Qualified Remodeler Magazine

JUL 2013

Qualified Remodeler helps independent remodeling firms to survive, become more professional and more profitable by providing must-have business information, namely best business practices, new product information and timely design ideas.

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REMODELER SURVEY SERIES What incentives do you offer: 38.9% Other Discounts toward future work 27.8% 16.7% Dinner Cash Electronics or other small gift items * Merchandise/service coupons at local businesses 5.6% 5.6% 5.6% Dyer advises. "The competition is stiff, and if you want to win over clients for life you have to be extraordinary. You have to be constantly thinking of things that you can do to make your clients happy; that's what my job is," adding that being director of WOW has made her job 10 times more fun. Lack of experience and especially lack of people skills are what get a lot of contractors in trouble on the customer satisfaction level, according to Paul Paniagua, principal, All Pro Builders Inc., Fullerton, Calif. Those rare people skills don't always come naturally, he adds. How People Are Wired "Understanding how people are wired and how they communicate is huge," Paniagua says. "If you're dealing with a Type A personality, they may tend to come off as a little pushy. If you're an amiable type who loves everybody and wants to be everyone's friend, you may think that person is mean, but that's just how they communicate." Paniagua cautions that understanding how people are wired has to be sincere. "It's not a game. It's about educating yourself about people in general and really knowing how to deal with them and communicate with them," he says. Just being a nice guy doesn't always work, he continues. A remodeler who considers himself to be honest and respectable from time to time is going to come up against people who are unprofessional and rude. Because of that remodeler's lack of understanding, he may feel pushed into a corner, causing him to respond in a similar manner. 28 July 2013 QR * Gift cards, reward points, magazine subscriptions, cookies, candy ForResidentialPros.com "Don't get me wrong," Paniagua says. "I don't ask my people to stand there and be abused by anybody, but there are a lot of things going on in people's lives. We don't know what happened the night before. We're in people's homes sometimes two or three months, so we deal with what's happening at that time." People Skills and Growth Asked if customers are more critical and harder to please today, Paniagua says, "If you asked me 10 years ago, I would have had a completely different answer, because we were in such a different place, even with our own personal growth and people skills. You can keep most people quite happy, but there is a small group who never intend on being happy from day one." For all of the remodelers to whom we spoke, customer service is a given. "I really don't know what it would be like not to do good customer service; it's something we pride ourselves on," says Tom Reilly, president, Renovations: Your Complete Remodel Resource, Prescott, Ariz. How long have you been surveying customer satisfaction? 0-1 year Always 13.2% 8.8% More than 20.9% 10 years 19.8% 7-10 years 82.3% 2-3 years 22% 15.4% 4-6 years Even though Reilly uses a third-party company to measure customer satisfaction, he always does a personal follow-up. In addition, he asks clients' permission to be surveyed. "I meet with people and it's usually at that point I reaffirm if it's okay for me to pass along their name [to the survey company.] I really don't want to just give out their name without making sure they agree. Some people are funny about that," he says. As for whether clients are harder to please these days, Reilly concedes they are. "If you look at the bubble years, 2002 through 2007, customers were grateful that somebody would do the work because new construction was booming. It was hard to get anybody to do remodeling work. Today clients feel they can be a lot more picky because they believe most of us out here are all starving and that we should just fall over backward and be grateful to get a paycheck [from them]." The reality for Reilly, however, is "we're getting a lot of leads, doing a lot of bidding, and we're staying pretty steady with work," he says. And even though clients have a tendency to be more critical, Reilly feels the company's workmanship and that of his subcontractors is of a quality that averts most complaints. "All of our subcontractors must be vetted before we invite them into anybody's house," he comments. Speaking of the competition, Reilly agrees that many contractors, because they are working for themselves and are their own bosses, think they can do whatever they want. "If [they're] in my marketplace and are competitors, I encourage [them] to continue that kind of behavior because more jobs will come my way," he says. "Excellence is out there, and if you are not excellent, somebody else will be," he adds. WEB-EXCLUSIVE CONTENT: For more survey results, go to: ForResidentialPros.com/10977077

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