I’m doing research for a grad school project and I would appreciate feedback from both contractors and homeowners.
How do you homeowners find your contractors? Do you rely on friends, referrals from past contractors, yellow pages, internet searches?
What do smaller subcontractors find to be the most effective in connecting with customers? I’m sure it’s word of mouth, but how do you deliberately get the word out? Yellow pages, web sites, door-to-door fliers?
Has anyone used Angie’s List and how effective have you found it? For those of you not aware, Angie’s list is a site where homeowners pay for access to a site where other homeowners rate subcontractors.
Would homeowners be willing to pay to use a referral service, in which they could not just have a list of contractors, but also get other users’ ratings of the contractors work?
Would contractors be willing to pay to join a referral service (or do you already use one)?
I’d appreciate your feedback. It would help a lot in completing an analysis I’m doing.
Thanks.
Replies
i'm a homeowner,
i find contractors thru friends, referrals from contractors i've already had a good experience with, and the local lumber yard who's employees i trust. i don't think i would ever use a contractor i found in the yellow pages as i find that they (the unscrupulous ones....not the guys here) cherry pick the referals that they present to you. maybe i'm overly cautious.
i would absolutely pay for a service that could help with this if i could be SURE it would be reliable, and with the difficulty of finding available/good ones,...yeah, i think i would.
good luck with your analysis, please let us know how it went.
Ken, I am a remodeling contractor. I've been in the trade for over 35 yrs. ALL my work now is obtained by personal referral only. All pre-screening of customers is done by the refer-e. I have run into very few unscrupulous customers as a result.
I would not pay to be a part of a "referral" system as I would merely be grouped in with the rest of the bunch, no consideration of my work nor business practices. The only reason for a listing-$.
Best of luck on your study.
A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
http://www.quittintime.com/
Kent,
As a contractor I built my business on referrals and had almost zero problems with customers referred by former clients and other contractors.
I would have no interest in such a service.
so....hypothetical
if i'm a homeowner looking for you, and i don't have any friends that have worked with you, how do i find you, knowing you are a good competant contractor? i assume your busy enough that you don't need me to find you, but will that always be the case? with a change/downturn in the economy?thanks, just asking cause i can't find a good contractor/carpenter to save my life!john
john,
I'll provide my answer to your question.
If you were in NW Ohio (and we know not for there's no info in the profile) I could provide you with the contacts in just about every trade in the business. Further, I could add to that a list of those that I might recommend for building your dog house.
But, how do you find me? That's a tough one if I've never worked for a friend or acquaintance of yours. However, for me to lose the pre-screening of my former customers or trusted subs I'll take the chance of not finding your job. After all these years I'm no longer put in the position of having to take a chance working for a potential goofball (of which I'm sure you're not).
Fill in your profile, one of us might know of a potential fit for you in your area. Of course remember this is the internet.
EDIT: The internet and even personally meeting someone is not really the way to go in providing a referral. A while back I introduced one of the guys on this forum to a friend of mine in his area. My friend needed some work done and I figured he might be able to handle it. Well, next thing you know I'm getting calls from my buddy wondering where I found this guy. They were at each others throats over a disagreement about the job. I was dumbfounded. If someone from here had referred me or any friend for that matter I would go all out to make sure the experience would be a pleasant one. There would be no need for any disagreement as I would take care of the customer no matter what in order to honor the referral. I couldn't believe my referral would act like this. I may or may not do this one again.
A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
http://www.quittintime.com/
Edited 11/1/2007 5:34 pm ET by calvin
you could ask my wife if i'm a goofball......no, better not :)
i went to bowling green for my undergrad btw!anyhow, i live in central jersey and assume your reach doesn't go quite so far.as an analogy, being a business owner myself (advertising), i worry about when i won't be busy, not about being busy now, as a homeowner who's pretty handy, but can't fit all the projects in,....i just need some help, the good ones are too busy and all too often don't follow up on what they say they will, and the bad ones are,....bad. it frustrates me that some of the good contractors are so busy they feel they can be cavalier about my work, i wonder, will they always be, so busy, that is.so if the poster could guarantee quality service (quality, i know being objective), and could come up with some sort of RIGOROUS screening process both for homeowners and business people, yeah, i would pay.
Excellent advice from HVC on alternative direct referrals. Lumber yards may know the quality from past experience but would certainly know of the business accumen of the contractors they come in contact with.
