Remodelers are like housemates — we basically move into someone’s home for a few weeks or months. Noise, messiness, and unresponsiveness are the traits of a terrible housemate — and topics for remodeling horror stories. By contrast, being a good remodeling housemate simply comes down to good communication, honesty, and willingness to compromise.
Communication. When clients show concern about an issue related to their living space, the best response is polite, attentive, and quick. We knew we were doing our job when a GuildQuality survey respondent recently commented that “day-to-day communication with all staff was top-notch in both timeliness and quality of response.”
Honesty. Building mutual trust is critical. Showing up on time, keeping the jobsite clean, and being considerate and straightforward builds real trust and long-lasting relationships. As one of our clients noted, “the level of trust that developed over the course of our project will lead us back to [your company] the next time we need to do a project.”
Compromise. Obstacles arise on every job — material selections change, deliveries are delayed, personal schedules are disrupted — and the key to overcoming them is compromise. A client-remodeler relationship built on respect and trust leads to both parties’ willingness to work things out to everyone’s satisfaction.
When, at the next party, your client stops conversation with, “Actually, we loved working with [insert your remodeling company’s name here],” you have achieved something all the advertising in the world can’t buy.
—Megen Heslip is sales and marketing associate at ARC Design-Build, in Huntsville, Ala. ARC Design-Build monitors customer satisfaction by surveying all its customers. To see a complete summary of the company's customer feedback, check out ARC Design-Build's GuildQuality profile.
