You can take a giant step today that could help separate you from most of the contractors you compete with in your area without having to spend another dime on marketing or lower your price one dime. Sounds too good right? Well, if you can figure out a way to offer a guarantee that isn’t the same as what every other company is offering, then you can create a perceived value to your client that can overcome lower bids and better reputations from your competition. Plus, doing a one better gives you the ability to set yourself apart and create the differentiator you need to be better contractor.
Why does industry standard have to be the norm?
Innovators are always thought to be crackpots until their ideas are adopted widespread, so why follow the generally accepted practices in your area when you should try to be an innovator by offering something so simple yet so powerful as piece of mind?
It helps you defend your position too!
You need to absolutely without question defend your workmanship when it comes into question. You do that by honoring a refund or warranty request from a client even when it doesn’t make sense. Why? Because the power of one person’s voice today is louder than any time in the past, just ask some of your contractor friends who have had to deal with noisy clients who bad-mouthed them for no good reason.
What is your warranty rate?
And if your warranty rate is too high then you are doing something wrong or using poor materials. Offering a one better warranty doesn’t have to cost you a fortune. You can even budget for it by setting aside a small fraction of each job if you need to come back and do repairs later.
In short, you should try to be generous with your guarantee and if you can’t, then you can’t, but someone else will, and the contractor with first mover advantage always makes it harder for the other guys. Besides, doing something simple yet so powerful can help keep you out of the courtroom while building positive comments and reviews about you, your company and your brand.
So before you dismiss the idea as silly, give it a thought and see how you can put something like it into place and let me know how you make out!