When Joe Mingioni’s clients started their addition and kitchen project, they let him know that they were going to blog about the process and would include job progress images. The homeowners were enthusiastic about their project, which they’d been planning for more than 10 years, and wanted to share the experience with friends and family.
During the five-months that Mingioni and his staff worked on the project, they occasionally read the blog, which gave them a different perspective.
Almost all the blog posts were positive: “There was nothing there that would have hurt my business or my reputation,” says the president of Mingioni Construction, in Edgemont, Pa. “And it was written in an entertaining, fun way.”
Blog It All
One day, after heavy rain, water came through the floor because the sump pump in the addition had not yet been installed. When Mingioni and a crew member went to the job that Saturday to clean the floor, the client commented that she probably shouldn’t blog about the problem. But Mingioni urged her to include it as an example of the frustrations that are part of remodeling.
Though the remodeler did read the blog, he says he never used it to gauge client satisfaction. “I’m always direct when it comes to asking questions,” he says. “I don’t need to communicate in a roundabout way with a blog.”
The clients thought the blog might bring Mingioni some leads, but that wasn’t the case. However, if prospects searching for the company online come across the blog, it provides a real feel for the remodeling process.
—Nina Patel, senior editor, REMODELING.
