When it comes to growing your contracting business, few things are as important as your reputation—and nothing is better for your reputation than becoming a Pella Platinum Elite member.

A Pella Platinum Elite membership is a guaranteed mark of quality your customers will recognize. But did you know that it also comes with access to GuildQuality, one of the best ways to build your reputation and grow your business?

GuildQuality is an online review platform that helps potential customers find and connect with contractors. It provides incredible benefits that can help your business thrive, as these two stories from GuildQuality members will show.

Meet GuildQuality Users

Walter Skura founded his replacement windows, siding, and doors company, Valdicass, in 1999. The early days were mainly spent subcontracting, but as Skura’s reputation grew so did the number of jobs coming to Valdicass directly.

While the business had its ups and downs over the years, Skura notes that since joining GuildQuality in 2018 things have been strong. Today, there are seven full-time members of Valdicass, including sales staff.

“We use GuildQuality to create customized surveys and gather customer reviews,” says Skura, “the results show us where we can focus on changing our services, what we need to improve, what we can do better. The world changes every day. We have to adapt and improve as well.”

Krueger Brothers Construction started using GuildQuality in 2014. Founded in 2009 by brothers Michael and Matthew, they now have over 60 employees. But it wasn’t always that way.

The brothers initially went into business as a two-man roofing business. Over time they branched out into siding, windows, and decks to become full outdoor remodeling specialists. Each new trade came as a result of customer feedback, which the Krueger Brothers rely heavily on to grow and improve their company.

“It’s all about how we can create a better customer experience,” says Michael Krueger, “we’ve just been pushing that since we started. And I think our team understands that—that culture is in our blood. We’re okay about honest feedback because we thrive off that stuff.”

True Partners in Your Growth

GuildQuality is like a personal assistant when it comes to customer reviews, following up and collecting data automatically as a natural extension of your customer experience. You can create customized surveys for your customers and attach them to KPIs, performance or project managers, your sales team, or any other aspect of your business.

Not only will you get better and more targeted feedback on each point of contact in the customer lifecycle, you’ll get it all without the pressure or discomfort of asking customers to provide honest feedback directly.

“It is really nice to have that extra support from someone who is able to reach out to those homeowners when we can’t,” says Walter Skura, “it takes away some stress from worrying about that part of the business.”

The Krueger Brothers, too, have long known just how valuable customer feedback is to their business. But the more customers they acquired, the harder it became to keep on top of customer surveys.

“Getting good feedback is an art form. You have to know what questions to ask, you have to ask them at the right time, and you have to follow up with those who don’t respond. We needed something that could help us do that,” says Michael Krueger, “because if you call once and they’re not there, you leave a voicemail, then you forget about it. You miss the opportunity to learn from them.”

It’s that need for consistent, honest reviews and feedback that led both companies to GuildQuality.

The Valdicass team praises the customer support they’ve received from GuildQuality, noting that it only ever takes a quick call or an email to get answers to their questions. They feel like there is a true partnership there, noting that GuildQuality handles the legwork of gathering customer information. This lets Skura and his team continue to focus on providing excellent service and growing the business.

Using Feedback to Boost Team Morale and Business Growth

It’s no surprise that Krueger encourages others to join GuildQuality, emphasizing how important it is to get customer feedback to grow your business.

“In the very beginning it was like, oh my, we’ve got a lot to improve on,” says Michael, “and so it was month to month improving how we do things in our process. The heavier lifting was back then, but eight years later I still feel like we’re tweaking our process and improving how we handle our customers.”

But good customer feedback isn’t all about growth. It’s also an important part of boosting team morale.

“I think the biggest impact is internally,” says Michael, “We have a Friday morning breakfast with our whole team every week. And when we get reviews, we read them during breakfast, and we go around and do high fives,” he explains, “You’ve got folks in accounting who never interact with customers. You’ve got guys in the field doing the install who may not have heard what the customer thinks. And so being able to read that to your team, high five when you win, it just reminds everyone that we’re doing this together, we’re making an impact, and here’s feedback from a real customer telling us that. It makes an impact on the whole team.”

Similarly, Skura and other leaders at Valdicass use information from GuildQuality surveys to inform one-on-one coaching sessions with their employees. Having fresh, direct feedback from customers makes these sessions incredibly powerful and productive. The result is a better, more highly skilled team.

Finding New Leads

GuildQuality doesn’t just help the Krueger Brothers, Valdicass, and countless others to improve their business. It helps them find new leads as well.

“We’ve seen our SEO grow from reviews. We’re at 157 Google reviews and have 4.7 stars, which is great. We’ve seen more reviews on our Better Business Bureau page,” says Michael. “All of this helps us to find new business and continue to grow.”

It also gives Skura and his team the insight to have follow-up conversations with customers.

“When a customer isn’t expecting it, and we call them up and say thank you for pointing out ways we can improve our process and that their feedback was super valuable, it just blows them away,” says Skura, “they’re like wow my review did matter!”

Skura says these follow-up calls often result in additional jobs, whether with the same customer or through a referral. The customer appreciates being heard, especially after they’ve already paid for the work. It’s an easy way to demonstrate valuable extra effort.

“They don’t owe us anything. We don’t owe them anything. And then you call them and make that human interaction. It’s not expected. It goes a long way,” says Skura.

“Homeowners that come to us after reading about us on GuildQuality come in with an expectation. They know that they’re going to receive a positive experience from us,” says Skura, “So I think that we’re bringing in a better crowd. They’re just a little more ready to sign the contract.”

Today, Valdicass is closing about 50% more jobs year over year, a factor Skura directly attributes to being a GuildQuality member.

