• Looking for the Right Contractor?

    Date: 2011.09.15 | Category: Creative Ideas, Home Improvement, House & Home, Tips & Trick | Tags: ,,,,,,,

    Word of mouth can be the best way to find people who do quality work. And before contractors with big advertising budgets burn me in effigy, let’s look at what consumers are saying.

    In a 2003 survey commissioned by the Scott Paper Company and conducted by Opinion Research Corporation, 81 percent of more than 1,000 Americans questioned said they would be most likely to hire contractors based on recommendations from neighbors, friends, or relatives.

    No other referral source came close. In addition, most of the respondents actually checked references. The survey, and the anecdotal evidence I’ve collected over the last 15 years, points to a love-hate relationship between consumers and contractors. Consumers need them but don’t trust them.

    The survey identified the three top complaints about contractors: not showing up when they said they would, jobs taking longer than expected to complete, and waiting a long time for work to be scheduled.

    Even homeowners Alex and Beth Cerrato, who have very little bad to say about the contractor who handled their six-month addition, acknowledged that “the work always took longer than they said.” But love and hate work both ways.

    I was speaking to an association of contractors a few years back. Unfortunately, by the time I spoke, three hours of open bar and a really bad comic had preceded me. The contractors were not in the mood to hear what consumers were thinking. This meant, of course, that they were willing to be frank about what bugged them.

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