-
While maximizing your return on customer (ROC) sounds like a purely financial goal, the fact is it requires a customer-oriented perspective.
-
A completion certificate is essentially a form presented to the client after the job has been completed, usually by the installer. The customer signs the form, indicating that he or she is satisfied with the work performed and that the job is finished.
-
Nobody enjoys being confronted by angry clients, but avoiding them “is absolutely the worst thing you can do,” particularly if you're in their home nearly every day, says Beverly Koehn, a consultant to remodelers and builders. “The minute you start avoiding them, you dig yourself into a deeper...
-
Sticker shock is universal, and clients each respond differently. It's up to you to manage expectations and present cost issues in a way that clients understand and feel comfortable with.
-
The Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) recently invoked a change in the way it lists reports about member organizations.
-
Can you pick just one number to use as the weather vane of your company's success? The owner of a start-up company worries most about staying busy when the current job ends, so he might choose backlog.
-
E-mail is obviously fast; it can be an efficient use of time, and it's become ubiquitous. Susan Cosentini of Cosentini Construction, Ithaca, N.Y., reports using e-mail with 100% of her clients and considers not working with people if they are not online.
-
Remodelers are pretty good at properly sequencing a project. We know which products need long lead times and which trade contractors can't work until others have finished. Most of us have learned from experience where all the rough spots are, and we're always ready to go to Plan B.
-
Whether you're starting to think about regular employee performance reviews or want to revamp a casual process with something more formal,
-
It's 5:30 a.m. and your cell phone rings. The last person you want to hear from is a client. Unless you're Norman Gavin. He has a 24-hour answering service that directs calls to his cell phone when no one is in the office. His cell is always with him, he says, “because it's necessary to take care...