In case you missed the news because you were out pounding nails, the housing market has started to recover. Sales rose in all four regions for the 3rd time in a row in June, which hasn’t happened since the boom in 2004. Once people start building confidence in the market, they’ll be calling you for the job they’d been putting off. What does this mean for you? You need to stay visible.

Website Awareness

Website presence is a big plus. It will give your company added exposure. Consumers like to see your work. This is the perfect medium to show before and after pictures of past projects. If you don’t want to mess with domains and piecing it together from scratch, try a turnkey website offered through companies like Homestead. It’s an easy way to get your site up and running fast. Get a magnetic sign for your truck’s door and include your website. (more…)

First off, really get to know your prospect. Understand their needs, wants and top priorities. The industry is what you know best - you can relate to homeowners and really level with them. The better you understand the clients, the better your suggestions for their living space will be.

I had my house painted recently and the bid came in 60% lower than the other bids. I took the bait because it’s human nature to want to save money. I’m not experienced in house painting, so I didn’t know what kinds of questions to ask to ensure the job was done right - and on time. (more…)

Besides the quality of work, what separates great contractors from so-so contractors is attitude. The difference between like and love is referrals.

Surrounded by contractors – who will I refer?

Paint contractor – I told him I wanted the entire house painted except for the ceilings. He gave me a flat-rate quote, including paint. He didn’t have a checklist and he didn’t ask me any questions, except for how many colors I wanted. I told him he had two weeks to get the job done because I had bathroom contractors lined up for the following week and hardwood floor installation after that. (more…)

My friend, however, who is also the realtor who sold me the house, made a smart suggestion to seal a hallway closet that abutted the bathroom and use that space for bathroom shelving. This made perfect sense because (a) there were too many doors in the hallway, making the space look smaller and (b) I desperately lacked storage in the bathroom.

Why didn’t my contractor come up with the brilliant idea? Perhaps it’s what we call tunnel vision. You go into the project by first listening to what the customer wants, you tell them whether or not it’s doable and then you create their vision. But if you looked around, you might get ideas that will greatly enhance the space and make it more functional for the homeowner. (more…)

As a contractor, obtaining some level of green certification could make all the difference in a recession-weary building industry. Demand is way up for green building; spurred by government incentives, efficient materials and appliances, as well as increased awareness of long-term savings and environmental impact.

Understanding those factors and all the products and practices that go along with green building is key to winning today’s clients’ trust and signature. Proving that you have such knowledge and expertise only makes lead generation and confirmation that much easier. There are several ways to become a green certified contractor; some are nationally recognized, some vary by state or region.

Following are a few examples of how you can become a green certified professional:

LEED certification

The U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED program has become the number one standard for modern, green home design. Typically, LEED is referred to as a ratings system for sustainable buildings. At the same time, the USGBC also offers accreditation for contractors. (more…)

LEED-certified buildings already represent six percent of the commercial building industry and over 40 percent of new buildings have applied for certification. Expect green building in the residential sector to see similar growth in the near future. The USGBC now has a ratings system for single-family homes, and resulting data should be forthcoming next year.

Even more important will be the push at the federal level to incentivize home efficiency upgrades. Tax credits, low interest loans and other factors will fuel the sustainable housing fire in the coming years. (more…)

For those new to the QR survey, it’s meant to gauge customer satisfaction on a large scale and identify those specific traits & practices of the remodelers who garner the highest satisfaction ratings. The survey accomplishes this by asking how satisfied, in general, remodeling customers were and then breaking it down to more specific topics, such as professionalism, availability, scheduling, etc.

By the way, most remodeling contractors get a passing rating from their customers; about a 6.5 out of 10. It’s not great, but its not bad either. The key is identifying what set the high scores apart from the low scores. (more…)

Photo Credit: Blogging Jupino

The housing market has somewhat leveled off in 2009, even posting a few months of modest increases. Yet any prediction of a significant rise seems hardly in the cards at this point.  Although positive change may come up in those cards eventually. Certainly it will be some time before we can see if new tax credits for home buyers and energy efficient upgrades, among other things, have some influence on the numbers. But as of yet, the industry still moves ahead cautiously. (more…)

Photo Credit: billjacobus

Assumptions

His dissection of referrals utilizes several assumptions that remodelers too often make in regard to referred clients. These include assuming that:

• Friends of clients are always as easy to work for as the original client.
• Referrals will accept responsibility and make selections on time.
• Referrals will have the same sense of cost vs. value as clients.
• Referrals will be patient.

