Professional Remodeler's Business Tools

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Great Practices: Make the Most of Customer Surveys
For the past three years, Gregory A. Miedema, CGR, president of Dakota Builders Inc. (Tucson, Ariz.) has used a quality survey to gauge how well the company has met clients’ expectations. The survey is part of a packet that goes out to all but the smallest-job customers - about 60 packets annually - as soon as final payment is received.

Customer Service Survey (.pdf file)

Blueprint for Success Chapter 9: Do the smart thing
Companies of all sizes should be concerned about worker safety for a number of reasons. First, work-site injuries can be serious and even deadly. From foundation excavation pits to power tools, from roof framing to demolition, equipment and activities on a remodeling job site can cause serious injuries to employees.

Blueprint for Success: Chapter 8, A Complete Package
It’s a challenge for any business owner to find good employees, but remodelers have had to contend with a nationwide shortage of skilled tradespeople that has forced them to raise salaries, add benefits and improve the work environment to attract and retain experienced people.

Blueprint for Success: Chapter 7, Signed Security
While many remodeler-client relationships start out blissfully, not all end that way. Disagreements can result from misunderstandings: customer expectations might not be reached, quality standards might be ambiguous, or performance yardsticks might not be met.

Blueprint for Success: Chapter 6, Details, Details
Fumbles in football often result from poor execution: The quarterback fails to hand the ball to the running back properly. In remodeling, fumbles occur when the sales team fails to hand a job to the production department properly. To ensure a smooth handoff, every company needs quality production systems.

Project Startup Checklist (.pdf file)

Blueprint for Success: Chapter 5, Job Costing
Making a profit on a project depends on pricing it right. Remodelers have to know exactly how much it will cost to complete jobs in order to figure out their markups. At Sutton Siding and Remodeling, job costing requires knowing the costs of each individual job before it is started. Each job sold is examined and job costs are verified as part of the contract-approval process.

Job-Cost Tracking Worksheet (.pdf file)

Blueprint for Success: Chapter 3, Estimating Systems
Kleinco’s estimating process prevents unpleasant surprises for the remodeler and the client
Spreadsheet Samples:

Blueprint for Success: Chapter 2, Lead Tracking
In a business like his, where prime customer service is crucial and mistakes can be costly, design/build remodeler Doug Nelson, CGR, CR, can’t afford guesswork. Which of his designer-salespersons is the best match for a new lead? Has a prospect’s phone call been answered? Are the company’s magazine ads working? Doug needs fail-safe answers to these questions and others like them. He has those answers literally at his fingertips in the lead-tracking system his suburban Minneapolis company, New Spaces, uses.

Blueprint for Success: Chapter 1, Sales Systems
Bill Shaw, CGR, relies on gut instinct when visiting a client’s house. Sometimes, he’ll be back in his truck within 30 minutes because he knows the client’s not going to work. But with 16 years of remodeling experience, he also relies on a system that allows him to move to a signed design agreement within a couple of hours of stepping foot in the door. Shaw’s company, Wm. Shaw & Associates Inc., in Houston, sells design/build projects. For him, a sale is a signed design agreement and making that sale rests on a process he learned through his CGR coursework: determine client need and sell the company’s ability to meet that need.

Going for $2 million
Alpha Contracting rethinks its company strategy, ventures in a new direction and reports record growth.

Going for $1 million
With 25 years of experience, Joseph Balich, CR, has seen it all in the construction business. From a recession in Boston, Mass., to boom times in Mint Hill, N.C., Balich has developed a sense of how to succeed in the remodeling industry. The lessons he has learned and applied to Integrity Builders can serve as guideposts to others.

Working the Financials (.pdf file)

Finely Tuned
A remodeling firm reaches excellence when it has business management systems that allow employees to know what to do, how to do it, and when they’ve attained success doing it. Each of Deck America’s feedback forms provides president Dan Betts with different types of input.

Click Here to view the forms in .pdf format.
Click Here to view explanations of forms in .pdf format.

Feinmann Remodeling
Nothing frustrates remodelers more than a client or project that doesn’t play out the way it appeared when the lead first came in. Time spent qualifying leads can eliminate that frustration, if the remodeler knows what lead makes for the best client. Feinmann Remodeling’s owner, Peter Feinmann, CR, bases his qualification process on a simple philosophy: The better the clients match the company, the more satisfied they’ll be. Using criteria proven effective by the company’s historical data, Feinmann prioritizes leads in a manner that quickly identifies clients that won’t frustrate the company. Here is a sample of Feinmann's lead qualification form and several "No Thank You" letters Feinmann uses to say no to business:

Employee Values
Growth for growth’s sake will sink a remodeler unprepared for the turbulence that lies ahead. Complex issues, many unknown at present, will call into question the values that have helped bring the company to its current level of success. Remodeling Designs Inc., Dayton, Ohio, has recognized this danger and prepared for it. The 1999 NRQ Award winner has a growth charter that outlines its core values.

RDI's Growth Charter

Constant Feedback
Remodelers serious about quality in customer satisfaction already have the post-construction survey in their arsenal. For Dale Crisp, however, that’s not nearly enough. Crisp, president of Jacksonville, Fla.-based Kendale Inc., uses three surveys to measure customer satisfaction, plus one that goes to clients who choose not to use the company. The NAHB Research Center found this best practice exceptional when it presented Kendale a National Remodeling Quality Award.

Classic Remodeling and Construction:
Team building. For Bob Fleming, president of Classic Remodeling & Construction in Charleston, S.C., his company’s survival indeed depends on how well his employees work together. By developing his own brand of less flashy, but just as effective, team building, the Classic crew continues toward success. Fleming’s team building centers on systems that empower his employees and give them a say in the company’s direction. Before Fleming began team-building initiatives, he made sure Classic’s systems provided a strong foundation at all levels of the company. The systems must be fair, employee-friendly, incentive-based, and organized. Using these values as a guide, Fleming set out to hire and train the best possible team where each individual strives for his personal best, as well as the organization’s.

Mitchell Best & Goldsborough's "Ten Commitments to Our Customers"

Where's Your Profit?
Stan Ehrlich, owner of Depot Homes in Clinton, N.J., defines jobs that are most profitable for him. He stays away from those that aren’t profitable, and targets those that are. How does your business measure up? Use this worksheet to determine which projects are profitable for you. Then evaluate which projects you need to go after, and , perhaps, which you need to stop doing.

TCI's '101 Steps'

Download this Excel spreadsheet for a detailed listing of what it takes to complete a design/build project, from scheduling the sales call to archiving. Ted Brown, owner of Traditional Concepts Inc. in Lake Bluff, Ill., has graciously provided this abbreviated version of TCI's "101 Steps," which has grown to 109 steps.

The spreadsheet lists main functions needed to complete a project along with the personnel responsible. The key responsibility rests with the individual marked with the double-X. For more information, e-mail Ted: tedwbrown@aol.com

Plekkenpol Site Preparation Checklist

Move vs. Improve Analysis

Employee Skills evaluation.
View the form The Lykos Group Inc. uses to determine the level of a potential employee's experience.

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