CASE STUDY
The New Home Company: Setting the Bar for Smart Home as a Standard
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“What I’ve noticed about Brilliant is that they’ve truly wanted to partner with us to help us promote and deliver a great smart home experience.”
Recognized by Pro Builder Magazine as the 2019 Builder of the Year, The New Home Company (NYSE: NWHM) has earned an industry-leading reputation for designing homes and living experiences that put homebuyers first. Rated #1 in customer satisfaction by Eliant in the high-volume and multi-divisional builder categories, this new generation homebuilder is deeply focused on offering the most innovative and consumer-driven homes on the market in major metropolitan areas and growth regions within Northern California, Southern California, and Arizona.
The New Home Company
Northern/Southern California & Arizona
- 2019 Builder of the Year (Pro Builder Magazine)
- Multi-year winner of Eliant Homebuyers’ Choice Award
- Homes range from $300k to $1M+
The Challenge
Prompted by a sharp rise in consumer demand for smart home products, in 2017 The New Home Company started exploring how it could improve the experience of its homes with technology. At the time, NWHM was also in the midst of building more attainable offerings, homes starting as low as $300k in high-growth areas. Delivering the right smart home experience across a wide price range of homes in multiple regions was a challenge that would require patience and persistence.
“We sat down with the major tech giants, Amazon, Google, and Apple, and visited each at their headquarters,” said Megan Eltringham, Corporate Vice President of Marketing at The New Home Company. “All three wanted to start working with New Home Home builders and understood that there was demand. Although they were very impressive, we found ourselves in a quandary. We didn’t know if it was our place to make a decision for our buyers. Some people are Android users, some people are Apple users, some people want privacy and don’t want to have any type of voice assistant in their home.”
“A lot of our competitors came out and said they were partnering with Amazon or Apple,” said Eltringham. “We chose to be agnostic, however. We said it would be up to you (the homebuyer), but we were going to seek out vendors that could be used by all three platforms.”
“We sat down with the major tech giants, Amazon, Google, and Apple, and visited each at their headquarters,” said Megan Eltringham, Corporate Vice President of Marketing at The New Home Company. “All three wanted to start working with New Home Home builders and understood that there was demand. Although they were very impressive, we found ourselves in a quandary. We didn’t know if it was our place to make a decision for our buyers. Some people are Android users, some people are Apple users, some people want privacy and don’t want to have any type of voice assistant in their home.”
“A lot of our competitors came out and said they were partnering with Amazon or Apple,” said Eltringham. “We chose to be agnostic, however. We said it would be up to you (the homebuyer), but we were going to seek out vendors that could be used by all three platforms.”
The Solution
NWHM first learned about the new Brilliant Smart Home System, which offers integrations with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple HomeKit and Siri, in 2019. “We were impressed with the product, we liked the people and the customer service, and we asked our low voltage partners to do some due diligence for us,” said Eltringham. After receiving a glowing report from integrator partner SST about Brilliant's capabilities and ease of installation and use, the conversation quickly turned to how NWHM could develop an end-to-end smart home experience that made sense for its buyers and business.
Committed to setting a new industry standard for what an integrated smart home offering should be, NWHM developed their own program called EVO Home Tech, which includes a best in class smart home control and automation system supported by a white glove set up and training service for homebuyers to be delivered by its integrator partners. The name EVO was born out of technology’s role to constantly evolve to meet the needs of each customer.
Committed to setting a new industry standard for what an integrated smart home offering should be, NWHM developed their own program called EVO Home Tech, which includes a best in class smart home control and automation system supported by a white glove set up and training service for homebuyers to be delivered by its integrator partners. The name EVO was born out of technology’s role to constantly evolve to meet the needs of each customer.
EVO Home Tech Package
2 Brilliant Controls
Honeywell T10 Thermostat
Ring Pro Doorbell
Kwikset Halo Lock
Genie Wi-Fi Garage Opener
Luxul Mesh Wi-Fi Router
In addition to this standard smart home package, every NWHM owner receives a white glove In-home orientation by a professional integrator, which includes the set up of all smart home devices and training on all smart products and features included with the home.
“You have to have good integrators,” emphasized Eltringham. “That’s essential. Your sales and design teams are going to introduce all of the technology to prospects, but it’s the integrator that meets with every buyer and really personalizes the EVO experience to meet their needs.” NWHM relies on integrators like SST (Smart Systems Technologies), Empire Systems, and Republic Elite Integration to deliver the right model home and homebuyer experience.
The Results
EVO packages featuring Brilliant are currently installed in over 20 NWHM neighborhoods and will be a standard in every new home moving forward. “With our attainable product, people are really excited to get a complete smart home system included,” explained Eltringham. “In our higher end homes, we see buyers wanting to expand and evolve to their system: additional Wi-Fi access points, more controls, more smart switches.”
“EVO is extremely important to our brand and we promote it in all of our outward facing marketing,” said Eltringham. “What I’ve noticed about Brilliant is that they truly want to partner with us to help us promote and deliver a great smart home experience. It’s been a really good partnership.”
“EVO is extremely important to our brand and we promote it in all of our outward facing marketing,” said Eltringham. “What I’ve noticed about Brilliant is that they truly want to partner with us to help us promote and deliver a great smart home experience. It’s been a really good partnership.”
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