Best of luck. A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
http://www.quittintime.com/
john, make sure you read the edit I put on my previous post to you.
thanks.A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
http://www.quittintime.com/
if i'm a homeowner looking for you, and i don't have any friends that have worked with you, how do i find you, knowing you are a good competant contractor? i assume your busy enough that you don't need me to find you, but will that always be the case? with a change/downturn in the economy?
That's a good question, for both of us.
As a homeowner you have to be persistent about finding one of the better contractors in your general area. When you ask a friend or neighbor you should also ask if they know anyone who's had work done on their home and, if so, what that person might've said about the experience.
If they recall someone but don't remember what they said, ask them to call the person. I'd even press them to call right away, put you on the phone and let you ask the questions.
In the same way, expand the area of your search by telling the friends/neighbors that your speaking with that it's OK if the home owner they're thinking about isn't from your town. In my journeys as a contractor/sub I've often traveled more than an hour each way to do a job, so it's not uncommon.
Another good place to ask is at your town's lumber yard or other wholesale supplier where the type of contractor you're searching for might be doing business. I would first ask to speak with the owner or manager of the place, to get the most reliable information. If he/she refers you to a salesperson you'll still be in good hands.
From the contractor's point of view it's wise to keep a directory of former clients and stay in touch with them, perhaps with a Christmas card. We also make contacts with suppliers and their salespeople quite often. That's another important source of jobs so it's a good idea to pick up a business card from anyone we do business with and put them in a directory as well.
damn, what are the chances we're writing the op's business plan for him?yeah, i listed my local lumber yard in my original reply, used 2 guys, both too busy to help me. neighbors, same deal. just frustrating is all, and i have lots of work, the money to pay, and some idea of what i'm talking about. just can't find anyone available and i've called easily 8 different people!i'll figure it out eventually.
"what are the chances we're writing the op's business plan for him?"I was wondering if he is a student on assignment or whether this is market research
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Ken,
as a homeowner I find contractors for my own house almost entirely from direct referalls from friends or fellow contractors----currently having a great deal of difficulty finding a contractor to re-build some front steps on my house.
As a roofing contractor by trade--- absolutely handsdown the best way for me is referrals from previous customers( writing articles for FHB runs a close second for generating business BTW)
I HAVE been listed on ANGIES LIST.--- I would NOT recommend it. I can tell you for an absolute fact--the way I got on it-------was that when Angies List wanted to start operations in my city--they simply opened a phone book and called me and asked me if I would agree to be listed on their service--- so much for pre screening contractors---essentially they charged their customers for opening a phone book.---at that time--the only calls i recieved via angies list were customers with a very high PITA factor---and I asked to be removed from the list.
Years later-- i believe i am back on the list--through no effort on my part--but apparently from referalls from past customers-- i know this because a couple of new customers told me they got my name via angies list
as a homeowner I would NOT pay to access such a list( i have my own network)
as a contractor I would NOT pay either.
since i am booked pretty solidly untill late next summer(august 2008) i recently pulled my yellow pages ad. It generated a lot of calls to be sure---but as far as business-- I tracked it closely for several years----and PAYING jobs generated from the yellow pages slightly more than covered it's cost--but time expended providing estimates for tire kickers made it overall a money losing endeavor.
dollar for dollar--believe it or not---my best money maker as far as a paid ad , is a ad i run in my parish bulletin--very nominal cost--and it generates several nice jobs a year.
also------a small ad i run from time to time in a community newspaper targeting several semi-upscale neighborhoods where the housing stock is LARGE and 80-100 years old---generates some nice and interesting jobs as well
Far and away the best has been word of mouth -generated from working almost exclusively within my own neighborhood for 20 years or so--- i am fairly well known within about a 12 block radius---and people now knock on my homes front door and ask me to roof their house---or stop by while they are walking their dog and i am cutting my grass and ask for roofing work.
20 years ago-i wanted to be the "village carpenter"-------in reality I became essentially the "village roofer"
good luck with your project,
stephen
Edited 11/1/2007 4:53 pm ET by Hazlett
I don't think there are more than two or three days that go by without getting an email or phone contact from somebody wanting me to be on their referral list. I don't think a one of them does any significant screening.And no I am not on any of them, AFAIK
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Take Calvin's answer and mark it down twice verbatim for me.
Welcome to the
Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
We work by 100% referral. No advertising, no lead generation services, just do our best to make our clients happy and they tell everyone they know about us. All of our leads a basically prequalified by former clients. Right now we are booking projects for Spring 2009. We get on average 4 calls per month from client referrals. Some are willing to wait 18 months, others cannot.
