Standing out from the competition is important within any industry, and takes on particular value in a competitive industry like several contracting areas. Any major contractor will generally be competing with at least one or two significant competitors in their market for similar or even identical services, and often several at once, and finding ways to differentiate yourself is important.
At Contractor’s School, we’re proud to offer numerous services to help you become a contractor and build a fantastic general contractor business, from basic business setup and license acquisition themes to assisting our clients with long-term success in their business. Standing out from the competition involves a few factors, but at or near the top in any contracting situation is your reputation. This two-part blog series will go over several ways to boost your contracting business’s reputation as you move forward.
Be Accessible
Your reputation comes from your clients, who are your number one priority no matter what. But if clients don’t feel like your business is accessible and flexible within their needs, they’re likely to go elsewhere.
This is true whether you’ve built a one-man contracting operation or a team that features numerous employees, plus every template in between. Clients and prospective clients should have their calls answered or returned promptly, and should never have to wait exorbitant periods to check in with you or your staff about appointments, services or cost estimates. Your pricing structure should be honest and transparent, allowing clients to know what they’re paying for without discovering any hidden fees or expenses.
Setting and Meeting Expectations
Down similar lines, it’s your job as a contractor to establish what you want your client expectations and resulting reputation to be – and then to follow through on each and every one of these areas. Follow-through is a big part of your overall reputation; clients will notice when you are true to your word every time, but will notice even faster if you aren’t, and will often make their displeasure known through online reviews or other formats that will hurt your reputation. If you set a standard, it must be met for all clients no matter what.
Request Reviews
We mentioned reviews above, and they’re vital areas for any contractor. Many clients who require contractor services will rely heavily on online reviews when searching for the ideal partner – not only should you be doing everything you can to avoid bad reviews, you should also ask satisfied clients if they will do you the favor of leaving you a positive review to boost your ratings. However, never put any pressure on clients to do this against their will.
For more on how to raise your contracting business’s reputation as you move forward, or to learn about any of our contractor certification classes or other programs, contact Contractors School today.
