Developing and managing a construction company is a difficult endeavor. To be more successful, learn how to make customers happy.
What you’ll discover:
How should I contact a potential customer regarding a building project?
How can I keep my construction clients satisfied?
How do I keep my customers satisfied when I know there may be a problem?
Is it safe for construction clients to visit the worksite?
How can I provide my customers good value for their money?
Is it permissible to request internet reviews, customer references, or recommendations?
Many construction firm owners discover that operating a construction company is difficult. They must sometimes do the building work themselves. They must also handle and arrange documentation, permits, inspections, and bids, all while keeping clients satisfied and informed. Nonetheless, general contractors and subcontractors that maintain solid connections with their customers throughout the process are in great demand. Continue reading to discover more about developing positive connections with your construction clients.
Table of Contents
How should I contact a potential customer regarding a building project?
When approaching a customer for a building project, you need create a strong marketing foundation. This assists in establishing and maintaining your industry reputation, as well as managing customer expectations from the outset. You may do this in numerous ways:
Publicize your most recent licenses and registrations.
Discuss how long you’ve been in business.
Display completed successful works, drawing attention to the particular industries you service, such as house or business building or renovation.
Include any workmanship guarantees, payment information, and OSHA safety measures that clients may be interested in.
Create sample agreements and price samples for prospective customers to review.
These ideas may be made obvious on your business website, which should be kept up to date and visually appealing. Moreover, with the majority of people accessing websites through mobile devices, you may wish to make your website mobile friendly.
Personal visits to prospective clients or meetings at the project site might benefit both you and your client. These discussions may assist you learn how to effectively bid a new project and provide an opportunity for the customer to assess you. Having example agreements, a portfolio or brochures displaying previous work, and a business card may relieve both you and the customer of the burden of having to clinch the sale in a day. Even if you do not win that bid, leaving your information with a customer might lead to a future work, or a reference, so long as you left a good impression.
After you’ve established your marketing foundation, you may expand your current customer connections and transform satisfied consumers into brand ambassadors. Keeping in contact with current and former customers may motivate them to write reviews about your products and services online. It may also entice them to send you further jobs.
How can I keep my construction clients satisfied?
Finishing a building or restoration project is often insufficient for today’s clients. It may be profitable for construction businesses to go above and beyond to keep customers pleased. Making an effort to provide excellent customer service will assist construction firm owners in developing long-term partnerships. Provide simple visual dashboards, charts, or graphs that show your progress and deadlines to your customers while talking with them. Make things basic and straightforward.
You might concentrate on offering follow-up service in addition to on-time and on-budget projects to keep your customers satisfied and gain new business. Customers like it when contractors accomplish objectives and timelines while maintaining ongoing contact. Following up to ensure that clients are satisfied and the project is still successful after six months, a year, or two years may give an opportunity to bid on a new project or boost customer happiness and the likelihood of a reference. Following up demonstrates that you stand behind your work, which frequently leads to word-of-mouth referrals, particularly when you are just reminding a previous customer of the outstanding job you performed for them.
Business intelligence and client management technologies may help you complete more tasks and make follow-up procedures run more smoothly. You may be able to automate the scheduling of follow-up calls after finishing a project, for example.
How do I keep my customers satisfied when I know there may be a problem?
It is critical to assist customers in understanding what to anticipate, although this is not always straightforward. It might be considerably more difficult if you encounter delays, pricing revisions, or scheduling challenges as a result of additional labor.
If you’ve ever owned a construction firm, you’ll know that it’s typically preferable to under-promise and over-deliver. Even yet, the building sector has been hit hard by backlogs and delays induced by the worldwide epidemic. According to the Associated Builders and Contractors, the construction industry’s backlog indicator in January 2022 revealed substantial delays of eight months. This was a decrease from 8.2 months in December but an increase from 7.5 months in January 2021.
Construction firm owners can adjust when supply chain delays, supply shortages, and increasing pricing seem to be the norm. You may discover solutions to these issues while still managing deadlines and other time constraints.