The post Pella Platinum Elite and GuildQuality: Using Customer Surveys and Reviews to Build and Grow Your Business appeared first on GuildQuality: Customer Satisfaction Surveying for Contractors.

To understand the more detailed best practices for each of the various social media platforms and hear some of our members’ advice from recent roundtable discussions, check out our guides for each of the major social media platforms below. Every platform is different and serves a distinct purpose, so we’re here to help you understand how to use them! Before jumping into any of these platforms, first and foremost make sure you are signing up for a business account to get the most out of the platform’s tools.

Facebook

Facebook is a platform that primarily focuses on personal relationships. The largest audience group is 25-34 years old, making up 23.6% of the total users, but also remains the preferred social media for the Baby Boomer generation or people who are between 58 and 76 years old. This is important to note because it might change the products or services you market to each platform, as older adults are more likely to afford larger, more expensive projects.

The Facebook Business Page is the main page for your business to engage on Facebook. You can monitor, reply, and react to comments on your company’s posts. You can also host live streams on your Facebook page via Facebook Live, which is prioritized in Facebook’s algorithm with increased visibility.

Best Practices for Facebook

Shorter posts on Facebook tend to get better engagement, so keep your posts to about 120 characters or less. Alex Borzo, Director of Operations at Signature Home Services, encourages creating captions that will grab a viewer’s attention:

“The topic must be instantly recognizable so people can quickly scan it and understand what you’re talking about”.

She recommends choosing a few keywords to keep it concise and linking the post to a longer blog or page if necessary.

Facebook has a wide variety of targeting options that segment viewers based on different demographics and interests. Since most home improvement and remodeling businesses service a specific geographic range, limit your location preferences in Facebook to ensure you are targeting to reach the right audience.

Larger images are also prioritized in the Facebook newsfeed. 1200 x 630 pixels is the minimum image size to generate a large thumbnail, and the standard size of an iPhone-generated photo is 1280 x 720 pixels, so this size is attainable without professional equipment. And remember, never post photos that are crooked, blurry, or generally unprofessional looking, as this will negatively impact your brand.

And finally, Facebook Ads has the most advanced algorithm and best ad options based on a wide array of demographics and behaviors for ad campaigns. This is a great opportunity to reach a large audience, and since Facebook has partner platforms including Instagram, Messenger, and Audience Network, these ads can be posted to multiple platforms at the same time. There is a tool called the Ads Manager that can help monitor different campaigns for the most efficiency and success with ads so you can focus more on your customers and current projects! You can learn more in-depth best practices about Facebook business here.

Instagram

Instagram, acquired by Facebook in 2012, provides even more ways for you to share content with your target audience, via the Feed, Explore Page, Profile, Stories, Instagram Live, and Reels. Stories and Instagram Live are simple ways to engage directly with your audience through polls and Q&A sessions and talk more about what your business offers in an authentic light.

Although posts are still popular and can give your audience a sense of your brand just by glancing at your Instagram profile, Reels are the highest form of engagement right now. Reels are short videos (up to 60 seconds) that allow you to pair an entertaining, immersive, or educational video with either original audio or audio options offered by Instagram. Similar to TikTok (more below), posting Reels that follow the top video or audio trends will directly impact your number of views and increase the amount of traffic on your account.

Best Practices for Instagram

Post engaging content regularly. Experts advise that a portion of your content should be promotional, while the rest should express your business’s story. This means that you don’t always have to post directly about your products, services, or current projects. In fact, you shouldn’t.

Balancing your profile with content that highlights your company’s employees or involvement within the community will still result in more sales, while also humanizing your brand.

Alex from Signature Home Services prefers relying on in-house social media marketing since third-party services cannot always capture the brand’s personality and tone, as well as the fun aspects of the business. If your profile feels authentic and includes something heartfelt, you’ll likely see more engagement, as “people won’t use your services based on logic, they want an emotional experience, so people want to see fun, people, and animals”.

Another important piece to posting on Instagram is by using hashtags appropriately. Across all posting types, adding relevant hashtags will increase visibility, as long as you don’t overuse them. 5 to 11 hashtags best fits the algorithm. The caption is also an opportunity to create a call to action such as, “follow us for more updates”, “visit our website to learn more”, or “schedule a consultation to get started”. In fact, Maureen Clifford from Valentine Roofing noticed that “our least successful campaigns usually are too vague or don’t have a real call to action”.

Instagram Insights can be helpful when viewing demographics, interactions, and your most successful posts to understand what you are doing right.

You can also tag other accounts (people or businesses) in your posts to demonstrate to followers that a relationship exists. For example, you may want to tag a customer – with their permission – when you post before and after photos, or a supplier if you’re promoting a new product line. Very often, those you tag will recognize your efforts and share or reply to your content, resulting in even more potential followers and views. You can learn more in-depth best practices about Instagram here.

Pinterest

Pinterest has been a particularly influential platform for businesses in the home remodeling and services industry. It’s a network in which individuals and brands can build visual collections known as “boards” for different themes and topics, such as home remodeling or bathroom renovations.

As a business, it’s important to create a business account so you can create profiles with boards of your products and services, hopefully leading viewers to your site or landing pages. Similar to Facebook, Pinterest appeals to a wide range of age groups, which means you can post a variety of product or service-related content.

Best Practices for Pinterest

Write descriptions for your posts, known as Pins, that include keywords and provide context to the photo.

Portrait-oriented images display best on the Pinterest feed and on mobile devices.

Don’t pin new content in large chunks. Instead, you should space out your pinnings over time to gain more viewers and abide by the algorithm.

Set up Pinterest analytics for increased visibility. It can help you understand your overall presence on Pinterest and show what paid and organic published content resonates most with viewers.

