Go-to Guys

Have you changed their light bulbs? Driven their cars around the block twice a week? Found them tickets to a show? Done their grocery shopping?

Rosie Romero Jr. has. The former owner of Legacy Custom Builders started a “concierge service” after one of his more affluent clients, a part-time Scottsdale, Ariz., resident, asked Romero to take care of the lawn and pool in his absence. “We basically turned their homes into resorts,” Romero says of his concierge clients.

“It's not easy to pull off,” Romero warns, cautioning remodelers against jumping into it without spending a lot of time strategizing. Indeed, when Romero sold the company in 2002, the buyers decided to shut down that department. But Romero says that it paid off while it lasted. “We found that [customers] did three times their annual concierge contract in remodeling work.”

Romero says he's had a handful of remodelers tell him that they've implemented the concierge service with great success, but the point is not that you should go and try this on your own. The takeaway is to always help your customers, in whatever way your business model allows.

Becoming the “go-to” remodeler doesn't mean literally becoming the only company any homeowner in your market ever calls. Except in rare circumstances — a very small community, for example, or a very specific niche — no remodeler is going to completely own his or her marketplace. But it is possible — indeed, it is preferable — to be the only company your clients call (or recommend to their friends) when it comes to any problem or issue with their house.

“Remodeling isn't something you do just once,” says Tom Turnage, president of The Turnage Co., in Jacksonville, Fla. Unlike new-home builders, who are unlikely to do multiple projects for the same person, remodelers have clients who will need or want a series of projects over the course of their lives. “My clients have businesses that need to be remodeled, vacation homes that need to be remodeled,” Turnage says. And they have family and friends with remodeling needs, as well: Turnage says he's now doing a handful of projects for the children of some of his first clients.

Tom Poulin, president of Poulin Design Remodeling, in Albuquerque, N.M., says that with repeat customers, “you already have a built-in perceived value. You don't have to go through your whole process again.” Poulin notes that closing rates on past clients and referrals are higher than on other leads. Turnage concurs, explaining that “it's a better marketing strategy than beating the bushes looking for new customers.”

Never lose sight of the fact that remodeling is an emotional process for the homeowner. As a remodeler, you go into other people's homes all the time, but try to put yourself in your clients' shoes. When they undergo a renovation, they are opening their home to someone they probably just met. It logically follows that once they choose you to do one project, they'd prefer that you do them all. The nature of the work predisposes your clients to give you more business. Don't do anything to betray the trust you worked so hard to earn — and do the little things that reinforce it — and you'll reap the rewards of repeat and referral business.

If your ultimate goal is to be a “go-to” remodeler, then you're trying to achieve what marketing gurus call “top-of-mind awareness” with your clients. You may not want to send someone out to replace a client's screen door, but you want to be the only person that client thinks to call when they need their screen door replaced.

The best way to get people to continually call you for all of their homeownership issues is to never be in a situation where you can't help them. It doesn't mean that you have to walk their dogs or test their home for radon. But at the very least, know someone you can refer who does provide those services, or offer to help them find someone. “We always try to offer a solution,” Turnage says. “It may just be ‘Call this guy'or ‘Call that guy,'” he continues, or it may be acting as a general contractor managing a group of trades. “They like having me as the GC buffer,” he says. “[Many clients] are willing to pay for that peace of mind.”

It may take a little time to find a handyman service or blacktop contractor that you feel comfortable referring your clients to, but you'll soon be reaping the benefits. If you're their one-stop shop for remodeling services, they'll continue to call you. Sooner or later, one of those calls will be about a project your company does do, and you'll be in a great position to win the contract.

Turnage says he completes a lot of smaller jobs for his past clients, including things like putting up Christmas trees. “They don't know who else to call,” Turnage says of these clients. Turnage has an hourly rate for these jobs, and bills them on a time and materials basis every two weeks. Much of the time, he won't even know about them: His production assistant and job supers schedule them around the company's larger projects.

These jobs aren't big moneymakers, but their benefit goes beyond the modest profits made on them. First and foremost, says Turnage, “it puts our trucks in their front yards, where the neighbors can see them.” And, he continues, “with things slowing down, we're glad to have that kind of work. It keeps us going until the economy turns around.”

A lot of it boils down to Business 101, the basics of customer service. “You have to continually remind your employees that you exist to serve your customers,” Poulin says. When you don't make their problems your priority, he continues, “you aren't earning that customer's future business.”

Michael Strong, of Brothers Strong in Houston, recently noticed a competitor's job sign in the front yard of one of his previous clients. Curious, he called the homeowner. The conversation went something like this: “I thought you were happy with the kitchen we did for you.”

“We are,” came the reply.

Strong pressed further. “So why is there another company's job sign in your yard?”

“We didn't know you did bathrooms, too.”

To keep this sort of thing from happening to him, Poulin's marketing pieces — which go out to his past clients three times a year — mention additions, decks, cabinets, window replacements, etc. The same is true of his Web site. “We remind people about all the projects that we do,” he says.

The “news and events” section of Brothers Strong's Web site details awards given to the company, and also lists publications in which the company has been mentioned — both the popular media and the trade press. The message this sends, Strong says, is: “The experts call us and ask for our opinion. Shouldn't you, too?”

Of course, that means being available and responsive to the media when they do call you. “When they call, you call them back,” Strong says. “You have to respect their deadlines.”

Father & Son Construction, in Troy, Mich., has done several projects in conjunction with Detroit television stations, ranging from fixing a door that police had broken down in pursuit of a bank robber to a room addition for a family adopting special-needs children. In almost all cases, the TV stations told company owner Mat Vivona Jr. the situation and asked if he could help. He was more than happy to oblige, and the subsequent stories on the local news provided him with benefits beyond the warm feelings of having done a good deed. “When two different stations view you as the person who knows their stuff,” Vivona says, it holds significant credibility with homeowners.

Strong says that it's important to be proactive. “Get involved in the community,” he says. “Reach out to the design community, write letters to the editor. You can't stay home and be the go-to guy.”

Michael Strong, of Brothers Strong in Houston, is in a fairly unique position when it comes to his presence in the community. Along with Robert “Bob” Birner, he co-hosts “The Remodeling Pro Radio Show,” which is broadcast live for two hours every Sunday morning.

Strong says that during the nearly two years he's been on the air, he has only received a handful of leads who called because they heard him on the radio. However, “it has really increased our credibility when we go on our sales calls,” he says. “When we tell people we're co-hosts, we suddenly have this trust factor.”

Birner, vice president and general manager of Amazing Siding Corp. and Renewal by Andersen Window and Door Replacement, in Houston, echoes his co-host. “It's like a third-party endorsement, where I'm the third party.”

Both Strong and Birner point to the responsibility of being a public figure as crucial to their credibility. “It gives the consumer peace of mind to think that we could be called on the carpet every week, but never are,” Birner says.

Rosie Romero Jr., whose radio show, “Rosie on the House,” has been on the air in Arizona for nearly 20 years, says more of the same. “Within a few years [of starting the show], I could hardly go anywhere [locally] and say my name and not have someone recognize me,” he says. “If I went to the hardware store, I'd be there for two and a half hours helping people buy supplies. I started going to a store 30 miles outside of town because it saved me time.”