to mention the conversation feature; a wonderful way to get in touch with the team as well.”

What did BESIX RED do after the pilot?

It stopped being a pilot. “This positive first experience we had in Oxygen convinced us to implement Ziggu in all our other projects as well”, says Damien Janssens de Bisthoven.

Buyers who follow the site through photographs and comments also answer faster. “When we offer our clients a more practical and accessible way to follow up on the progress of the construction (via photos, comments, …), we increase their sense of involvement and engagement which positively impacts their level of satisfaction. In return, those clients are reacting faster and making decisions more proactively.”

Gabriel Uzgen puts it in the CEO’s terms: “Ziggu enables us to offer a great customer-experience to our clients, by helping us better manage and inform them in real time, during and after the purchase process until the delivery phase.”