Tara Dawn, Co-founder at Opal Enterprises, recommends utilizing the geofencing feature for highly localized targeting, as it gives you the ability to define geographical boundaries to your ads or posts. For example, if you’re attending a trade show, you can publish posts that only target consumers located within the parameters of the trade show’s building. You can learn more in-depth best practices about Pinterest here.

TikTok

TikTok has experienced exponential growth in the past few years. Unlike the three platforms above, TikTok consists entirely of engaging short videos paired with audio.

Generally speaking, TikTok targets the younger generation, as 60% of users are between the ages of 16 and 24 years old. Although Gen Z may not be your first thought when considering your target audience, keep in mind that this age group will be the next generation of homeowners. The earlier you can build a relationship with them and set yourself apart from the competition, the better.

TikTok is known as the platform in which accounts love to connect with audiences through creativity and humor, so this is where you can loosen up and really express the personality of your brand and your employees!

Best Practices for TikTok

Authenticity is highly valued. TikTok content is all about creating fun videos that feature real people and real experiences. Don’t worry too much about capturing the perfect, high-quality videography here. Behind-the-scenes type content is known to succeed, as an audience familiarizes themselves with your business.

Music is another key factor of TikTok. Follow trending audio clips for higher engagement, or narrate the process of your video.

And lastly, post often, if you can. The TikTok algorithm rewards accounts that post videos frequently. While videos can take more time and effort to acquire, another option is to stitch several photos together to create a video – a slideshow if you will. Also, there is no reason you can’t post your photos and videos from one platform onto another platform. In fact, Daniel of House to Home Solutions recommends it, stating that “we always cross-post. We want to get the most mileage out of the effort we’re putting into creating a post”. You can learn more in-depth best practices about TikTok here.

Conclusion

Overall, investing in social media provides new channels to engage with your customers and leads. People value authenticity, so make sure you’re staying true to your brand’s overall personality and messaging. Personal connection drives engagement, so it’s just as important to sell your staff and company culture along with your products and services.

To learn more about general social media practices, click here!

The post How to market your business on the top social media platforms appeared first on GuildQuality: Customer Satisfaction Surveying for Contractors.

Since 2008, we’ve sent our Market Predictions Survey to our GuildQuality members to get a better understanding of the state of the residential construction industry. This report contains a summary of the feedback we received regarding Q4 2022.

In this review, we’ll examine the results indicating how our respondents feel about the current state of the market, how they expect the market and their company performance to change in 2022, what their long- and near-term strategies are, which industry trends they believe are rising and waning, and finally, how they currently feel about qualified labor.

Current State of the Market

For the fourth straight quarter of 2022, the percentage of members reporting feeling Good or Excellent about today’s market dropped compared to the previous quarter, this quarter falling to 46%. This is the lowest we’ve seen since 2012’s fourth quarter of 44%.  While there are concerns about the current state of the market, many members are looking ahead and addressing their concerns head-on with their customers through transparent communication. You can read more about what some members are doing in this market report that we published earlier this year. 

The percentage of Poor and Horrible responses increased by seven points from last quarter’s 7%.  It’s important to note that while negative sentiment has doubled since last quarter, the percentage of Fair respondents that are middle of the road on the current state of the market has also doubled since Q1 of this year currently sitting at 40%. 

Expected Change in the Market

There is a positive trend to report in the expected change in the market. Last quarter, the percentage of members anticipating a decline in the market sat at 54%. This quarter, that number decreased to 52%. This marks the first decrease quarter-over-quarter since Q4 2020 into Q1 2021. 

Last quarter, we saw an increase from 8% to 12% in the survey respondents predicting that the market will Improve or Significantly Improve. This quarter, that number split the difference at 10%. 

Expected Change in Company Performance

Compared to 17% of respondents last quarter, 22% of our members expect company performance to Decline or Significantly Decline. We’ve seen a steady increase of around 5-6% quarter-over-quarter in 2022.

Last quarter, 38% of respondents expected company performance to Improve or Significantly Improve. This quarter, that number decreased slightly by three points. Additionally, keeping with the trend of 2022, nearly half of the respondents don’t expect a positive or negative change, with 43% of respondents expecting performance to stay the same.

Qualified Labor Rating

The percentage of our members who responded negatively—Poor or Horrible—, when asked about the current state of qualified labor, decreased by 13 percentage points, from 54% down to 41%. It seems the state of qualified labor is improving, as 41% is the lowest number we’ve seen from negative respondents since Q1 2021.

The number of survey respondents who answered that they found qualified labor to be Good or Excellent nearly doubled, increasing to 21%. 

Qualified Labor Change

When asked about how the availability of qualified labor has changed over the past six months, we saw a decrease in respondents reporting that it has Declined or Significantly Declined from last quarter’s 27% down to 23%.

Similarly, we saw an increase in respondents that report the pool of qualified labor has Improved or Significantly Improved, from last quarter’s12% to this quarter’s 22%.  A hopeful increase in both labor categories, as this is one we’ve seen declining on average for several quarters straight.

Emerging Trends

When we asked our members about the new or existing trends they saw more of over the last quarter, the top three most common answers were: 

1. Open-concept and open rooms in living spaces and offices. 
2. Dark and bold colors for doors, windows, cabinets, and even roofs.
3. Across the board, more and more customers are financing, taking more time to make decisions, and generally becoming more concerned about the future. 

“Our customers are taking longer to make the decision to improve their homes, as there is uncertainty regarding the economy.”

“Rising interest rates have delayed some clients in the decision making process, but demand remains strong. Accommodating home office space is all the rage.”

