Improvements You Can and Should Make As A Contractor

Improving what you do as a construction company or independent contractor within one of the trades can help you ensure that your name and reputation are synonymous with quality. But what exactly embodies good quality, expectations, and service, and how do you live up to those standards?

It’s about more than being trained in the job you do because if you weren’t skilled on that front, you wouldn’t be doing it right now, would you? It’s about taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture so you can improve all areas of business, not simply the job you are being paid to do.

Training

Training shouldn’t be a one-time kind of task. It needs to be ongoing and constant. You should update your skills regularly, learn how to adapt to new methods of working, use new equipment emerging in your sector, and implement new technology and equipment.

Knowledge, of course, changes over time, too. So, keeping abreast of updated methods of working and ensuring that you and your team can meet new standards will help you stay ahead of the curve and ensure you know everything there is to know. The BuildOps glossary project can be a great place to start to help you brush up your knowledge, as can working with training providers and connecting with others in your industry, such as local trade schools and business owners.

Improved Customer Service

The customer is the critical element in everything you do because you wouldn’t have a business without them. So, making sure you know the customer journey from start to finish can allow you to put yourself in their shoes and look at what you do from a different perspective.

How easy is it for the customer to find out what you do, who you are, and how you operate? Is your website straightforward and easy to navigate, and does it have a clear CTA? Are you using your social media accounts to share what you do and what customers can text when working with you? How can they contact you, and what type of communication have you had since they made contact?

From here, you can map the journey from quote to completion and everything in between. What is the customer expecting? What do they want from you, and how can you meet these demands?

If you aren’t able to improve the customer journey, then anything else you do will be irrelevant, as you will run out of customers to serve.

Equipment and Supplies

The equipment, tools, and supplies you use to carry out any type of task will also form part of the standards you want to be living up to. To really make a name for yourself with outstanding work, you need to use high-quality goods and parts to ensure that the job is finished to as high a standard as possible. The last thing you want is to have to fix a botched job because your parts didn’t live up to the task, or you didn’t have the right equipment to do a proper job, and you cut corners.

While the cost of your supplies will likely increase the cost of the job, it is worth noting that a little extra can give you and your customers peace of mind that the job is done well and you have used supplies capable of doing what they need to do.

Use Technology

Technology can make your life infinitely easier. You can integrate it in many different ways depending on the type of company you are in. You can automate timesheets and job allocation for field workers; you can use technology to give accurate quotes, timelines, and project managers in construction, for example. You can use information modeling software, bid management, and GPS tracking to help you streamline how you operate.

Technology can also be utilized to help you find bottlenecks and inefficiencies, keep track of projects and timings to ensure costs are kept down, and improve communication between your team and external parties too. If you are still working “old school”, then you’re likely not working out at your full capacity, which will be reflected in how you work and the standards you maintain.

Communication

Effective communication is critical to any well-oiled machine, and that is precisely what your company needs to be. You need to address any barriers impacting your ability to communicate effectively. 

Use internal communication tools such as Slack to ensure everyone is informed and up to date on what’s happening, what they need to be doing, and when, and they can access the information required quickly.

Look at how you talk to and engage with clients, suppliers, and other contractors to make improvements to overhaul this. You need to have more than one way people can contact you, be it by phone, email, a chatbot on your website, social media, WhatsApp for business accounts, or anything that works for you, and ensure that you respond to queries promptly, keeping people informed of progress and changes at every step of the project.

Suppose you feel that you aren’t able to communicate effectively. In that case, it can be worth taking a course to learn about how you can improve communication and work towards better relationships and standards.

Feedback

Lastly, you need to be asking for and collecting all the feedback you can get your hands on from clients, service providers, and anyone else you come into contact with. You need both the good, the bad, and the so-so feedback.

No one likes to think that people are out here leaving negative feedback, but it can be useful to help you make changes and improvements, and some would argue that it is more important than positive feedback when it comes to improving what you do. 

Collect the feedback, look at what can be done better, and put changes in place to make sure this is improved upon. If someone does leave negative or conservative feedback, then knowing you are taking this on board and acting on it will help you boost your reputation because what people dislike more than lousy service are those who refuse to admit they aren’t perfect or aren’t willing to go out on a limb and improve services and standards despite being told they need to.

This is a collaborative post.

Melinda