According to Georgia Tech’s Department of Building Construction, construction firms may overcome supply issues and provide customers with a clear image in the following ways:
Plan ahead of time by ordering building supplies. This allows for additional delivery time and minimizes complications caused by delays.
Contemplate novel or alternative delivery methods that begin early in the building process, such as during the design phase.
Collaborate more closely with important organizations and construction partners to find out when supplies are available.
Where possible, choose less popular materials.
General contractors and subcontractors may notify consumers of probable delays or pricing adjustments by making early arrangements. The goal here is to communicate often and early, so that your customers have a better idea of the present process and what to anticipate.
Is it safe for construction clients to visit the worksite?
Construction owners, managers, and employees are well aware that building sites may be hazardous. Ladders, chemicals, scaffolding, and electricity are all common workplace safety dangers.
Top-tier construction firms put additional effort into site safety protocols. They make certain that their construction employees and subcontractors are aware of and adhere to all of them.
Is it, however, safe for construction clients to visit the jobsite? If you wish to allow customers to visit the site, you may make your safety procedures and restrictions more specific. This allows you to have greater control over your site for these visitors. It’s also a good idea to communicate the site’s safety regulations right away. Here are a few such examples:
Establish guidelines on who may and cannot access the workplace, when and how.
Visitors should be required to wear safety equipment such as hard helmets, goggles, or yellow vests.
Create one access point to the monitored site.
Require customers to make appointments to see the facility.
Mark locations having limited access, such as stairs or balconies, clearly.
In addition, as your construction site safety policy evolves, you might include requirements for site visits in your contracts. For example, you may put a clause in your contract that restricts your liability for jobsite visits. To safeguard your company, you should have a lawyer analyze your contracts to ensure that they correspond to how you really operate.
How can I provide my customers good value for their money?
Sticker shock is never enjoyable, whether for the contractor or the customer. So, how can you prevent prospective customers from having a negative reaction when they view your estimate or proposal? Let’s look at some approaches to avoid this response while still demonstrating to the customer your knowledge, skill, and quality.
Speak about money right away. As the owner of a seasoned construction firm, you generally have a good sense of how long projects will take and how much they will cost. Before you invest too much time and effort creating a proposal, you probably want to ensure that your price meets the client’s expectations. This early contact demonstrates your expertise and professionalism while assisting you in working with customers who will not back out.
Take the initiative in early talks to demonstrate the value of your work. You may inquire, “What are your objectives?” or “What do you want to achieve?” You demonstrate your interest in their project by asking these questions. As a consequence, you assist your customer in seeing you as a trustworthy adviser rather than simply someone who will provide them a number.
Highlight your experience, ties with suppliers or subcontractors, and utilization of cutting-edge equipment. This gives your customers confidence in your abilities, expertise, and knowledge.
Lastly, show them your project management strategy. They will then know you are working on the job in the manner they anticipate and want. Additionally, this advises the customer that the construction is likely to be done on time and on budget.
Is it permissible to request internet reviews, customer references, or recommendations?
Word-of-mouth marketing is still very important for consumers and clients making purchasing decisions. This is also true in the building sector.
Online reviews, customer references, and recommendations are all effective forms of word-of-mouth marketing. However the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) compels corporations to follow specific standards to safeguard customers.
These are some guidelines to follow when requesting customers to suggest you:
Internet testimonials and recommendations must come from actual customers who have utilized your services. Fake ones may lead to legal issues.
Make sure you have permission before utilizing a client’s name or picture on your website. To be safe, ask for permission in person, over the phone, or over email, but obtain it in writing.
The internet review or suggestion should be correct. The customer must not inflate outcomes in order to deceive the public.
You may pay for recommendations or provide discounts or free services in return for a testimonial, as long as you make it obvious that the consumer was compensated for their feedback. You risk FTC penalties or a lawsuit if you do not include this disclaimer.
Establishing a strong foundation with your construction customers requires exceptional work, time, and further effort long after the task is completed. Your clientele, on the other hand, are the key to your success.