Waning Trends

We also asked our members about trends they’re seeing less of in 2022. The responses partially echo the emerging trends we are seeing this quarter as well. Here are the top three answers:

1. Big ticket items
2. Carpet across the board – living rooms, bedrooms, offices, etc.
3. White and gray color schemes

“Larger projects have declined due to customer’s cash flow.”

“I think people are over the white and and grey color schemes, because it has saturated the market so much.”

Near-term Strategies

1. Increased ad dollars and a focus on re-marketing to past clients for referrals
2. Increasing staff numbers and improving training programs
3. Diversification

“We’re hiring team members that can handle the load of work in our pipeline, continuing to streamline our process to work for the client best and be most efficient.”

“Doubling down on marketing efforts to generate more leads. Leads are harder to come by.”

Long-term Strategies

1. Focusing on customer relationships
2. Increasing marketing and social media presence
3. Adjust pricing models

“More investment in digital marketing and improved brand development.”

“Focus on being more of a relationship company, not a sales company.”

The post 2022 Fourth Quarter Market Predictions appeared first on GuildQuality: Customer Satisfaction Surveying for Contractors.

Especially in the current economic climate, strategic branding and social media marketing can help your business better engage with leads, form a community, and stay ahead of competitors. In fact, several GuildQuality members who were a part of a roundtable discussion shared that because so many businesses are cutting their marketing budgets in response to the pandemic, their dollars are going even further, resulting in a higher return. 

In the residential construction industry specifically, social media is an especially powerful asset. Why? A home service or remodeling project relies heavily on its visual appeal. By displaying your business’ past or current projects on multiple platforms, your target audience will see your work (and its quality) first-hand.

By promoting your projects, your team members, your workspace, etc., on social media, you’ll provide customers and leads with a snapshot of who you are and the way your business operates. In turn, this gives your business a personality, allowing you to form real connections with consumers. One’s home is often a source of pride, so by forming a connection with customers through social media, they’re likely to share your projects and recommend your business! 

Though the majority of GuildQuality members use social media in some capacity, this is an ever-changing and expanding industry, so it’s always important to stay up-to-date on best practices.

Social Media Marketing: Best Practices

Create a plan

As a starting point, your business should be mindful of a few fundamental components of a social media strategy: 

1. Identify your social media goals and objectives. What do you want your business to achieve through social media? Your focus, whether it’s building relationships, brand awareness, or turning leads into customers, will determine the approach you should take. Also, your goals can vary from platform to platform!
2. Figure out what your budget is. Social media efforts range from completely free to paid ads or hiring a paid social media agency to create the content you post. 
3. Plan a content schedule. By creating a structure with key dates, campaigns, and events, it becomes much more manageable to maintain a consistent social media presence. 

Stay engaged

Social media is built around engagement. There needs to be a two-way channel of communication between a brand and its audience. The core of building community is reciprocity – if you provide value to your social media community, it is more likely that your community will reward you with support and advocacy. 

There are four main types of engagement that you should address on social media. 

1. Discussions around shared content
2. Customer support inquiries
3. Negative sentiment
4. Proactive engagement

Responding to your audience should ideally be timely, as 39% of social media users expect a response within 60 minutes. Social media is another channel for customer satisfaction, so it is best to strive to answer messages daily. If you don’t have the time to check social media, an alternative option is to hire a social media agency for content and organization. One of our members, Daniel Carrero from House to Home Solutions, noted that they hired a social media company to create 3 social media posts per week.

Focus on quality

While social media does require time and energy, it is still manageable to incorporate into your marketing strategy without a social media team or professional equipment. For instance, when it comes to high-quality photography and video, with the capabilities of smartphone cameras, you can shoot high-quality content from your own phone. Here are a couple of tips to make them look more professional:

1. Use a strong lighting source, possibly near a window, or purchase an affordable light ring for clearer and brighter photos
2. For stability, smartphone stabilizers are cost-effective and eliminate shakiness from a moving video. 

No matter the size of your team or your budget, never skimp on quality. Posting blurry or crooked photos, or forgetting to check your captions or shoutouts for spelling and grammatical accuracy, will only hurt your business. 

Ask your customers for help!

Social media doesn’t have to be a daunting, do-it-alone project. If you need more content, simply connect with your customers on social media and ask them to post their completed projects and tag your account! If they follow through with the request, always thank them and reshare. And if they don’t, no worries, interacting with them online still reminds them of the work you did and strengthens your brand.

When you create a plan, stay engaged, and focus on quality, you may be surprised at how quickly you can grow your audience. It’s an easy and accessible way to stay connected with your customer base, so don’t be afraid to jump in and get started today!

The post The importance of social media marketing appeared first on GuildQuality: Customer Satisfaction Surveying for Contractors.

Determining whether your clients are truly satisfied with your work isn’t easy. In order to get an unbiased assessment of your performance, it’s critical to remove yourself from the equation and invite a third party to gather customer feedback on your behalf.

Fostering trust

Conducting surveys for your customers is mutually beneficial. For your customers, surveys show that you value their opinions and welcome candid feedback. With the industry-wide emphasis on customer satisfaction, customers are likelier to choose a company that has acquired a large collection of positive reviews. Especially in the home services industry, a reputable, trustworthy brand is required for customers to feel safe inviting businesses into their homes.

As for your business, surveys have a variety of benefits as well. Surveys provide useful data from your customers that can tell you what’s going well in your business as well as what areas need improvement. This means you can also train and improve your employees more efficiently according to the customers’ feedback.

