Gone are the days when you could handpick your customers and you had clientele coming out of your ears. With jobs in short supply, reputation and customer satisfaction are more important than ever. So what steps can you take to improve and increase your business?

I spoke with the general contractor and owner of a construction company recently. He spoke about how he is giving out his personal cell number and answering all calls. In a fairly rural area, he is willing to drive a couple of hours each direction to give estimates if it leads to more contracts. He has a crew to keep busy, and he knows they depend on him to generate business for their own livelihoods. Not only must the small business owner carry the burden of their own finances in this economy, but those of their employees as well. As this contractor realizes, he must be available at all times to potential clients to make sure he doesn’t lose any prospective jobs.

Using this same company as a firsthand example, they have also increased the amount of services they provide. They have implemented high-tech software to facilitate plan drawing and design, created a website integrated with local real estate companies, and volunteered their services at a few high-profile community events. This progressive approach to advertising has helped their reputation and made their company name more recognized throughout the community.

The key to customer satisfaction is quick follow-through and reliable service. If someone experiences a problem with a job you’ve done for them, the longer they have to deal with the inconvenience, the more resentful they become of you.

If times are slow for you right now, resist the temptation to charge more for your services. Homeowners know there are a lot of hungry contractors out there, and they have their pick of the cream of the crop. Remember, customer satisfaction is the key to repeat and referral business.

Tags: building business, business owners, construction, customer satisfaction, customers, follow through, recession, remodeling, service

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 at 4:11 pm and is filed under Contractor Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.