As a business owner, you know better than anyone how important having a good reputation is. When homeowners hire you, they are giving their trust and have high expectations of receiving a good service. In order to provide an exceptional result to customers, the key here is two words – quality control.
This is an important aspect of any business, especially in the home improvement industry. Yes, you won’t be able to expect that you and your team could deliver perfect results in every single project BUT if you implement quality control by having checks and balances in place, then you would be able to catch any potential problems even before a client sees it.
Use your industry knowledge and experience to develop this aspect of your business. Want positive reviews and repeat customers? Then work on establishing quality control in your business. It could be a set of rules that your business follows or a protocol, but the bottom line is that you have to be consistent in following those specifications that you have set.
If in case your company doesn’t have one, you should be alarmed, as this is one of the basic foundations of a business. If you want to establish and maintain your reputation in the industry, then you have to ensure that you are giving high-quality results and a smooth overall experience for your client.
Here are some quality control tips for your business:
- Have a job site checklist + timeline – this is to ensure that in every stage of your project, your team wouldn’t miss a single step. The checklist should clearly include every task that needs to be completed and should be divided into several stages including preparation, safety checks per stage, cleaning up, and more. A point person will also ensure that this is followed to ensure that the home improvement project is a success.
- Hire good workers – the success of a project lies in the people that are in it, so it is important to build a team of qualified workers. This is also probably much easier said than done especially if your niche has a shortage of qualified workers. But before any project should begin and if you don’t have an in-house team, then make sure to carefully choose workers. In addition, before jumpstarting a project, reiterate to them that the goal of the business is to always maintain a high-quality standard of work.
- Never skimp on materials – the moment you compromise the quality of materials, then you are welcoming a sure-fire way to go downhill in the quality control department. This could also result in future issues. If you want good performance, durability, and reliability, then don’t skimp on the materials. It will of course have higher costing, but this will improve the quality of workmanship and guarantees that your customer will be happy with the result. As a part of your job site checklist, make sure that all materials are properly checked to match your standard specification and there are no damages.
- Safety first – promote safety while the project is ongoing. If you take care of your team, then they will most likely do more quality work, as they feel safe and cared for. An example of this is making sure that your team is wearing personal protective equipment all the time. In addition, having safety practices in place will also prevent injuries that could derail a project. If we may also add, impose that the job site is always clean as part of safety measures. This is to avoid the risk of accidents, and workers stepping on materials or equipment.
- Always stick to the project scope – there are times that a project could balloon out of proportion. This is especially true if along the way, customers keep on requesting changes, and to make them happy (and sometimes to increase the revenue), you also keep on agreeing. The danger here is aside from not meeting the agreed timeline, expenses will also rise, which could surprise clients. This could also push your team to rush to finish a project, where quality could be compromised. If changes in the project scope will happen, ensure that the client clearly understands what it takes to deliver including extra expenses and changes in the deadline.
- Have regular check points – always check then double-check. Make sure to have regular quality control checks with each phase based on the standards that you have set. It doesn’t matter if your project is pretty straightforward, just put into practice double-checking that everything is well-covered. Your goal is to spot any possible issues because if the client spots those flaws first, it could leave an unfavorable impression on your business.
