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My 3 Quote Experiment


Published by Dale on 3/25/2008. Filed Under: The Home Improvement Industry

GoodFellas Construction has been trained to deliver high quality and high service.
Sometimes in order to deliver great service, you cannot run around town giving every home owner a world of information. Especially if they do not intend to begin a relationship with the company... but rather to hire a relative, or do it themselves.

This is not fair to the contractor or to their current paying clients.

I think it''s safe to say that yesterdays Home Improvement Industry standard was to get 3 estimates before choosing the person they will work with. The homeowner will spend an 1-2 hours with each person, and expect that person to give their family:
- the right solution
- at the right price
- with the right materials
- in the right time-frame
- from people with the right skill and expertise

Maybe this is why we are one of the most complained about industries in the country?


I performed a little experiment this January 2008.

I sent out a letter to over 40 different graphic designers. I asked the designer to put together a quick estimate of costs for a website redesign. I included some basic information. I asked for a concept that could be water marked to protect the artistic rights of the creator. GoodFellas Construction would choose the basic concept and hire that designer to complete the project.

My responses were overwhelmingly, sorry, we don''t give estimates, and we don''t give ideas away for free.

What is the difference between the 2 industries?
Should contractors treat people like this?
Is there a better way?

At GoodFellas Construction, we''ll always take the time to understand our home-owners needs, but we will not design ever project fr every home owner unless they are the right fit, and they make a commitment to working with us.

Our systems and processes give us a balance between my 2 previous examples, and in the end is a better service for the homeowner. Give us a call and we can explain in more detail how we can effectively and successfully work with you.



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Comments

Comment from: Kevin on 4/2/2008
Great Post Dale!


Comment from: peter ''how to generate leads'' caputa on 4/8/2008
Did any of the designers call you or email and you and offer to sit down to understand what you were looking for and draft a proposal with you? Or did they just say We don't do that? I think this story might be more telling about the average designer's lack of sales skills if they didn't take the RFQ as an opportunity to start their sales process. Also, I think you are vastly overestimating what the average contractor does to quote a job. I bet most contractors are calculating material and labor cost when they should be asking about why a homeowner wants x, y and z. Of course, I know you guys do it the right way.





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