Our Process

Surveying your customers through GuildQuality can help you better understand your company’s strengths and weaknesses and improve the quality of your service. GuildQuality uses a proven, multi-touch survey process to gather feedback from homeowners. On your behalf, we reach out to your customers through email, phone, and text messaging.

GuildQuality’s Survey Process With SMS Surveying

GuildQuality’s Survey Process Without SMS Surveying

We can send surveys directly before, during, and/or after each service for convenience and consistency. We also ensure a high response rate and consistent professionalism with proactive outreach and a dedicated team of survey professionals. Our surveys are completely customizable, so the values that are most important to your business are highlighted.

With GuildQuality, our platform allows for easily measurable results, so you can make sense of the data, come to clear and concise conclusions about your work, and ultimately improve your business!

If you’d like to learn more about how GuildQuality’s survey process can help your business and improve your customer experience, click here!

The post GuildQuality’s Surveying Process appeared first on GuildQuality: Customer Satisfaction Surveying for Contractors.

Since 2008, we’ve sent our Market Predictions Survey to our GuildQuality members to get a better understanding of the state of the residential construction industry. This report contains a summary of the feedback we received regarding Q3 2022.

In this review, we’ll examine the results indicating how our respondents feel about the current state of the market, how they expect the market and their company performance to change in 2022, what their long- and near-term strategies are, which industry trends they believe are rising and waning, and finally, how they currently feel about qualified labor.

Current State of the Market

For the third straight quarter of 2022, the percentage of members reporting feeling Good or Excellent about today’s market dropped compared to the previous quarter, this quarter falling to 61%. This is the lowest we’ve seen since 2020’s second quarter of 59%.  

The percentage of Poor and Horrible responses increased one point from last quarter’s 6%. While the outlook across the board is technically declining, only a small fraction of our membership feels truly negative about the current state of the market.  

Expected Change in the Market

While the majority of members feel the current state of the market is positive, the expected change in the market is a little more problematic. Last quarter, the percentage of members anticipating a decline in the market sat at 46%. This quarter, that number increased to 54%. It’s worth noting that this quarter’s increase of 8% is a much smaller increase compared to last quarter’s jump of 25%. 

We saw an increase in the survey respondents predicting that the market will Improve or Significantly Improve from last quarter’s 8% to this quarter’s 12%. A jump of 4% could mean that costs might begin course correcting in the near future. The remaining 34% of respondents aren’t expecting a change in the market. 

Expected Change in Company Performance

Compared to 12% of respondents last quarter, 17% of our members expect company performance to Decline or Significantly Decline. We’ve seen a steady increase of around 6% quarter-over-quarter so far in 2022.

On the positive side, we saw a small drop in respondents who expect company performance to Improve or Significantly Improve: 38% vs. last quarter’s 41%. Again, nearly half of our members don’t expect a positive or negative change, with 45% expecting company performance to remain the same.

Qualified Labor Rating

The percentage of our members who responded negatively—Poor or Horrible—, when asked about the current state of qualified labor, decreased 6 percentage points, from 60% down to 54%. If we see this 6 percentage point decrease again next quarter, we will be back to where we started 2022 out at 48%.

The number of survey respondents who answered that they found qualified labor to be Good or Excellent did not change from last quarter’s 12%. 

Qualified Labor Change

When asked about how the availability of qualified labor has changed over the past six months, we saw a decrease in respondents reporting that it has Declined or Significantly Declined, from last quarter’s 34% down to 27%. 

We didn’t see a change in respondents that report the pool of qualified labor has Improved or Significantly Improved, as that stayed at 12%.  

Emerging Trends

When we asked our members about the new or existing trends they saw more of over the last quarter, the top three most common answers were: 

1. Darker colors across the board. Specifically a trend with black – windows, doors, siding, and roofs. 
2. An increased focus on modernization/efficiency and automation of their home.
3. Customers are seemingly becoming more cautious with their spending.

“People are holding on to their money a little tighter, and waiting longer to make a decision on big purchases.”

“We are seeing customers focused on increased home automation and efficiency more and more.”

Waning Trends

We also asked our members about trends they’re seeing less of in 2022. Interestingly, the top 2 trends from last quarter haven’t changed. Here are the top three answers:

1. Formal dining rooms
2. White cabinets
3. Open concepts

“There’s a bit of backlash for open concepts right now.”

“Not many formal dining rooms are needed anymore.”

Near-term Strategies

1. Investing in recruiting
2. Customer experience to lead to more referrals
3. Increased marketing/ad dollars

“We’ve added additional HR staff to retain, trim and recruit more effectively”

“More focus on delivering a better customer experience that hopefully leads to better referrals”

Long-term Strategies

1. Updating processes/systems
2. Creative marketing strategies
3. Improve training

“We are getting involved with local college internships and co-op programs to train and develop talent from within!”

“Reviewing and renewing all our sales and marketing processes. We’re spending more time working ON the business, rather than IN the business.”

The post 2022 Third Quarter Market Predictions appeared first on GuildQuality: Customer Satisfaction Surveying for Contractors.

While it is important to be prepared and take preventative measures to offset a decline in the market, there are many actions your business can take to feel more in control of your future. 

Keep reading to learn more about the state of the industry and the initiatives our community of home builders, remodelers, and home service providers are taking to stabilize and strengthen their businesses in the midst of economic uncertainty.

The current and future state of the market

Near the end of July 2022, we surveyed a selection of GuildQuality and Customer Lobby members about the impending recession. Unsurprisingly, the majority of respondents – 67% to be exact – reported already being negatively impacted by the current state of the economy. On the flip side, only 10% reported a positive impact. 

So, what exactly do we mean by a negative or positive impact? According to our survey data, many members are experiencing increased material and labor costs, fewer leads and calls, fewer sales, labor shortages, uncertainty and anxiety within their staff, and more project cancellations. 

