Cross Country Home Services - Sales Distinction of the Year

Company: Cross Country Home Services, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Entry Submitted By: rbb Communications
Company Description: Cross Country Home Services, Inc. (CCHS) is dedicated to making home repairs easier and more affordable with its warranty products and maintenance plans. Since 1978, the company has built a reputation for excellence, and today, is one of the nation’s leading providers of these products and services.
Nomination Category: Sales Awards Distinction Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Sales Distinction of the Year - Consumer Products & Services

Nomination Title: Cross Country Home Services Leads the Pack with High Growth Rate

Tell the story about what this nominated organization achieved since the beginning of July 2017 (up to 650 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

For four decades, Cross Country Home Services (CCHS) has been making home repairs easier and more affordable for homeowners with its warranty products and maintenance plans. In the last year, CCHS has made strides toward digitization despite being part of a traditionally analog industry. Even with this ongoing transformation, and the seemingly inherent instability that often comes with change, the organization has maintained a compound annual revenue growth rate (CAGR) of over 20 percent – more than double the industry average. With CCHS’ more proactive approach to business development, the company is well-positioned to continue along the same path.

CCHS vs. Market Average

The home warranty market has been growing, but CCHS’ growth has vastly outpaced the national averages. At the end of 2017, the number of in-force whole home warranties industry-wide had increased 6 percent over 2016 and estimated revenues in the industry were 13 percent higher year over year. Over the past several years, CCHS’ annual in-force warranty counts increased by a CAGR of 16 percent. With this as the given baseline, CCHS’ revenue and in-force counts respective CAGR of over 20 percent and 16 percent stands alone at the top of the pack.

But How?

There are two factors that make CCHS unique in the home warranty space and have fueled this rapid growth. The first is that CCHS is a multi-channel organization, meaning its business model focuses first on business to business, then on business to consumer. CCHS has developed affinity partnerships across a number of different verticals including retail, real estate, financial institutions and utility companies. What this generally means is that CCHS is serving another brand’s customers under the banner of that brand’s name, rather than presenting itself as CCHS. To create these types of working relationships, the partner must not only believe that CCHS is monetarily valuable but must also trust the organization to uphold its reputation as its own brand’s name is on the line.

The second factor is the level of diversification that CCHS has achieved. After gaining an initial boost from one large retail-vertical partnership deal, CCHS knew it had to further diversify both as a security measure and a way to maintain continued growth. To do this, CCHS established a new business development team with deeper roots across multiple verticals. The team’s main goal was to continue to nurture existing relationships and keep them profitable, while also branching out and building partnerships in new, previously unexplored verticals. This level of diversification is a way to avoid “putting all eggs in one basket,” so if one vertical’s growth begins to slow, the overall impact will be minimal, since CCHS is invested and embedded in so many other industries.

CCHS’ ability to both position itself as a valuable partner and actively seek out new business relationships has meant that the 20+ percent CAGR that has been maintained for the past 4 years has been completely organic, without a single merger or acquisition.

Conclusion

CCHS began to grow rapidly following a large retail-vertical affinity partnership, a partnership that grew stronger over the past year due to CCHS’ move to leave the analog past behind and embrace a digital future. After experiencing this growth, rather than getting comfortable and taking a step back, CCHS continued to push itself further. The company formed a strategic business development team to keep the momentum going and capitalize on several new tech endeavors by leveraging them to form new partnerships. While having a 4-year CAGR that’s more than double the industry standard is an achievement in and of itself, it is the company’s ability to maintain that growth rate while undergoing a complex digital transformation that is a true testament to the strength and organization of the leadership team.