Indeed, making assumptions about any aspect of lead generation is not a good idea. Such a notion can breed complacency, which will usually lead to an end of referrals in general. Understanding that each client is unique, with their own sense of taste and process, is the backbone of any successful remodeling company. Yet personal inconsistencies seem hardly a reason to disqualify the referral as a quality, if not the best, lead. A contractor is measured by his or her ability to communicate and troubleshoot with any client. In terms of how an acquaintance with a client is generated, what could be a better foot-in-the-door than a personal reference?

Photo Credit: Midtown Crossing at Turner Park
What Are Your Aspirations?

The fifth and final myth, as well as the heart of the anti-referral argument, is that a contractor can build and sustain a business solely from client referrals. Referrals are inconsistent, and a successful remodeling company will create a dynamic lead generation process including advertising, community involvement, and other available resources.

Much depends on company goals or aspirations. I personally have seen contractors succeed without a stitch of advertising (one used only his church bulletin), relying solely on word of mouth and performance (although community involvement was always present). Yet these contractors did not aspire to grow into a large, several-crew outfit. They were happy with keeping it small, keeping it local, and keeping it personal. I also watched their companies wax and wane with the local economy and business cycles. They understood that business would be slow from time to time and adjusted their business plan to accommodate that fact.

Now, for a company wishing to grow and expand to its maximum potential and beyond, the idea that you can rely on referrals alone is indeed false, especially when you are trying to expand into new markets. On the other hand, maintaining a quality of service that will garner referrals when they are there to be had is still crucial. One might even say that advertising, newsletters, and others are a way to penetrate a given market, but it is referrals that will truly entrench the company.

Furthermore, remember that the work will always speak for itself (and then get clients to speak for you). One could almost include in the “referral” category a lack of negative discussion about your company. That is, a poor reputation will trump most lead generation strategies, especially when the Internet is so easily available for clients to voice their opinion for all to see. So while much depends on your aspirations, referrals, which are always based on service, are still the backbone of any company, whether they are, in their traditional definition, your main source of leads or not.

Referrals Are Tantamount to Success

So while referrals may not be numero uno for your company, they will always have an effect on your business. I maintain that referrals are still top quality leads because it is never bad to have a positive review, regardless of what it leads to. This is the very reason why online referrals are gaining in popularity. Despite their relative impersonal nature, they allow homeowners to get not just one but several referrals from past clients with just the click of a mouse.

In closing, the quality and consistency of referral leads varies widely depending on contractor and community. To assume that referrals will always be there to support your business is a certain mistake, although assuming that any lead generation strategy will be perfect is also a mistake. Yet at the heart of any company are always dedication, communication, and a quality of service. These are the characteristics that generate referrals.

So we have a market that encourages remodeling, however hesitant consumers are to spend, and an Internet that is fast becoming a home improvement tool in its own right. This combination has spawned a major rise in online referral services. These companies, such as CalFinder, offer homeowners an online resource on a smorgasbord of home improvement topics and an easy-to-use link to contractors in a given area. You, the contractor, pay to have these homeowners connected to your company, in the form of their contact information.

Working with these Internet leads can be a bit tricky, requiring more work on your part than traditional leads. As Dave Lupberger pointed out in a related post for Qualified Remodeler, an Internet lead will likely fall short, in terms of information provided, when compared with traditional referrals. Unless you work with a service like CalFinder that pre-qualifies every lead, you generally won’t have a personal view of the homeowner, you won’t know how serious they are, you won’t know their budget situation, and you won’t know when they want to start.

What you will have is their contact information, which is something to work with. Homeowners are generally serious about wanting to remodel, but they may be very hesitant, given today’s economy, to jump right in. Therefore Internet leads may require a little work on your part, some more aggressive marketing. Lupberger put it very nicely when he stressed the importance of developing “a good marketing pipeline.” (more…)