Building Core Memories: How Shane Homes Elevates the Customer Experience

When you ask Liz Lipton, Customer Experience Manager at Shane Homes, what makes her role meaningful, she doesn’t talk about metrics or processes. She talks about memories.

“Buying a home is one of life’s core memories. You’ll remember it forever, whether it goes well or not. We don’t get to choose — you already are a core memory in someone’s life. So how do we make sure that it’s good?”

That belief — that homebuilding is about more than bricks and mortar — drives how Liz and her team approach every interaction at Shane Homes. Their mission is to ensure each milestone feels positive, not stressful, for customers who have saved, dreamed, and waited years for the moment they get their keys.

Facing the Stress Behind the Celebration

"Moving sucks. Buying a house should be fun, but instead buyers deal with all the little things no one tells you about — like having to order a garbage bin. Before Virtuo, people were left to figure it out themselves.”

Shane Homes recognized that even though they couldn’t remove every logistical hurdle, they could change how customers experienced them. That’s where Virtuo came in — to support the most stressful part of the journey, while protecting the positive memories Shane wanted their brand to be known for.

Building Trust in the Moments That Matter

Like many builders, Liz admitted she was initially nervous about handing part of the customer journey over to someone outside her company.

“At first, I was nervous about entrusting the experience of our customers — and our brand — into the hands of somebody who isn’t technically us. That’s risky. But we started small, and almost immediately we saw the benefit. Our customer ratings improved, and the experiences we were hearing about were so much better.”

One story cemented her trust:

“There was one house where the railing into the basement got damaged during the move-in process. I heard from Virtuo before I even heard from the customer. By the time the customer called me — while the movers were still in the house — I already had solutions ready. Virtuo had taken care of everything, and the homeowner was over the moon. That's when it clicked for me: when things actually go bad, when things get "crunchy", Virtuo shows up.”

For Liz, this proved that Virtuo wasn’t just support. It was an extension of Shane’s own brand.

Making the Experience Seamless

Shane Homes doesn’t treat Virtuo as an add-on. Instead, it’s introduced to every customer as part of their journey.

“Every person who builds with us receives a video from me after they purchase. I tell them they’ll hear from Virtuo, show them the logo, and explain exactly what they’re here to do. We want customers to know they’re safe, they’re cool, and they’ll make the experience better.”

It’s not just customers who get this message. New hires at Shane Homes learn about Virtuo during onboarding, and every department — from sales to service to accounting — understands why Virtuo is part of the process.

“Even if you’re in drafting or accounting, everyone knows who Virtuo is, why they’re important to us, and that they’re an extension of us.”

The Secret Sauce: Care and Partnership

When asked what makes Virtuo different, Liz pointed to culture as much as technology.

“If someone from Virtuo walked into a customer’s house, I’d know they’d dazzle them and make us look good. You’ve figured out the secret sauce: everyone genuinely cares and sees themselves as a partner. It’s not ‘us versus them’ — it’s about making all of us better together.”

That partnership mindset is exactly what Shane Homes values most. It allows them to focus on what they do best — building quality homes and relationships — while trusting Virtuo to handle the details that make the difference in a customer’s memory.

Protecting Core Memories

For Liz and her team, customer experience is so much more than a department or a set of processes. It’s the recognition that buying a home is one of the biggest, most emotional moments of a person’s life.

“The fact that we are being invited to participate in and trusted to take care of a core memory in somebody’s life is something that should not be taken lightly. Virtuo helps us make sure it’s remembered as something special.”

Closing Thoughts

Shane Homes has built its reputation on more than houses — it’s built on the belief that every family deserves a positive, memorable experience. With Virtuo as a partner, they’ve found a way to make sure that even the stressful parts of the journey become part of a story worth remembering.