Fewer Jobs, Greater Satisfaction

About 18 months ago, when the financial crisis sidelined the American consumer, phones stopped ringing for many, if not most, remodeling firms. This was true across the board, even those well-established firms with sterling reputations. So it is hard to imagine that the impact on newer companies and those with questionable reputations was anything but harsh.

When the dust settles and we begin to assess the impact of this recession on remodeling firms, a good analogy is likely to be that of a fire in an old-growth forest — only the strongest will have survived while much of the underbrush (less established firms and those with poor reputations) were swept away. Ironically, the numerical loss of firms will ultimately make the surviving firms stronger. Now, with the results of Qualified Remodeler magazine’s sixth annual Remodeling Customer Satisfaction Survey, we are beginning to see those effects.

By asking remodeling customers about their experiences, post-remodel, over the past six years, we’ve been able to develop a time series of data that demonstrates three conclusions. 1.) Remodelers in the aggregate tend to get low to mediocre grades from their customers. 2.) Remodelers who are seen as exhibiting a certain set of positive behaviors (timeliness, etc.) tend to get much higher customer satisfaction scores. 3.) Remodeling firms tend to satisfy their customers at higher rates when market activity is lower as it was in 2009.

The first two points have been well established over each of the past six years, but the lessons learned are no less critical now as they were then. The third conclusion, that remodelers do a better job at satisfying customers during recessionary times, stands to reason. With fewer jobs to go around, established firms, with better systems and processes, are getting the jobs. It also suggests that each customer is getting more time and attention focused on their needs. Our goal with this analysis is to examine the underlying reasons and to see if reproducible patterns emerge and with those patterns offer constructive ideas on how to incorporate them in your remodeling and/or home improvement business.

Group grades low, but better

Each year we ask homeowners who recently remodeled their homes, or embarked on some type of renovation project, about their experience and to offer grades across several areas of quality. (See sidebar, The Survey and Methodology, on pg. 36.) After gathering information about the price range of the job, the type of housing unit, type of project (kitchen and bath, whole house, basement, etc.) and other objective data, we asked remodeling clients to grade their remodeler on a scale of 1 to 10, (with one being the lowest and 10 the highest grade) in terms of overall quality, professionalism, timeliness, price, craftsmanship and a low number of “punchlist” items remaining during final walkthrough of the project. This year, the scores ranged from 6.93 for overall quality to 6.31 for timeliness — not necessarily a resounding endorsement of customer satisfaction, even when considered in the aggregate, but higher than each of the previous five years. Here are some top-line results from this year’s survey.