Your reputation makes or breaks your business

Your business will thrive or perish by its reputation. Slow to build and oh so easy to quickly demolish, your reputation is too important to ignore. ABC’s Nightline TV show ran an episode on shoddy builders the other night. For you who have worked new residential construction, nothing they highlighted was anything you haven’t seen first-hand. Corners not just shaved or cut, but eliminated altogether. Simple things, like deliberately skipping the 2x4’s in corners of stud walls to provide backing for future drywall in unfinished areas that will be completed sometime in the future. Doesn’t seem like a big deal until the owners find out more than 38 2x4’s are missing!

Mandatory arbitration clause: I had always assumed that was added to ensure fairness for both parties. Turns out that can often become a pay-to-play affair for the arbitrators who tend to rule in favor of the builders who ultimately decide if they will remain hired for the arbitrations to come later.

One thing missing from all the problems the homeowners showcased had lodged complaints about: the plumbing! Two thumbs up for the plumbers and manufacturers of plumbing goods and fixtures involved with those projects. It’s not easy working new construction with the demand for speed in order to turn a profit.

Products have kept pace with the need to reduce labor hours and material costs. Case in point: widespread kitchen and lavatory faucets that don’t require plumbers putty; have push-fit snap-together supply connections, and have finishes that last for a very long time. Braided flexible no-burst supply tubes; plastic and PEX tubing; push-on fittings or crimp style; PVC drainage with gasketed or solvent-weld joints. All of which helps you to maintain a rock-solid reputation. 

Are homeowners becoming more demanding? Not really, but they now have lots of venues for venting their frustrations: perceived or real. Ignore the myriad of soapbox town-crier consumer complain websites at your reputation’s peril.

Turns out AL and other sites take a hands-off approach to policing the posts for truth and accuracy.

We were alerted to a complaint on Angie’s List (AL), which turned out to be completely false. We had never even been to the home! I contacted AL only to be told, “There’s nothing we can do about that, but you are encouraged to respond on our site.” Turns out AL and other sites where anyone with a perceived axe to grind posts negative reviews of your company take a hands off approach to policing the posts for truth and accuracy. In this case, we contacted, by mail, the woman who had posted the negative review on AL and she voluntarily removed it from their web site.

You’ve no doubt read reviews where the contractor responded, which is certainly warranted providing you can do so politely and peacefully. I’ve also read responses that were cringe worthy. That’s like a double-negative more likely to scare off potential customers than the initial negative review.

The Dateline episode centered on the one cardinal sin that really puts frost on the contractor/customer relationship: ignoring warranty issues or just flat-out lying about attending to problems that would be covered under the warranty.

We once had a customer who was very demanding and difficult to please. Figures that would be the new home where we would end up with a boiler that proved to be a problem product: a lemon was more like it. The manufacturer’s representative was even more difficult that the customer and getting warranty parts was akin to a tug of war! When the first year’s free warranty labor expired and the boiler continued to break down, we extended the labor warranty for several years. Towards the end of the fourth year, we had well over $5,000 unrecoverable warranty expense.

It pays to read the ads in trade magazines! Long before I became a columnist for CONTRACTOR magazine, the president of that boiler company appeared in a full-page ad stating, as fact, that they had the best warranty in the business.  So I wrote to him and detailed the warranty expenses, how difficult the manufacturer’s rep had been to wrestle replacement parts from under warranty, and suggesting a new boiler was warranted with a suitable labor allowance included. I pointed out that both of our reputations were on the line.

A few days later, his secretary called asking for documented details. The manufacturer’s rep was dispatched to the jobsite and he was madder than a wet hen that I had gone over his head. He refused to issue a new boiler, but provided all new controls and gas valve to rebuild the boiler, which promptly broke down a week later. Back to the secretary with the update and a day later, the new boiler was authorized. The labor allowance was a bit tougher to obtain, but they eventually agreed to the hours we needed. To their credit, they also reimbursed us for ½ of the total warranty expense we had incurred. Although it cost both of us several thousand dollars, our reputations were preserved and we both were able to retain our customers.

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