WAYS TO EXCEED HOME IMPROVEMENT EXPECTATIONS

In this day and age, it’s no longer just about meeting a customer’s expectations, if you truly want to succeed, you should strive to go above and beyond your customer’s expectations on a daily basis. The best way to do this? Through superior customer service and interactions throughout the entire life of a project from start to finish. If you want your business to stand out, here are 5 helpful tips for you to to help you to quickly elevate the level of your customer service.

1. Give bids or estimates immediately electronically

In the digital world we live in today, people expect to get answers to their questions immediately. “Google It” is a common phrase used daily. When you want a fresh meal, just go on your phone and have it ordered. Need a massage? Open the app and have a masseuse come right to your home. So when it comes to garnering a new customer, that prospect will expect to see how you work immediately. Why should the job site be any different? In order to exceed customer expectations it is important to get the bid in early, using as much transparency as possible in the bidding process. There is now an app for that, allowing you to send out bids to prospective clients while you are still standing in the meeting with them, if possible. You will impress your prospective clients, and possibly beat out any competition with speed and the convenience of sending it to whatever channel is most convenient to them, whether it is text, email or instant messaging. If the prospective client does not want to confuse all your messages on the project with personal or work emails or messages, then you have an option for that as well. Having an app, that allows a client exclusive access to their project file, allows notifications to come to you when the client has a change order or needs to communicate something specific to you about the project.

2. Send them updates through their own client file

Just as it was stated above, clients love to feel like they are being cared for in the process of the project. Having a means of sending them consistent updates to their phone or email can make or break a project as well as a client relationship. It may seem minuscule or unimportant to be constantly updating a file or sending messages to their phone daily about the project, but clients do appreciate the ongoing status updates on the construction projects and they love the transparency of always being kept in the loop. It provides them a peace of mind your competitors will not be able to give.

3. Catch Mistakes Before They Are Made or Before it Increases Costs

The biggest detriment to any construction business is making mistakes early on that completely derail the rest of the project. If a major mishap is overlooked in step 1 and the crew continues to grind it out for weeks until step 12, the entire project may need to be canned and starting over from the beginning is a major possibility. Greg Fry writes in his article entitled “10 Most Common Contractor Mistakes” that failure to commit to safety checks and procedures is of the most extreme and costly mistakes to make. With a project management app, you can make and send notes in real time of the project and the potential safety threats to ensure all crew is notified of safety precaution updates at all times. This in turn allows you to steer clear of mistakes that can be costly to your business and reputation. Improve both budget and time with this ready mix supplier.

4. Keep track of all their PO’s and other paperwork in the palm of your hand

During the entirety if the project, it is imperative that you keep constant and accurate record of the clients orders and paperwork and have it on file at all times, as stated above. Storing it on your phone and computer and maintain the ability to refer to it at all times to ensure any and all issues and requests are treated with the utmost amount of speed and efficiency. Data synchronization and offline capabilities are key to successful mobile apps, but they are also the key to being able to run your business. Today’s consumers are highly reliant on their mobile applications. If apps don’t work, users won’t use them—it’s that simple. To avoid reliance on wifi, providers of databases and cloud services have added synchronization and offline capabilities to their mobile offerings…just like 3Dazer, you can subscribe to storage space so you can maintain all photos and communications of each project in the palm of your hand.

5. Get change orders immediately

The world today features an unfathomable amount of options, especially when it comes to redoing your home or workspace. When there are so many options, people tend to LOVE to change their minds at the most “convenient” times. Change orders are an inevitable part of working in the home improvement and general construction industry. You’ve probably had to deal with them at some point on every project and will continue to have to handle them on the next project. When change orders aren’t managed well, it can quickly delay the success of a project. Increased project costs, delays in hitting contract milestones, interruption of workflow, and not completing a project on time are some of the issues that can be caused by not addressing and resolving change order issues immediately once they are received. Being able to effectively manage change orders doesn’t have to be difficult, in fact, there is an app for that!