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{"podcast_details": {"podcast_title": "BeyondBIM", "episode_title": "GBuilder: Improving the customer journey", "episode_image": "https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/staging/podcast_uploaded_nologo/24731621/baba534c0b03398e.jpeg", "episode_transcript": " Welcome to Beyond BIM. How often do you wish you had a 3D model of your home and that you could potentially connect it to furniture stores and retailers or even contractors for your next home improvement project? Why hasn't the customer experience and the customer journey really changed that much in the built environment? And yet so many of our experiences and transactions elsewhere have become more convenient and more seamless. Today's episode is all about that. Customer experience and the customer journey in the built environment. I had the pleasure of speaking to Harry Majala, who is the second generation builder and first generation construction tech and CEO or founder of G-Builder. Harry founded G-Builder in 2013 to solve some of the problems that he was facing in his everyday life with his own family construction company. After his first version hit the market in early 2015, he has been developing G-Builder with some of the most innovative builders and developers in Europe to bring to you one of the market leaders of the customer journey improvement throughout the building's life cycle from inception through to demolition. As an entrepreneur and a CEO, Harry also reminds us and encourages other potential entrepreneurs to have the courage to begin the journey of developing their own products in the market. The timing is ideal and our sector is still yet got a long way to go in its digitization journey. And now let's take a listen to what Harry has to say on the topic of customer journeys and customer experiences in the built environment. Thank you Harry for joining us. It's really fantastic to be able to interview today. So first and foremost, to begin with, could you describe what exactly is G-Builder and what has been the mission of this platform since you founded it? All right. Thank you Erika for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. Really excited about it and let's hope we have a good show for the listeners. So what is G-Builder? Okay, so it is a BIM compatible platform that connects the all stakeholders within the construction process. So means that we are definitely not a point solution. So we have a very holistic approach towards the entire construction process. And I would have to say that our mission from the day one has been to digitalize the construction industry, which is quite bold, but the bigger mission for me is to break down those silos. Everything's so siloed over here. So we really want to be able to help everyone regarding are you within design sales or customer service or warranty or landlord or whoever. We want to help everybody out. I think it's in everybody's benefit to do that. That's fantastic. And one of the key things I noted from your platform is that you're focusing on customer experience. So do you foresee that customer experience focus is becoming more valued by homeowners because they're having such a great experience in every other facet of the internet, like online shopping and banking, et cetera? Definitely. I think we seem to be joking around with it that if you go to a McDonald's, you're able to configure your burger or whatever you're buying a car, which is the easiest example, of course. But when it comes to the biggest financial decision of your life, you are not being offered that many options or possibility to affect the outcome. And it's not that the industry doesn't want to offer those. We see and also speaking from my own experience being the builder is that it was more lack of tools because in construction, if you make a mistake, there are no small mistakes, so to speak, within the construction. So we felt that now that we have tools available, especially with the BIM as a common language there, we feel that now it's possible to offer those customers that experience that we have been accustomed, like you said, in everywhere where we go online, Amazon or whatever have you. But to be more clear that we want to be kind of like customer journey oriented solution, whereas the entire industry has many solutions already available and different angles to it, so to speak. Some are coming from the physical world, managing that entire construction process like Catera, for example, in the US. And then you have players like Procore, which is another American example that manages those internal processes like accounting and budgeting and bidding and everything like that. But we saw that there was a definite market need for a customer-oriented approach that will take care of the entire customer journey, not just the home buyers, but tenants, investors, pension funds, whatever have you as an owner or end user of that space. And we felt that there was definitely a demand for that solution, just as long as it's a holistic approach. You don't just do one problem and then leave the next problems to the next solution, but you carry a responsibility from the first contact all the way to the ending of the building process. If we take a look at what the current state looks like, then apart from your solution, what does the current state of digitizing home ownership look like? And what does the current customer experience really look like throughout the building's lifecycle? That's not a small question for sure, because we're operating already nine, 10 markets. We actually closed the tenth one today. I can't give you the details yet, but we see that it varies so much. I think