Although industry-level challenges like labor shortages and rising material costs are rather uncontrollable, our network of home service professionals is taking action to set their businesses up for success.   

Actions to Maintain Business

On a high level, remodelers, contractors, and builders are mostly focused on the following: increasing their attention on customer satisfaction (45%), increasing their marketing spend (30%), and devoting more effort to employee training (26%) and hiring (16%). Survey respondents also reported diversifying their services and adapting their business model. 

To take things a step further, we spoke with GuildQuality members about specific actions they’re taking that fall under these general initiatives. Here’s what they had to say:  

Focus on communication and transparency with customers

Customer satisfaction is a fundamental component of one’s success. Especially in times of economic uncertainty, or when material delays or pricing spikes are expected to occur, proactively communicate with your customers, set clear expectations, and demonstrate your commitment to their happiness. 

Bob Fleming, President of Classic Remodeling says, “If you have an honest conversation regarding labor or material delays with customers, 99 out of 100 times the customer will have patience and understanding.”

To ensure a project is priced proportionally to the current cost of materials, some GuildQuality members utilize escalation clauses. The key to avoiding upsetting your customers is transparency. Talk to your leads and customers about the clause right away and make sure they understand exactly how it works. Taking it a step further, Classic Remodeling shows their clients the lumber index to provide a visual explanation as to why an escalation clause is necessary. 

If you’re still worried about how your customers may react to a change in price, Hugh Stearns, Owner of Stearns Design Build reported that in his experience, clients are actually surprised that the end cost wasn’t more expensive, given the current market conditions. 

As always, asking your customers about their experience with your company is another way to keep the communication door open and learn what you can do to improve your service. It also provides a way for you to follow up with less-than-pleased customers, right any wrongs, and strengthen your relationship with them – as well as your reputation overall. 

Increase or expand your marketing efforts

In addition to focusing on your customer’s satisfaction, strategic branding and marketing can improve your reputation, familiarize consumers with your business, and gain market share. During a recession especially, when many businesses are cutting their marketing budgets, your dollars will go further and result in a higher return.  

Anna Olivier, President of Jim Olivier’s Home Improvement Company advises that “history has shown that those who quit marketing lose. It’s the easiest thing to cut, but not the best idea. Instead, sell value and keep it positive.” 

Social media marketing has become a powerful business tool to engage consumers, gain a following, and reinforce brand identity. Especially in an industry as visually driven as the home improvement industry, TikToks, and Instagram Reels are captivating mediums for potential clients looking to make changes to their homes. Several GuildQuality members, such as Opal Enterprises and House to Home Solutions, are already seeing results from their efforts. Not only are they able to demonstrate the quality of their products live, but they’re also reaching a newer audience: Millennials and even Gen Z.

Tara Dawn, Co-founder at Opal Enterprises, also recommends using Pinterest to promote your business. The platform revolves around inspired visual boards and uses geofencing, giving you the ability to define geographical boundaries to your ads or posts.  

The opposite of social media marketing is direct mail marketing. Although the Pandemic certainly intensified the digital-first approach, direct mail can work beautifully, if executed smartly. Many GuildQuality members reported focusing more on increasing return business, in addition to new.

Sending prior customers a piece of mail – whether it’s to wish them Happy Thanksgiving or inform them about a Limited Time Offer – is an excellent way to stay top-of-mind. Although they may not pick up the phone that day, they’ll remember their experience with your business, appreciate your outreach, and be much more likely to reach out to you in the future, when they do need a service. 

You can also send direct mail pieces to homeowners who live next to or within the same neighborhood as a current client. Mailers that acknowledge an inconvenience (i.e. “pardon our dust”) or show off a recent project will build rapport with the homeowner and establish your business as one that cares. 

Invest in your employees

Many of our members mentioned that there is no need to undercut quality workmanship if you continue coaching your employees. Developing skilled workers within your organization eliminates the time and energy allotted to looking for new hires, especially with the ongoing labor shortage.

Again, sending surveys to customers with questions specifically about different departments or individual team members will help you identify who needs more training and who may be considered for a promotion, or at the very least, deserve special recognition.

And finally, another way to strengthen your business internally is by checking in with your team on a regular basis. Send an Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) survey to learn how valued they feel and determine how loyal they are to your business. This will help you predict future turnover and make improvements to your processes or management style. 

Don’t be afraid to adapt your business model

Sometimes the economic environment calls for change. It is important to take the data you receive, analyze it, and adapt your practices accordingly. Remember, consumers today have access to infinite options online, which means they are going to choose a business that meets their needs at that exact moment. 

During a recession, consumers often become more focused on staying within or under budget and saving money where they can. Knowing this, Greg McCall, Co-Owner of McCall Homes, shared that during the last recession, he shifted his focus toward the business’s more affordable services. Today, it may be smart to diversify your services and product offerings – within reason – to appeal to a wider audience and increase the number of new leads. 

Next Steps

Although there are more sales and marketing tactics beyond what we’ve outlined, we encourage you to try at least one of our members’ ideas! These businesses have survived past recessions, a Pandemic, and more, which is why we believe their advice is sound.

If you’re interested in sending customer or lead surveys or direct mail or email campaigns, GuildQuality and Customer Lobby (our sister company) can help. 

Over 15,000 professionals have trusted GuildQuality’s surveying and performance reporting to get data-driven, comment-rich, actionable feedback about the quality of their service. We offer both customer and lead surveying, allowing you to identify your strengths and weaknesses, as well as your shining employees and teams, throughout the entire customer lifecycle. 