Bruce
Thanks for the feedback everyone.
No, you're not writing my business plan for me, but rather helping me think through the feasibility of some type of referral network as a business. From the responses, I think you can see this is far from a simple idea.I guess that I shouldn't be surprised that most of the contractors on Breaktime get your business from referrals and don't see a need for Angie's list or any other type of network. This forum attracts conscientious professionals, and I'm sure your success breeds more success.It seems that the audience would be for those who don't already have a network, e.g. those who have recently moved to a new city, those contractors just starting their businesses, those who don't know a hammer from a screwdriver and also don't have a clue where to find someone to do work for them besides going to Home Depot.From your responses, you also have the same theme of "trust". Angie's List doesn't sound to be very good because they don't screen their contractors (or their clients) very well. I can see why contractors would want to screen the PITA clients, and clients would want to be confident the listed contractor isn't a fly-by-night opportunist.So, IF you were an uneducated (in home repair/maintenance) homeowner, or new to an area,
OR IF you were a contractor trying to grow your business,
AND the service could screen both clients and contractors,
...would you pay for the service?(I can think of about 20 hurdles right now trying to do all that...)
O.K. I will bite.
I have only been in busines for a short time so I do use a lead referal service (ServiceMagic). I hope to some day eliminate the need, but for right now it works. This is not my only resource, however, word of mouth is still the best. I receive 2-3 leads per week and probably only get 6 jobs per year.
They claim to screen the customers, but they don't do enough. Many people are not serious about completing the project. Lately I have gotten better at screening people over the phone so I don't have to waste time on tire kickers, but they still get through.
They do have a ratings page for each contractor, which allows the homeowner to rate the contractor in different categories and to leave comments, but it is up to the contractor to send the ratings request to the homeowners.
I think that if a homeowner had to pay for a lead referal service, instead of the contractors, it may weed out some of the tire kickers. Also if the service followed up with the homeowners to get honest feedback on the contractor, it may help with weeding out the bad contractors.
Like I said before, I hope to eliminate the need to use the service, but for right now it helps to get my name out and is allowing me to develop a good reputation and get into the towns around here that are willing to pay for quality work.
Tim
Thanks Tim.One other avenue to explore would be to specialize in something that many people would have a particular need for help with, like green building. There's a growing interest, and I'm sure lots of people would like to be more ecologically responsible, but don't know the first thing about installing or selecting renewable energy, insulation from recycled materials, drain collection, etc.
"I can see why contractors would want to screen the PITA clients,"Its not just the PITA clients. Its the tire kickers. I know of one referral service (see SoxFan's post) that will send contractors leads based on a potential clients internet request. The contractor pays for the lead regardless if the potential client and contractor ever speak.Referrals are the best way to go. We call it the "Mom Network" (c). My marketing director, DW, came up with that. I do have a website with good meta tags on it. I have gotten one, tiny, 2 Hr tiny, job directly from that. It took 6 weeks to get paid. I'm a believer in the "Mom Network" (c)TFB (Bill)Edit to refer Ken to SoxFan's post above.
Edited 11/1/2007 7:53 pm by ToolFreakBlue
one small point ken,
remember, that i'm a homeowner who actually has alot of construction experience,....used to work in the trade back in ohio before i moved on to other things (direct animation for commercials). i don't have the time to do all the projects that i want to and i CAN'T find help, even though i've a)gone to the local lumber yards, b)spoken with my local friends (lots), c)and combed the contractors i have for other help.it may have to do with the wealth of my area (central jersey on the shore) and all the associated building going on.....though you would think with the housing slump that less work would be available.an idea such as yours properly presented would DEFINATELY work with homeowners i know in the same problem as i am. i guess the issue would be to convince contractors to trust you with their.......business....i guess. if contractors feel comfortable being referred by the local lumber guy and by former clients, isn't it possible that you could find some way to make them comfortable with you putting client/contractor together.having said that, any contractors want to move to my area? i've got lots of work :)
Contact Shep here- He's from Jersey-don't know exactly where, but he's in contact with others from your fair state.A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
http://www.quittintime.com/
thanks,have spoken with him,.....doesn't travel this far!
and.........so it goes.
Does he know anyone near you? Those jersey boys have had a couple meetings.A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
http://www.quittintime.com/