Abstract:
The secret of survival in slow times, for residential renovator Joe Cracco, has been to keep finding ways of adding value to every project.
Publication Date:
Mon, 2012-06-11 15:05
Article Image:
The secret of survival in slow times, for residential renovator Joe Cracco, has been to keep finding ways of adding value to every project.
Joe is CEO of Modern Yankee Builders, a Cumberland, R.I., design-build remodeling firm with loyal clients across Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts.
Back in 2000, Joe was a construction project engineer with an idea: Could he combine the thoughtful, detail-oriented design that discerning homeowners crave with the disciplined process of a dedicated construction management firm? He launched Modern Yankee, and found that he could.
Joe refined his approach during the early 2000s, adapting commercial project management practices to residential conditions. “Right off the bat, our clients enjoyed peace of mind instead of the headaches they expected,” he says.
“It helped that we’d always been good with systems. I come from a construction management background, and my wife, Amy, is a detail-oriented mechanical engineer and project manager. So we brought a high degree of control to the business.”
Then the market took a dive. All over the USA, builders scrambled to tighten belts and cut overhead. “From the beginning, we’d tended to run pretty lean, keeping our headcount low,” Joe says. “So, as business slowed down, the room for improvement in those areas was limited.” To stay competitive, Modern Yankee focused on expanding its value proposition rather than downsizing.
Identifying Client Pain Points
One successful tactic was listening for the pain points that lie behind what homeowners say they want, Joe says. “For example, people hate maintenance. It comes up over and over again. If you think about it, remodelers spend a lot of time correcting problems, especially exterior issues, that wouldn’t arise if owners had time for, or interest in, upkeep — or if their homes were just easier to take care of.”
When maintenance is the problem, putting more work into it is no solution. “If traditional materials deteriorate, especially on the outside of a house, replacing them with more of the same just kicks the can down the road.” A permanent solution may call for modern materials, he says, but that’s a big step for some traditional New Englanders.
Considering Alternatives
Take architectural trim, conventionally crafted from solid wood, but now available in historically correct, weather-resistant PVC shapes. “It’s a sad fact, but wood rots,” Joe notes. “In coastal new England the wood starts to go, and people say, ‘I don’t want to keep painting this stuff.’ So I began to tell them, ‘Why don’t we try this PVC product? It gives you the same look, and the weather can’t hurt it.’
“We got over the learning curve pretty easily and, since we got familiar with it, our clients have been convinced. It’s not hard to sell that kind of value. Once you explain it, people don’t want any other substitute.”
Joe’s choice, among several US PVC trim manufacturers, is VERSATEX Trimboard, a Pittsburgh-based company that he praises for consistently high quality, complete product line, availability and service.
“We're solving lots of renovation problems with VERSATEX,” he says. “In areas where historic wood trim is exposed to a lot of water and then deteriorating, we come in, remove the rotten trim and install accurate new profiles made from PVC.
“I just finished a project that called for replacing some rake boards where a gambrel-roofed house had been dormered. The dormer rake along the upper gambrel sees a lot of splash-back. It’s basically in contact with the upper gambrel roof shingles. It became rotten, so we replaced it with VERSATEX PVC. Problem solved, and it will look great for decades to come.
“And this fall we'll be replacing wood trim on a 13-year-old Greek Revival house. It’s a nice, architect-designed place, but the trim is rotting in areas where there's high water exposure — like where door trim contacts the wood deck, or where a lower roof spills water onto what was once a beautiful, built-up corner board. We’ll be able to duplicate that corner board exactly, and the homeowner can forget about it ever warping or rotting.”
Gathering Intelligence
Joe and Amy have developed a high-definition system for identifying and tracking specific personal concerns, such as maintenance, for individual clients. Their team walks each potential customer through a detailed lead sheet, a programming survey and a needs/wants/wishes checklist.
“By the time we get to the point of building something, clients may feel like they’ve been through the wringer,” Joe says. “But in the end we’re more likely to put in place something that will make them happy for decades. In our market segment, we’re one of the few firms that go to such lengths.
“Tactics like this pay off for us and for our clients, too. They really have helped keep us busy.”
VERSATEX Trimboard products are available from fine millwork distributors nationwide. They’re manufactured by Wolfpac Technologies of Aliquippa, Pa., whose state-of-the-art facility produces cellular PVC trimboards, sheet, beadboard, mouldings and prefabricated corners, as well as the innovative VERSATEX soffit system. VERSATEX products are 100 percent engineered, formulated and manufactured in the U.S.A. For more information, visit www.versatex.com [2].