Scandinavia, where we're from, is quite advanced with the digitalization. But every market we enter, you have a lot of different solutions providing some level of service for the customers. But what we do see is that it's limited to, in many cases, it's very limited. I'm referring to the earlier comment that there were not tools enough to provide that comprehensive service. But it's either related to maybe you get to configure some themes or packages, or then you have another application for communication and receiving attachments. Then you have another service for quality assurance and so on. So it's very fragmented and silos as a process. But one thing in common is that every market we've been to and are operating in, everyone is either looking for or already offering a solution for their customer journey. It just varies a lot. We see, of course, a potential for us or anyone within our space to create value there. So a more practical question, then. You talk about silos and trying to pull these threads together. So I take it that by nature, then, your platform is trying to operate in a more open manner. So if I was a developer, how would I start my journey with Gbuilder? What would I expect out of that? Yeah, you're right. We're very ambitious with our mission, of course. But we also recognize that we cannot do everything. So there are a few things that key points like secret sources, which are no longer that secret, of course, are that we have a very cool API. So we're able to integrate into the multiple CRMs, accounting solutions, and so on. But then we have the BIM. The BIM is the only common language. I remember war stories. We always have war stories. But 2012, when I was really struggling with our family construction company problems, I was burning out, basically. And my buddy over the beer, we were talking, and he said to me that, you have heard of a BIM? I was like, what is a BIM? And then he started explaining to me, I don't think it took more than 30 minutes. I was like, holy moly. This is the common language we've been waiting for. Because the sales team talks differently. The design teams talk differently and everything. But when you put everything into the three formats, to put it in a mindless, simple way, then everybody understands. And you have not just a common language and a visualization, but you have a common point of entry for information. So you have that possibility to share information through one window, which in this case would be BIM and our user interface on top of that. But of course, we can, like I said, integrate the other applications. But how would you be able to start using it? Of course, because it's not a very simple solution. So you would have to call us first. So unfortunately, we're not available online yet to order and go. But it's a very simple process. We'll usually map out the current customer journey process and the target where our customers want to go. Then we'll basically ask for material lists and DVG or BIM files, whatever have you. We can create and enhance the building information models. So you don't really need to have the BIM models yet, which has been a very eye opener for some that are still a little skeptical or afraid of the BIM. But since we have our own GAT solution, we can basically create or enhance already available architectural materials. And then it's pretty straightforward from there. We provide turnkey solutions. So all you have to do is to show up at the team's call and start using it. Then start putting in the customers. We try to do it as simple as possible because we know that in general in construction industry, everything is not that easy to be changed. It's not that we are reluctant to change. We're a little bit afraid that we finally got things to work. Now we have to change them again. So we try to keep everything related to the onboarding and purchasing the solution and providing us material as simple as possible so that you get a very good shopping experience because it's a customer journey also. It is. Yeah. And it's really refreshing to begin to hear that conversation. The focus on customer experience and the customer journey. Now you mentioned Scandinavian countries. Are there countries that you could say are leaders in the digital customer experience when it comes to construction, building, home ownership, et cetera? I would like to say that Scandinavia is one of the leading. For example, 2012-13 when we started Founded Gbuilder, everyone was already using some level of customer journey tools. There were three on the market. And luckily, I was dumb enough to start doing my own. But I would like to say that it's been how would I say? Scandinavia is a few years ahead of other countries. This is a little bit bold statement from my experience. But whatever has happened over the last year and a half with the COVID and everything, I think every other country is now just catching up really rapidly and just embracing everything and also probably helping out that the BIM has been accepted as a standard and a future standard. So you don't no longer hear people saying that there's going to be a competing format or I don't believe in BIM because it's no longer a matter of faith, so to speak. So I think that we see Belgium is one of the positive surprises we saw. And of course, German speaking countries is also one of those highly digitalized markets. But when you add UK to it, you basically have all the Western Europe. So I think we're good here. But then it's interesting also to see that when you go further east and you start seeing different markets now embracing also the customer experience and value in customer in that sense more. Now just a little question here for maybe some