It’s essential to hire a trusted builder
Just for a moment imagine that you are having an extension put on your much loved family home. If you have never had this type of building work done before, you won’t quite know what to expect. So, to some extent you are hoping for the best. You may have chosen your builder based on reviews, recommendations or price, but the everyday reality of having a building company in your home is going to take some getting used to. This trusted builder is going to be a big part of your life in the coming months.
The truth is that you really need to like and trust the builder you hire, as you are going to see a lot of him and his team. He will be on your doorstep first thing in the morning, before you are ready to face the world. He will often be there when you get home (tired and stressed) from a hard days work. And he may very well be there completely alone in your home, while you and your family are out. How many outsiders have you ever trusted to be in your home when you aren’t there? This trusted builder will be advising you, making structural alterations to your home, modifying vital components such as the electrical and plumbing. He will work in areas of your home that you never get to see, and even if you did-would you truly know if what he has done is going to cause problems in the future? You would only feel comfortable if you trusted this person, right?
Trust works both ways
Trust is a value that we hold as essential in our business also. Indeed we have written it into our company mission statement. We, as builders have the need to trust our suppliers, tradesmen, employees and the most important trust relationship of all; our clients. For this reason, everything we do from the first client phone call to handing over the keys to the newly built or extended home is done with an emphasis on trust. We work hard to ensure that our clients trust us, and truthfully, we would prefer not to build for anyone who doesn’t have that feeling of trust about our company.
We spend a considerable amount of time selecting professional tradesmen and suppliers that we trust to do the right thing by our clients. And they in turn trust us to have the job ready for them, to be organised with our scheduling, to take care of their safety onsite, and to pay them on time. The way we see it, this is the right way to do business. On the other side of the equation we hope our clients will trust us (and our carefully selected tradesmen) to carry out our work professionally in their home, to be courteous and respectful (after all it is their home) and when advice is called for we strive to give the best advice possible and never to take the easy way out. In return we trust our clients to let us know if there is something they aren’t happy with, to give us the time and space to do the best possible job, and to pay us promptly. When all of these aspects are working well the builder-client relationship is a strong bond that will withstand the occasional hiccups that sometimes arise during the building process.
Building on a foundation of trust
Looking back through the many years we have been building, it’s easy to pick out the highlights of our building business, the clients we have loved working for and still talk to often. It is undoubtedly the ones where the builder-client relationship is founded totally on trust. We recently had a client go through the design and quoting process with us, for a major home renovation and extension. Immediately after signing our building contract he told us that he felt a ‘weight lift from his shoulders’ as he knew he was in good hands. We knew instantly that this was going to be the start of another job built on the foundation of trust. Indeed over the years we have had many of our clients go away on extended holidays and leave us in charge of building their home. This could only happen when they had hired a builder that they trusted implicitly.
I guess on a personal level, we all strive for strong relationships where we feel safe and we know beyond any doubt that our interests are important to the other party. This is true of most close relationships within a family or good friendships. But….there is another type of relationship that we all rely on, that can also be made stronger by having strong foundations in trust. When you are selecting any professional to work in your home, whether from the building industry or another industry sector, the first and most important value that you should look for is trust. If you don’t feel strongly that you can trust a particular company (regardless of the deal they are offering) find someone else who deserves your trust and your business!
As you probably can tell the trust factor is something we at Wayne Stewart Builder, are passionate about. I would love to hear what you think. Don’t be shy, give me a call on 03 9776 7101.
Comments are closed.