Since taking over Sentinel Homes’ Manawatu and Horowhenua franchise, owner Nigel Higgison and his team have gone from strength to strength the old-fashioned way - through hard work, dedication, and a focus on building and maintaining quality relationships.
We had a chat with Nigel to find out more about his approach, and what’s been making the biggest difference for his team and his clients.
Despite it being a tough few years for the wider building industry, Nigel describes the last 12 months for his team as being “pretty phenomenal.”
“We’re sitting at 25 builds at the moment. We didn’t think we’d get to that, but there’s good inquiry coming in the door. We have different designs and different stages of process and execution on the go. That’s up from having maybe one in the 18 months prior, so it's gone from sort of zero to hero really quickly!”
Nigel puts a lot of their current success down to the hard work the team has put in over the last few years to build a quality operation that locals trust to get a quality job done.
“I spent my first two years changing suppliers, changing contractors, and getting some of the top people in the area on board. We had a total makeover to get the right people in the right place.”
This hard work and continuous commitment to improvement is part of the reason why the franchise is succeeding while so many others are struggling, says Nigel.
“I've seen firsthand other building companies sit on their laurels, and I think we’re seeing the effect of that now that times are tough. Now we’ve got builders, painters, GIB stoppers all coming to us for work as they've been laid off. It’s been quite interesting to watch it all unfold for sure.”
“The humbling thing for me is that now 90% of our work comes through referrals from previous clients and people we’re currently dealing with. For me, that means we're doing something right and we're just gonna continue to do what we're doing.”
Another reason for their current success comes down to the trust that has been built with the local community. As Nigel puts it, “that’s where it turned a corner for us - the personal approach.”
“We live here, our friends are here, our family’s here, so everybody knows you. You have to be very transparent and have real integrity - and I think for us that has been the most important thing.”
Nigel has taken this approach to heart by working directly with each one of his clients right from the start to understand their goals first-hand. “We're a lot more personal. We design the plans in-house and we’ll talk it through before it even goes to the architect. They’ll come to our boardroom or I’ll go to their house and if there's decisions to be made we make it there.”
“What I find is that people like dealing with the person that owns the place. I'm not a salesperson, I’m not an agent. I'm very black and white - and I say this to the clients right from the start, you'll always get straight answers out of me, and clients seem to respect that.”
Nigel also highlighted the support and resources that being a part of the wider Sentinel family has brought to his operation.
“When I bought the franchise, the kicker for me was the amount of expertise throughout the country. There are guys that are architects, builders, civil engineers - it’s not like other brands where they'll just let anybody run a franchise. It’s a really strong group of passionate people that are at the top of their field that we can lean on, and we do on a weekly basis. That's where we get our strength from.”
After initially considering other franchises, Nigel quickly decided that Sentinel was where he wanted to be as they would back his desire for quality and professionalism.
“That’s the different thing about Sentinel, you know they're there for different reasons, not just for the margins. That's where I learned my values and my structure and it's worked. I’m bloody glad I didn't go another way!”
When asked what he sees as the key reason for his stellar local reputation, Nigel puts it pretty simply - “What do I attribute it to? I really put it down to treating people as they should be treated. We're very much a family-owned and operated business. Integrity’s big, honesty's big, and we have that in town. I think for us that has been the most important thing.”
It’s been a long road and a lot of long hours to build the franchise into a success story, but Nigel is stoked with the journey he and his team have been on, and is excited about what’s to come in the future. "I love it. I enjoy what we do and I wouldn't have it any other way, really I wouldn’t.”
Ready to build something great in Manawatu/Horowhenua? Get in touch with Sentinel Homes today.
Let’s get together for a free, no-pressure meeting with one of our team, at your place or ours.
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