Cornerstone Building Brands
Bringing Relentless Customer Focus to Investors Everywhere
By Carole VanSickle Ellis
When Cornerstone Building Brands director of retail sales Jorge Castro talks to a potential or current client about their door-and-window needs for a project, he tends to ask a lot of questions. However, they are not always the questions his customers expect from their suppliers. That is the key, Castro says, to Cornerstone’s history of satisfied, repeat clients.
“The thing I always ask first is, ‘What drives you?’” Castro said. “That helps me really understand the need they have for the project. It is far more effective than just telling someone about every single product right off the bat. I want to know the biggest things they want to do and why they are investing in the property so we can give them the best products that will fit that need.”
As the largest manufacturer of exterior building products in North America, Cornerstone can usually offer an array of products that fit the bill. Mike Castillo, Cornerstone’s national account manager on the company’s Retail Pro business, explained. “Our company offers consumers big things because our brand and portfolio extend across the country. Whether you are in Florida or Washington, we can help you.” Castillo, a former marine who has been with the company more than eight years, noted that one his team’s top priorities is making sure customers have all the information they need and the support Cornerstone can offer in order to make sure they choose the right product for an asset.
“We view every relationship with a client not just as a point of sale but as a partnership,” Castro said. “If there are issues, then we get someone dedicated to going to a job site with the customer to figure it out. There have even been times we rebuilt windows and delivered them next-day because when it comes to that partnership, we will do what is necessary to help our customers get the job done.”
Diagnosing Problems, Asking Questions & Implementing Solutions
Sometimes, helping get the job done involves identifying places where the customer is missing vital information. For example, Castro noted many new Cornerstone clients struggle with understanding how to make sure they are meeting all code requirements when they install windows and doors. For many investors, in particular, who may own assets in multiple markets across the country and deal with myriad variations on common code requirements, the line between energy efficiency (often oversimplified to simply mean any product meeting federal ENERGY STAR certifications) and local code regulations becomes blurred. Then, Castro said, an owner can end up with a building that does not meet code requirements even if it has environmentally supportive windows, doors, and other appliances.
“We have to know the requirements everywhere, whether you are in the Pacific Northwest, Florida, Texas, or California. Building codes are standards to which a builder must build the property, and those vary from place to place, whereas ENERGY STAR goes by region, and there are only four regions,” Castro explained. “However, a lot of property owners end up going by ENERGY STAR because they think that will take their building to code, which can end up being a very costly mistake. They are not the same thing. You have to go with the code first.”
Castro recalled an experience with one customer who had not replaced windows in a multifamily building before. Some of the units had burned in a fire, so a large number of windows and doors needed to be completely replaced and dramatically updated.
“They were kind of at a loss because it was their first time; the building had been built in the 70s so it was not an easy swap, and they were not sure exactly what they needed to do,” Castro said. Ultimately, the customer and Cornerstone worked together to entirely outfit one unit with the new windows Castro recommended so they could see how they worked out, and this helped them understand the process and tackle the larger project with confidence.
“They were calling us and sending pictures, and then we would get them products. We ended up delivering more than 1,500 windows.” Castro said. “That was 10 years ago, and they are still working with us because they left that project feeling confident and satisfied. I feel so comfortable knowing that is the kind of company I work for: where we are encouraged to treat our customers that way.”
“The number one thing our teams do is know the vital details: what kind of latches you need on a window, how to factor in what types of things are close to the project that might affect the product you choose, and the best way to get those things delivered the best way possible,” Castillo chimed in. “We make sure we have those answers up front so transactions are smooth and clients get the right products.”
A Focus on the Community: Helping Families Come Home for Good
Sometimes, getting the right products to the right places involves more than just helping out clients with projects. Cornerstone also dedicates large volumes of resources to helping families struggling to find stable housing secure a safe place to land — permanently. Cornerstone Building Brands “Home for Good Project” partners with Habitat for Humanity and the LadyAID Fund of the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee to help build affordable housing for families in need. Cornerstone donates products, facilitates house builds, and works with Grammy-winning trio Lady A (founders of LadyAID) to “use music to strengthen and inspire our communities,” according to the project website.
So far, the Home for Good Project has:
» Participated in building or remodeling more than 720 homes
» Impacted 135 communities via these projects
» Donated $3.4 million in products and resources
These projects have helped families that were living in unstable housing situations or facing homelessness access a “forever place they can always come back to.” For example, Kentucky resident Sallie and her son, Casey, lost everything in a December 2021 tornado that blew through their area of the state. The Home for Good Project participated in helping them secure a “forever home.”
Similarly, Tennessean De’Sheria, who works with a nonprofit and helps others connect with resources and community support in order to succeed, needed help herself when it came to finding a permanent home for herself and her children. Today, thanks to assistance from the Home for Good Project and other resources in the community, De’Sheria says she is excited about her new home and the things that come with it: “hosting holidays, having more space for their pets, and spending quality time together playing games and doing karaoke.”
View & Value: Balancing Both & Sacrificing Neither
In addition to knowing the “fine print” every property owner needs to know in order to make sure everything is up to code, Castro, Castillo, and their teams prioritize helping each customer strike the right balance of “view and value” in the property. For example, properties with views of lakes or mountains may be much more attractive to residents if the windows facing that view do not have panes, but windows without panes can be fragile if they are not supported with the right framework. Castro said in these cases, typically windows constructed with vinyl will be a better fit than those framed in metal or wood.
He noted all Cornerstone representatives also constantly monitor trends in home design to make sure they are able to offer customers the latest and most attractive options for homebuyers, such as a current product that is an aluminum extruded product with black frames.
“These add a lot of value to the home and are really popular right now,” Castro said. “Black frames are the hottest thing going.” He added retail buyers and residents also are placing increased value on having large, attractive doors.
“That is another kind of ‘exotic’ product you can use to add value to a home or other property,” he said.
Castillo concluded, “The biggest thing for us is that we build that partnership with our customers. We will support them to the end, and if they have a problem, we will always help them find the solution for it.”
Learn more about Cornerstone Building Brands and the Home for Good Project at CornerstoneBuildingBrands.com.