Customer Lobby, on the other hand, focuses on return business through email and direct marketing. Customer Lobby tracks your history with every customer and uses that data to identify who is most likely to respond to outreach from your business. As a result, you’re communicating with the hottest leads at the right time, every time, and strengthening your relationship with them even when you’re not directly working with them. 

To learn more about either, email our Communications Team at bailey@evercommerce.com.

This article was co-authored by Annette Greenley + Patrick Schweigert.

The post How to strengthen your business in an economic downturn appeared first on GuildQuality: Customer Satisfaction Surveying for Contractors.

Roofing Resources of Georgia (RRG), a roofing company and Owens Corning Platinum Preferred member, with a 13-year history of providing exceptional customer service, has adopted this approach by surveying their leads through GuildQuality. Not only have they been able to improve their business from the inside out, but they’ve also already brought in an additional $27,000 after reconnecting with a few leads they thought went cold.

With the right attention and timing, lost leads can become customers

As a family-owned and operated business, RRG has a very close-knit staff and is able to communicate with clients at any time. In fact, RRG’s Cimarron Mason says they can “turn a no into a yes…without trying to sell a service the customer doesn’t need.” If that isn’t impressive enough, they provide interactive video presentations, ensuring their clients can see exactly what needs addressing on their roof.

Even with many excellent features in their business model, RRG recognized they could potentially further expand their customer base by following up with lost leads. How? In their experience, lost leads could turn into prospective customers with the right timing and attention.

Surveying Lost Leads with GuildQuality

Since implementing GuildQuality’s Lost Leads Surveying in April of 2022, Cimarron says it’s definitely been worth it for RRG.

“GuildQuality, without a doubt, is worth the investment. They do the legwork that we may not have time to do – even if you only get one contract out of the investment into GuildQuality’s rehash survey, then it’s worth it.”

GuildQuality makes it simple to survey lost leads with optimal timing and questions. While GuildQuality provides recommended questions to include, the survey is completely customizable.

GuildQuality also provides various metrics and data from the survey results so you can flip an uninterested prospect into a customer. By asking if the prospect is still interested in your business, GuildQuality can provide concrete, easily identifiable opportunities for your salespeople to utilize in the future.

This survey provides data-rich feedback, so you can focus on your business’s most valued and enticing features. “If you can turn one ‘no’ into a ‘yes’ and make a sale, then I see the value of using GuildQuality, absolutely”, Cimarron says, as RRG has successfully turned three leads into customers with GuildQuality’s Lost Leads Survey. She goes on to say, “not only that, but you have a customer that started out as a ‘no’ that you’ve flipped, turned into a happy customer, and now you have another review.’”

RRG has found the most success with a few key questions from the survey. Cimarron asserts that “would you like us to call you back?” is the most important question to view because the answer reveals whether or not you have a foot in the door. Also, by asking about the experience the customer had with the salespeople, RRG has the opportunity to learn how that team can improve their sales pitch and overall communication with potential customers.

Following leads to build your customer base

Following up with leads allows you to determine who is interested in your business and who to focus marketing efforts on. GuildQuality makes it simple by immediately notifying you if a potential client is still interested. This feature will save your business time and effort, and bring in more opportunities to increase revenue. This way, we can handle the leads so that you can concentrate on your services and customers.

GuildQuality’s Lost Lead surveys provide valuable feedback from your lost leads on which elements of your sales process need improvement, whether or not they’re still considering your business, and what features are most important to consumers.

Takeaways

Your company can improve its practices and acquire new customers with GuildQuality. It’s important to remember these key takeaways:

By listening to lost leads, you could come across someone who is now interested in your services, leading to higher profits for your business.
Surveying lost leads can also improve your business through helpful feedback to coach salespeople and change practices that aren’t working which will ultimately improve your business!

Interested in Becoming a Member?

To learn more about GuildQuality, click here.

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With this universal shift of highly valued customer service, businesses can turn to several different tactics to show that they not only care about their customers but want to learn from their experiences as well. In the home building, remodeling, and services industry, customer satisfaction surveys are a great way to demonstrate your commitment to quality.

Benefits of Customer Satisfaction Surveys

There are several benefits to conducting customer satisfaction surveys to elevate your business: 

1. They can build rapport with customers, showcasing that you value your customer’s opinions and welcome their candid feedback. Additionally, when issues highlighted in a customer’s response are promptly addressed, they could lead to increased word-of-mouth referrals as the customer will feel heard and taken care of.
2. They can fix underperforming areas and improve the technicians’ service. These surveys offer opportunities for your business to make it right and keep the customer on your side. This also provides a basis for you to make informed decisions from data-driven results. 
3. Customer satisfaction surveys allow you to understand what processes are working. Without tracking trends within your customer data, your business could risk potentially ruining a good component with blind changes. This data allows you to build upon your best practices and target new customers with your differentiated service.
4. With survey data, you are able to track company-wide and team member-specific progress over time. By tracking and measuring customer surveys consistently, you can benchmark overall performance at the company, team, or even the individual level.  Learn how one GuildQuality member utilizes this feature, here. 
5. It’s an important component in order to compete with your peers. Conducting customer surveys is another way to set your business apart from the competition and attract more customers.

How GuildQuality Helps With Customer Satisfaction Surveys

GuildQuality can provide your business with the proper tools to conduct customer satisfaction surveys and learn directly from your customers what’s working, and what isn’t. 

We can send surveys directly before, during, and/or after each service for convenience and consistency. And we ensure a high response rate and consistent professionalism with proactive outreach and a dedicated team of survey professionals. Our surveys are completely customizable, so the values that are most important to your business are highlighted. 

