Frio Cielo said:
If a contractor has the time to answer the phone, he/she has the time to return a call in the next day or two.
Or don't answer the phone.
No excuses.
fixedFrio Cielo said:
If acontractor business has the time toanswer the phonecreate and place an AD, he/she has the time to return a call inthe next daya week or two.
Or don'tanswer the phoneadvertise !
No excuses.
PLC guy said:Frio Cielo said:
If a contractor has the time to answer the phone, he/she has the time to return a call in the next day or two.
Or don't answer the phone.
No excuses.
We / they are not answering the phone Mr. No Excuses. They're mad because they're leaving messages and no one is calling them back.
Slocum on a mobile said:
FlyRod knocking it into the next ZIP Code.
Yes, please do then I will know who not to bother tying up your phone line with my business.birdman said:
PLC and Builder93 seem proud of the work they do. And think their customer service is good enough.
Why don't you let me and others know what the names of your companies are? Take this opportunity to brag about yourselves.
Quote:
Yes, please do then I will know who not to bother tying up your phone line with my business.
Karma will eventually catch up. Always does, always will.
I made the mistake of visiting this thread after a very busy work week, but here goes....BlueMiles said:
Hire a sales manager to take the calls?
How many times do I have to say, "I am not in residential construction". I will not be serving you in that capacity and I honestly hope I never have to.MosesHallRAB83 said:Yes, please do then I will know who not to bother tying up your phone line with my business.birdman said:
PLC and Builder93 seem proud of the work they do. And think their customer service is good enough.
Why don't you let me and others know what the names of your companies are? Take this opportunity to brag about yourselves.
Karma will eventually catch up. Always does, always will.
I am in the construction business and I hire people to do work for me all the time. Yes, I know how frustrating it can be.techno-ag said:I agreed with some of your first post, but I don't think you've had to deal much with the frustration of finding contractors around here who are competent and will actually show up for work. Go back and read some of those posts. Very typical experiences.Builder93 said:
Your attitudes are telling. Sure, good customer service is great and I strive for it in my own business and when I worked in residential.
Right now this is the market. You can moan about it all you want, but you aren't going to force anyone to bow at your feet if they don't want to. They might go out of business if they continue to operate this way, they might not. That's up to them. They are not a government agency with a civic duty to call you back. You all sound like these people owe you when you haven't spent a dime yet. It may be rude to ignore you but that is their choice. It's called the free market.
I see a great business opportunity for one of you. Run with it. Make a business plan, get financing, staff up, advertise and make it happen. Or you can get on Texags and moan about it.
Seriously, this is a wonderful business opportunity. Set everything up and get ready to make some money because you are going to sell many more jobs than the next guy. You will call everyone back and be the talk of the town until:harrierdoc said:PLC guy said:
I don't want to come off as angry because I'm really not. It is absolutely a blessing to be living in this community and to have more opportunities than I can handle. However, it's pretty obvious alot of consumers simply don't understand the market. I get advice from frustrated consumers all the time: "You can't get to my project for THREE MONTHS!!?? Well you need to hire some more PEOPLE!"
Obamacare has put a serious damper on the growth of businesses. No one wants to get to 50 employees and have to take on Obamacare and everyone is limiting their employees and the hours their employees work to stay beneath the minimums. It's just a fact. Secondly (yes I know this sounds arrogant - you PC people might want to look away but) a majority of Millennials just simply don't want to work. It's sad and people don't want to hear it but it's true. Who does want to work in construction and remodeling? The ones who do come from a different culture where excellent quality, customer service and workmanship are not as valued. Therefore they require more training, more organization and more supervision. Well who is going to do that, especially if I am constantly on the phone?
Now, you are confusing the subject. If I were to call a contractor and they told me they could not start the job 43 or 6 or 8 months, whatever, then I would know I need to look elsewhere and thank them for their time.
What the complaint is, however, is that you have contractors or other service providers advertising, saying that they want your business, and then don't even have the courtesy to return the call. As someone who called Kama I wonder if they received the call, if I missed a call, or other possible scenarios. A simple return phone call saying we are not taking business at this time would be more than sufficient.
We are getting ready to build a house, working with a local architect. I know that, once we complete the plans, I'm going to expect at least a six-month delay before a contractor is even able to start on the project, and what used to probably take 12 months, will be an 18-month process, because of all the subcontractor issues in the community. Fact is, these expectations have been set out clearly early in the process, and I know what to expect. That's all anybody is asking, is communication.
Saying all of that, I have often thought that if somebody was a good business person and could run a general contractor's office comma with good customer service, they would make a killing in this community. However, I don't know anything about the contracting business, or know where to start to begin this process.
So, it's quite the conundrum.
Yes but who can he hire to tear the place down?The Original AG 76 said:oh you can get an addition built just be prepared to spend 50% more than a new build and take forever. Might consider tearing your place down and starting over.BigBubba said:
Great, this post just made me give up on the idea of calling somebody to see about an addition to our house.
I can relate to most every one of those examples. I am in multi-family now, which has its own challenges, but not nearly as frustrating as residential remodel contracting.Builder93 said:
Seriously, this is a wonderful business opportunity. Set everything up and get ready to make some money because you are going to sell many more jobs than the next guy. You will call everyone back and be the talk of the town until:
- Your labor shows up (or doesn't) every other Monday with the brown bottle flu and you realize that the guy you just hired for drywall hadn't actually cleared up that DUI from a year ago.
- What, Mr. roofer? This insurance certificate is forged? Who would have thought?
- Your plumber is set for Tuesday, but the other 15 jobs he promised aren't going as planned so it might be a while.
- Guess what, the electrician just got hired on 2 big money commercial jobs where he doesn't have to listen to your wife go on for an hour about the exact placement of the recessed lights.
- The concrete guy just lost his 3 best workers when they decided to go back to Mexico early. Lo siento, senor. See you next semana.
- Remember the customer who accepted no excuses? He agreed to have selected all of his tile and granite by last week but he didn't because he was going to go to the showroom on Saturday and he got Aggie football tickets instead. Now you have to wait another 3 weeks to order the tile from Morocco.
But hey, you just hire more people to manage all of this until you have completely priced yourself out of the market.
Still, you are back to the same problem.......massive shortage of skilled labor, which is what gets the job done.
PS. All real life situations.
*edit for readability
Yes, you have to beat them each time they miss a call until they get the idea.FNG said:The Original AG 76 said:
It's not just contractors , even though they are the worst. I can't even get dog trainers to call back !!
Use a dog whistle to reach them!
