Beyond Price and Quality Part Five: The Tough Questions

So, you have successfully tendered your project, it’s time to award the job.  Your two lowest prices are within two percent of each other. How do you decide? Conduct an interview with both contractors and ask some questions:

1. When will you start and finish the project? Red Flag: if the start and finish dates seem unrealistic, they probably are. You are dealing with a contractor that tends to overpromise and miss on service commitments.
2. Who from your firm will oversee the project?
3. How will you communicate updates, changes and any issues as the project unfolds?

Most importantly:

     4.  Why should I choose you over the next contractor?

     5.  What is your competitive advantage?

Those last two questions are the deal breakers. If you don’t receive a succinct answer you are most likely dealing with an average firm. A contracting firm that is going to provide average service and a frustrating experience.

If you were to asked a Wolfgang representative those tough questions, here is what you would here:

Why should I choose Wolfgang Commercial Painters over the next contractor?

• Accountability: We keep our commitments. When we say we are going to start at 8AM, we do.
• Teamwork: We work together towards shared goals. Our office, sales, and operations staff works together to deliver a great experience for you, the customer.
• Open: We are open to new ideas, learning and feedback. If you are unhappy, let us know and we will respond quickly.
• Win/Win: We operate so that all stakeholders win. The customer, suppliers and Wolfgang must win in order to achieve a truly successful project.

What is Wolfgang Commercial Painter’s competitive advantage?

• We offer Professional Color Consultations to help settle on a color scheme.
• We offer a “Start and Finish” guarantee.
• We offer online Job Blogs to ease communication while the project is ongoing

Before you award your next project ask some tough questions. It will help you choose the right firm for the job.

“No, We Don’t Subcontract”, Liar!

Franchisee, licensed applicator, contract employee, certified contractors . . . just another term for Subcontractor.

I can’t tell you how many tender meetings I have attended where the painting companies dance around the question “Do you Subcontract your work?” Here’s the truth, every major non-union painting company, in Vancouver, including Wolfgang, utilizes subcontractors.

Why do major firms contract out their work? Commercial Painting is seasonal. Eighty five percent of the revenue is produced in an eight-month period. A subcontractor business model allows for a quick ramp up and greater capacity.  The best painters like to work for themselves in order to maximize their earnings. So, when we sub contract we get the best tradesmen in the city on our team. When we subcontract our work we fix our largest cost, labor. In business when you fix your largest expenditure you lower risk.

Why do smaller paint companies (two – ten employees) choose to contract their work from larger firms? Again, it’s simple. The most talented painters in the city, the most operationally excellent tradesmen, like to focus on producing work. So they build relationships with a few larger shops and eliminate the need for costly marketing, sales and admin.

Customers benefit from the subcontractor model because they get the most skilled painters producing their job and fixed labor means no cost overruns.

Sounds good right? Many customers don’t think so.

End users get nervous because they equate sub-contracting with the old ”dump and run” It may be true sometimes but if you are dealing with a professional firm it is not the case.

At Wolfgang every one of our projects, small or large, is overseen by one of our project managers. Every project ends with a Quality inspection with the customer, project manager and sub contractor in attendance. Deficiencies are noted and corrected in a timely fashion.

Our sub-contractors go through an interview and screening process just as an employed painter would.

Our contractors attend Wolfgang University where they learn our values, best practices, systems, and customer service standards. Wolfgang U is rigorous and on going. If the attendees don’t maintain an 80% GPA throughout the courses, they don’t work for us. If they pass and maintain their GPA, they become one of Wolfgang’s certified contractors.

It’s interesting to note that since Wolfgang began subcontracting three years ago our quality survey scores have improved from 4.4 to 4.6 out of 5 and our “would recommend” score moved from 92% - 96%.

So hopefully, a little information, will help our customers become more comfortable with the term subcontractor.

Builder of the Decade?

I attended the Builder of the Decade event mostly out of curiosity. Having seen Premier Campbell speak a few times, I wanted to see if he had been humbled. Nope, the man is as defiant as ever.

Considering the botched roll out of the HST, the “now you see it now you don’t” fifteen percent tax cut and his resignation, you would have thought it was time to crawl under a rock! But, there he was proudly recounting his accomplishments for a packed house.

Look at it objectively and the Liberals achievements are impressive: the Sea to Sky Highway, Golden Ears Bridge, Abbotsford Hospital, the Gateway Project, Canada Line and the 2010 Olympics! Together these projects created thousands of jobs and helped to make the province a better place for everyone. Campbell and his liberals don’t deserve all the credit for these projects but they did their part.

Under Campbell the residents of BC pay lower income taxes, dodged a real estate crash and the subsequent economic meltdown. Not bad.

Campbell’s speech last night captured his time as Premier nicely. Solid performance with snippets of unfortunate clumsiness (his Schwarzenegger impression was brutal)

Say what you will about Premier Campbell you can’t deny that under his leadership the province got infrastructure, jobs and lower taxes.