of our listeners who are either on the entrepreneurship journey or thinking about venturing into creating their own business and company. Harri, you're obviously an entrepreneur and as a founder of Gbuilder, do you have any words of advice to anybody who's considering starting up their own business, especially around digital tools and solutions for our sector? So the Finnish mentality is very, they call it realistic, I call it pessimistic, it's like don't do it. But me, I'm a third generation entrepreneur. So I have a background in construction and I ran the construction company over a decade. But I think I started my own company when I was 19, the first one. So I would like to say that do it. There's no better thing to wake up and to do your own projects and company. But I have to warn you, it's harder than you probably imagine and takes a lot of hours. But especially if you go to construction, you have to prepare yourself for very long sales cycles and very demanding customers. And it is a challenging field. So prepare yourself for, how would I say, don't overspend, be patient, listen to your customers very well, but definitely do it because I don't think there's any other massive industry left for us to digitalize after this construction and real estate is the biggest industry in the world and is finally digitalizing. So this is the best time to be within that space. So if you're thinking, if you have a good idea, if you have a kind of like problem you want to solve in your everyday life, just send me an email. I can point to the right direction because we just raised the A-Round funding, which means that I've talked to maybe a hundred VCs. So I have a good idea what they're looking for, what they want to hear, what they are investing in. And I can give you probably not good advice, but some advice at least. Fantastic. Well, that's great news. Now, how could our listeners get access to G-Builder and where could they find out more about your platform? Well, of course the website is always the best way to go, gbuilder.com and you'll find a lot of, we have some videos and blogs and articles over there and also overview of the features and everything. But then of course, to get like a proper demo or jump into the product, you either have to contact me, harja.gbuilder.com with an I, not the Y, or buy a G-Builder apartment with one of our customers that you can find from the reference page, which is probably very likely if you live in Finland, for example, that you'll end up using our services in no time. Okay. Fantastic. Thanks ever so much, Harvey, for joining us today. No, thank you. It was a very nice experience. Thank you. Thank you for tuning in to Listen to Beyond BIM podcast. If you enjoyed this episode and want to hear more from our latest episodes, then you can visit Beyond BIM, which is available on SoundCloud and iTunes and all the other major podcast providers."}, "podcast_summary": "In this podcast, the host interviews Harry Majala, the founder of G-Builder, a BIM compatible platform that aims to digitalize the construction industry and improve the customer journey in the built environment. G-Builder connects all stakeholders in the construction process and provides a holistic approach to customer service, sales, and other aspects of the industry. The podcast discusses the importance of customer experience in the construction industry and how G-Builder is working to provide a more seamless and convenient experience for customers. The platform utilizes the BIM as a common language to enhance communication and collaboration among stakeholders. The current state of digitizing home ownership is also discussed, highlighting the fragmented and siloed nature of existing solutions. G-Builder aims to break down these silos and provide a comprehensive solution for the entire customer journey. The podcast concludes with Harry sharing advice for aspiring entrepreneurs in the construction and real estate industry, emphasizing the importance of perseverance, listening to customers, and taking advantage of the current digitalization trend in the industry. To learn more about G-Builder, listeners can visit the company's website or contact Harry directly for a demo or more information.", "podcast_guest": {"name": "Harry Majala", "summary": "Harry Majala is the second generation builder and first generation construction tech. He is the CEO and founder of G-Builder, a BIM compatible platform that connects all stakeholders within the construction process. The mission of G-Builder is to digitalize the construction industry and break down silos. Harry is passionate about improving the customer journey and experience in the built environment. He believes that customer experience focus is becoming more valued by homeowners, as they have great experiences in other facets of the internet. Harry encourages potential entrepreneurs to have the courage to develop their own products in the market, as there is still a long way to go in the digitization journey of the construction sector."}, "podcast_highlights": "- Highlight 1: \"Our mission from day one has been to digitalize the construction industry.\"\n- Highlight 2: \"When it comes to the biggest financial decision of your life, you are not being offered that many options or possibility to affect the outcome.\"\n- Highlight 3: \"We saw that there was a definite market need for a customer-oriented approach that will take care of the entire customer journey.\"\n- Highlight 4: \"We recognize that we cannot do everything...we have a very cool API.\"\n- Highlight 5: \"I don't think there's any other massive industry left for us to digitalize after this construction and real estate is the biggest industry in the world.\""}