Cleanliness On The Job Site Leads To Skewed Satisfaction Numbers In Other Areas

Mike Finley

ReNex Inc surveyed 700 recent remodeling customers. Some of the findings are interesting. While some areas of the job contractors seem to be doing really well in, there seems to be a big misconception in regard to how important those areas really are to their customers.

For instance while: About 8 out of 10 said remodelers and their subcontractors were deemed to be “polite and courteous” on the jobsite. Only 2 out of 3 agreed with the statement that their remodeler was “honest and trustworthy.”

Over all:
Only 1 out of 2 respondents said that they would be willing to refer their remodeler to a friend.

Only 1 out of 2 indicated that they would be willing to hire their contractor again.

WOW! Obviously being nice has little to do with real customer satisfaction!

I have made it a point in my companies dealings to leave a customers house cleaner than it was when we arrive. Each day everything is cleaned up and stored in as small a space as possible. Floors are swept, trash is bagged, carpets are vacuumed. Saw dust and drywall dust in the garage is swept and vacuumed.

I believe that as contractors we tend to try to out guess our customers and do what we think our customers want. But often without closing our mouths and opening our ears we end up missing the mark. What we think is important and what a customer feels is important can sometimes be completely different. I've gotten lots of comments from customers about how neat we are, but now I am glad to see that we were on the right track right from the start. This new survey has some very interesting information coorelating customers perceptions especially in jobsite cleaning and how it can effect a customers overall perception of the job quite dramatically. The survey shows that just by keeping the site clean the customers perceptions of all other aspects of the job get effected in a positive way, whether they are justified or not.

About 6 out of 10 recalled that their jobsite was swept clean at the end of each day.

Among those clients that said they agreed with the statement that their remodeler “made his/her best effort to leave the jobsite swept and organized at the end of each work day,” overall satisfaction soared to 7.84. from an average of 3s and 4s.

There is even more... in regards to good communication skills between the remodeler and the customer during the project...

Among the 77 percent of homeowners surveyed who said their remodeler did a good job keeping them informed on the progress of their project, scores for overall satisfaction was nearly five points higher than for those who did not keep their clients informed.

In the toughest category to please — timeliness — good communicators were rewarded with ratings of 7.60 vs. 2.72

I thought this was extremely interesting and shows in a positive way how in order to be good business people and grow our businesses we need to look beyond the obvious. Sometimes there is much more going on then a simple one to one relationship in regard to what we are doing on the job. Some facets of the job can greatly effect a cusomtomers satisfaction positively or negatively, and in ways that we might never have even expected.

Floorwizard

Although we might expect it in their shoes.
I see too many people out there to work, without keeping in mind the golden rule.
"If this was my house, how would I want things done"

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"in 20 years you will regret more what you did not do than what you did"

Grumpy

Cleanliness is highly important to me. Most customers can not judge if a job was properly done. Unless somethign is blatently obviously wrong they simply do not know... so they judge based on what they do know. A clean job site is a quality job site. A dirty jobsite is a poor job site... This is what cusotmers think.

In regards to communication I agree also. I try to keep the customer in the loop as much as possible but I am just too damned busy I know this is an area where I need more focus. I wish I had some office help to assist me. When ever working with builders/GC's/PM's etc... I try to give them status reports via fax or email at the end of the day. It's really alot easier for me to type a paragraph explaining how the day went than picking up the phone and calling these people. Mostly because I never have the time to give status reports or focus on customer service except when it is obnoxious to call a customer, like now at dinner time.

Curious Mike, where did you get that report. I too am a member of RenEx and have seen no such similiar report.

Teetorbilt

Flor, your statement, "If this was my house, how would I want things done" says it all. Do unto others........

I usually have an ID in the forefront. She establishes the customers wants, needs, budget, etc. and then we work together to make it happen. All of my ID's are women and they can communicate much better than I can.

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You can't solve you're problems with the same level of thinking that created the problems.

Albert Einstein