With GuildQuality, our platform allows for easily measurable results, so you can make sense of the data and come to clear and concise conclusions about your work. We recently introduced an industry-standard scoring system by launching Net Promoter Score (NPS) as an option for your surveys. NPS is a tool that measures customer loyalty, enthusiasm, and satisfaction by telling you who among your customers is a promoter of your business, whose a detractor, and who is passive about the experience they received. It’s easy to understand and implement into your surveys, so your business can reach its highest potential!

Interested in Becoming a Member? 

To learn more about GuildQuality, click here. 

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Understanding the Labor Shortage

The reason behind the labor shortage is two-fold: 1) the demand for home renovations, repairs, and construction work is increasing and 2) there are more qualified workers retiring than there are joining the workforce. The current population of technicians, electricians, and construction workers is aging, with the average age at 43 years old. 

There are also fewer and fewer shop classes offered to high school students across the country because they are no longer embedded in the curriculums of most schools. These classes would often spark a passion in students to enter the industry after graduation. The aging workforce coupled with this downturn in shop classes has left a gap in employment. 

With an estimated 2 million construction workers needed over the next three years to meet demand, the COVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated this issue. Since hands-on learning is so vital in this industry, training programs took a significant hit with the start of quarantine and social distancing. Not only this, the pandemic slowed the distribution of materials, causing a supply chain shortage across the world. 

Even so, there are still many ways for businesses to handle the effects of this labor shortage.  

Company Culture Drives Retention & Improved Performance of Employees

In the example of Jenkins Restorations, it has managed to successfully utilize its business practices to account for the lack of available employees in the industry. 

Since 1975, Jenkins Restorations has delivered excellent service to those in need of emergency services, disaster recovery, and building restoration services. Jenkins Restorations has developed a reputation as a leader in the home repair industry, both for residential and commercial clients, and has expanded to 23 locations in 15 states.  

Jenkins Restorations prides itself on its outstanding company culture as a corporation with a small business feel. The company is structured so that everyone “follows the same processes and speaks the same language”, says Elisa Medina, Manager of Jenkins University. This ensures that employees from different locations will immediately be on the same page which helps foster a sense of unity within the company. 

Jenkins Restorations also employs other strategies to help boost its employees’ confidence. If there is one location performing well and another location that is known to be challenging, a tenured Jenkins Restorations employee can temporarily work on the successful location to gain more confidence and expertise. This approach was first proposed by an employee who volunteered to help an office that was struggling with a certain process. As an employee-owned company, Jenkins Restorations welcomes and acknowledges its employees’ ideas, looking to implement them whenever effective. 

It’s a simple concept: when employees like the company they work for, they are more likely to strive to improve and less likely to go work somewhere else. 

Jenkins Restorations’ Implementation of GuildQuality

Jenkins Restorations was specifically looking to improve employee performance and obtain more consistent reviews without putting that responsibility onto their employees’ workloads. In 2015, Jenkins Restorations became a Guildmember. 

Jenkins Restorations utilizes GuildQuality for several aspects of its business which have proven very successful. Jenkins Restorations uses GuildQuality as a training tool at project completion. By receiving comment-rich feedback specific to their performance directly from the customer, Jenkins is able to understand what’s working well, and what could use some improvement. This helps its employees build relationships with customers and understand how to follow processes correctly. 

Jenkins Restorations also utilizes GuildQuality to motivate employees to go above and beyond. Project managers are paid on commission through various GuildQuality results. Jenkins Restorations has even implemented several awards for distinguished service – for instance, GuildQuality is an influential metric for the Hydrant Award, which commends the top-performing branch at Jenkins Restorations each year. 

The GuildQuality survey also enables the viewer to search each question from branch to branch or from project manager to project manager. This feature allows Jenkins Restorations to track each question over time to see what trends they’ve experienced. Elisa comments that “data always tells a story, but in order to read the story you need to be able to sift through that data meaningfully. I can narrow my search based on quantitative data that will lead me to the qualitative data that tells me the true story.”   

GuildQuality’s ability to track employee performance also helped Jenkins Restoration shift its company culture toward an emphasis on customer service, as “encouragement, positive reinforcement, and recognition is more valued for this new generation of the workforce which is how GuildQuality helps employees feel valued and open to learn and improve performance”. 

Due to this change, Jenkins Restorations has managed to increase its overall retention and growth over the last seven years. Jenkins Restorations currently has 417 employees, while expanding to two new locations each year. 

How GuildQuality Can Combat the Industry-Wide Labor Shortage

GuildQuality’s various metrics can serve as the basis of rewards for employees to stay motivated and incentivized. The data-driven results allow for clear, actionable feedback. GuildQuality will help your business ask customers for their unbiased, comment-rich feedback, learn from your customer’s experiences, promote authentic reviews, and grow through high-quality lead generation. 

“The way that you can sort the data, the way that it’s received, and the way that it’s tracked so that you can filter things with GuildQuality is a huge benefit. You can really hone in on certain issues and you can track performance in a very data-driven way, which we highly value”,  Elisa Medina remarks. 

The labor shortage has made it difficult for companies to conduct business as usual, but with GuildQuality, companies can both keep and improve qualified workers. 

Takeaways

Your company can navigate this labor shortage with GuildQuality’s help because of its two key abilities: 

1. GuildQuality provides the kind of insights businesses need to strengthen employee performance. Their customizable reporting tools will help you identify what exactly needs refining within your teams, creating training and coaching opportunities.
2. Incorporating GuildQuality into your business processes forms a more positive company culture, reducing turnover and increasing employee retention. 

Interested in Becoming a Member? 

To learn more about GuildQuality, click here. 

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