Sound Beginnings Another remodeler who begins the engineering process with the initial visit is Kacey Fitzpatrick, president of Avalon Enterprises, Mountain View, Calif. She says the benefits inherent in this process include building “trust in me and the process we are all undergoing. Customers who trust me don’t question everything I do or say, but instead partner with Avalon to participate in the process productively.”
This partnership takes root with an up-front interview lasting two to four hours. Fitzpatrick “asks in-depth questions about who they are, how they like to live, what they like and don’t like, what they do every day, how they grew up, etc. I work hard to understand the client and to design a home that really supports them in their family life and feeds the essence of their lifestyle.” What she does with that information is essential. Besides informing her design work, Fitzpatrick’s investigative legwork helps her accommodate clients’ preferences and lifestyles during the actual remodeling process. “They may be going on a weeklong vacation and want a messy phase of work to be scheduled for that week,” she says. They could have a big deadline, “and I will fast-track the subs and ensure timely completion.”
Equally important, investing so much time up front lets Fitzpatrick defuse bombs that could otherwise prolong projects and breed ill will. For instance, she outlines change order procedures and assures clients they’ll have “time to plan in advance when inconveniences are on the horizon that will affect their daily life” — inconveniences such as turning off the water or power or scheduling a delivery that needs to be stored at their home. As an advocate of green building, she also emphasizes indoor air quality, particularly when the home is occupied during construction and/or the homeowners have allergies or small children. And again she follows through. For example, she might build full walls to separate the work area from the living area, use a clean air scrubber during especially dirty phases, and use low-VOC (volatile organic compounds) paints and finishes to minimize airborne toxicity.
Before the remodeling work begins is also the time to lay out the ground rules. David Heaney, president of Rockland Architects and Builders, Newport, Del., explains his company’s design/build approach and fee schedule at the initial client meeting. But he emphasizes that his company “focuses on the intangibles. It’s all about expectations.” He views his clients as his boss, he says, “but we don’t know what they want until we ask questions,” which he does later, at a preconstruction meeting (see “Do Ask, Do Tell,” page 89).
Like Fitzpatrick, Heaney follows through by ensuring that homeowners’ wishes are respected throughout the remodeling process. A project clipboard is posted so they can jot down questions for the lead carpenter to address the next day. They can call staff at any time — Rockland employees carry pagers 24 hours a day and are backed up by an answering service. Besides holding weekly meetings, Heaney also asks clients to complete a mid-project questionnaire. Major complaints are rare at this point, he says, because he nailed their expectations by asking so many questions in advance. He also posts a document called “Commitment to Excellence” at each jobsite to remind workers and subcontractors of Rockland’s many “intangibles,” such as its commitment to customer service.
Follow-through is equally important to Matt Plaskoff, owner of Plaskoff Construction, Tarzana, Calif. “From first call to final walk, we have a system that makes the client feel they are in good hands,” he says. Called “client delight,” this system of “touch points” is designed to help clients “remember us and know that we are thinking about them” throughout the process, he explains. Heavy project management and supervision are integral to client delight, but so are thoughtful touches such as a preconstruction “golden hammer” ceremony, gift baskets, regularly scheduled follow-up calls, and a “homeowner’s manual” (with general home-care information and subcontractor names) presented at the project’s conclusion.
Pulling the Strings Antonioli also continues to engineer the client experience as the job progresses, in ways that are both visible and invisible. Like Heaney, he works with clients at the preconstruction meeting to identify, among other things, precautions involving pets and children, storage of tools and materials, moving of furniture and other items, and procedures for protecting the clients’ home. “On every job, we probably budget a minimum of $250” on protective materials for walls, floors, carpets, etc., he says. “Being clean is one of the bigger things we do” to keep clients on their side.
At weekly meetings, Antonioli recaps clients’ concerns from the last meeting and forewarns them of upcoming responsibilities on their end — be prepared to talk budget next week, for instance, or remember to select cabinet knobs by Thursday. At the same time, he discreetly pulls their strings from behind the scenes, by ensuring, for example, that his product person “is on them like a hawk.”
While Antonioli engineers and sells the client experience, “it’s my staff that executes it,” he says. To that end, he employs only crew who “have that sixth sense about taking the clients’ temperature on a daily basis and knowing when they need to push a little more” or, conversely, knowing “they need to tiptoe around, give them a little more room.” Similarly, he sends a “dear neighbor” letter announcing his company’s presence in the neighborhood and pledging to avoid disturbing or inconveniencing anyone. “People are concerned about how their project affects neighbors,” says Antonioli. “That may be one of their biggest fears — looking like an idiot, like they hired a bad contractor. We do every little thing we can to make them look good.”
And make them feel good. Antonioli uses weekly meetings not just to discuss project status but also to let clients blow off steam —something most remodelers reserve for the exit interview. Each meeting triggers an itemized “project status report” concluding with the question, ‘What could we have done better this past week?’ The simple act of asking this question “releases the pressure building and heads off the issue before it explodes in the client’s head,” says Antonioli.
Which takes us back to Susan Parker and Ed Hynes. True to Antonioli’s word, Out of the Woods Construction and Woodworking had a snafu in the client’s house: While working on the plumbing, a worker inadvertently overfilled the boiler, knocking out the heat to the home. Yet when Hynes walked in an hour later, the worker “immediately told me what had happened and apologized,” promising that a plumber was en route to remedy the problem. Hynes was pleased. “He was absolutely up front with me,” he remembers, just as Antonioli had been from the beginning.