Contractors are a lot like restaurants. They both provide an experience that produces a product.
Frank Bruni used to be a restaurant critic for The New York Times, for which he continues to write on different subjects. Recently, he wrote a piece titled “The Best Restaurant if You’re Over 50.”
Being over 50, liking to eat out, and having been a service-focused remodeling contractor, I thought Mr. Bruni hit the nail on the head.
Mr. Bruni points out that being at the hippest, newest, and hardest-to-get-into restaurant gets less and less important the older (and more sensible) one gets. What you look for as you age is a restaurant you love and that loves you.
“Danny Meyer, the restaurateur and hospitality guru behind Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, Shake Shack and so much more, brought up something that one of the past century’s most prominent tastemakers would say. “James Beard famously told people that when he was stopped in airports and asked what his favorite restaurant was, he answered: ‘It’s the same as yours,’” Meyer recalled. “‘It’s the one that loves me the most.’”
Think about your best remodeling clients. They know what they want. They don’t like surprises. They want a consistently good experience that produces great results. And they want to be appreciated.
They want to work with your company over and over. After all, it takes the first project for you and your client to get to know one another and to decide if you are a fit for each other.
The result can be a long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationship. At the end of his article, Mr. Bruni writes:
A close friend my age put it this way: “I used to care about being entertained, and now being soother feels more important. Life, it turns out, is hard.”
Restaurants shouldn’t be.
And neither should remodeling. Don’t make it hard for your clients and they will keep on coming back.