It’s easy for painting contractors to underestimate the stress and uncertainty that floods the minds of homeowners when it comes to getting their house painted. That’s especially true for experienced painting contractors.
You may be in people’s homes, painting every day. But for the homeowner, this is a once every 5 to 10 years event. They are not sure how long it’s going to take, what the day-to-day is going to be like or what alternative plans they may need to make to stay out of their home.
This creates a significant opportunity for painting contractors. Harvard Business School professor Gerald Zaltman conducted studies that showed that 95% of purchasing decisions are emotional decisions. With that in mind, if you can provide a stressed and uncertain homeowner with the comfort to feel that choosing you is the right decision, then you will almost always win the job.
Proven Process for the Win
With a proven process you can set the homeowner’s mind at ease and give them that feeling of comfort. That’s especially true when you can say that you’ve successfully executed on the process over and over again with the result being happy homeowners.
Do you have a proven process? If so, and if you have it documented then you are ahead of the field. Go ahead and skip to the next heading.
If you have a proven process but you haven’t documented it yet, set aside some time over the next couple weeks to do so. This is often the case with successful businesses that haven’t grown to the point where you have multiple people who have to execute multiple processes. You know the process, it lives in your head and you haven’t had reason to document it yet.
If you don’t have a proven process, you might just not be giving yourself enough credit. Take some time and write down what you think your process is. Now test it over your next two to three jobs. Are you repeating that process? Do you need to update anything?
Consider Your Proven Process in Relation to Your Customers
Since we’ve been talking about homeowners, let’s continue with that example. Since we know they are likely to have stress relating to not knowing what to expect, you want to let them know exactly what to expect. What are those questions that you continuously get from prospective customers?
How long will it take? What are your prep activities? How much disruption will they likely have in the home? What hours do you usually paint? If it’s a multi-day job do you usually complete a room at the end of the day or do you leave all of your materials and drop cloths out?
You get the picture. To the extent that you can, let them know every part of what they can expect. Build out your documented proven process to do this. The purpose of the proven process is to put your customers’ minds at ease. Help them feel that you know exactly what you are doing. Build up their confidence.
How to Use Your Proven Process
Once you have your proven process finalized, you want to make sure that people see it. Put it on your website and highlight it on your home page. You could put the process on a separate web page but include intro text on the home page that reads “Our proven process has resulted in hundreds of happy homeowners.” And add a button that reads “View Our Proven Process.”
By putting it on your website you are working to alleviate customer concerns before they even call you. That could give you a big leg up on competitors. Just remember that you want to live up to the promise of the proven process from the beginning. So, if part of your process is being responsive and communicating well with the customer, you’ve got to be sure you are living up to that before they even become a customer.
Include your documented proven process in any collateral that you give to a potential customer. Even if you don’t have highly designed flyers, a bulleted list can have an impact.
You could also consider creating an image. You can get a lot of ideas for that by Googling “proven process” and looking at images.
You could use the image on your website. You might also want to create a separate flyer that features the image.
Anxious, nervous, stressed and uncertain are all words that describe the feelings of many homeowners who are considering using a painting contractor. You want to make them feel comfortable, confident and certain about picking you to do the work. By having a process, documenting it as your Proven Process and getting it in the hands of prospective customers as soon as possible you can increase your calls and your wins.
We can help you highlight your proven process on a great-looking website that will be found by potential customers in your area. Schedule a meeting to talk about the details at a time that’s convenient for you on our Contact page.