When It All Goes Right

Few get credit "when it all goes right." Instead, reputations, and even careers, often get slammed by the smallest of mishaps, especially in the super, emotionally charged, residential remodeling market. I was paid the "mother load" of all compliments today by one of our new clients. I ran into our client in a public setting and was complimented for doing a great job on a recent small, but technically challenging scope of work. This particular project was an acid test from the tutoring that I recently received by both Mike Holmes, of HGTV, and a course of instruction that I have prescribed to from Remodeler's Advantage. By following established guidelines in this particular service industry, while seeming elementary, establishing a clear channel of communication between parties is key to a healthy remodeling or repair job. Elements of this communication process is to identify the specific scope of work needed, prescribe the needed work, price, and schedule the execution of the work. We try to be as conspicuous as possible in both written contract forms and third party evaluation through guildquality.com, and then follow up over a certain amount of time to ensure our work is holding up and to reinforce that we are committed to our work and client's welfare. 

Not all jobs go as planned, but if you don't have a good plan to begin with, you should certainly plan to fail. One of my very first projects was a virtual nightmare because it lacked in every aspect of structure, from a well defined scope of work, written agreement, and what everyone is supposed to do when things don't go so well. We were placed in a position that our best course of action was just to chalk one up for experience, lick our wounds, and press on. Despite that hiccup, we were happy to invite over 80 super clients to attend a client appreciation reception at Roy Morton's antique warehouse, Architectural Heritage, to help us celebrate our 10th Anniversary as a full service remodeling company. We are always learning and welcome constructive criticism, seek advice from Remodeler's Advantage and the experts from Remodeling Magazine, and look forward to generating more compliments as mentioned above. They make it all well worth the hard work.

Happy New Year, and thanks for the business and positive reinforcement of the things gone right!