September 7, 2018

From Qualified Remodeler

Dealing with Client Disputes

Remodelers must be prepared for client objections and have a procedure in place to solve disagreements swiftly and effectively.

Brian Peterson sat through another meeting when his phone rang. On the other end, a distraught homeowner told him between sobs that one of his workers struck a water line during her interior renovation. Peterson immediately excused himself from the meeting, listened to everything she had to say, explained what he would do, and jumped in his truck so he could be there momentarily.

“No one likes getting these phone calls, but I do believe that if you have the correct process in place, handling them can be less stressful on both you and your customer,” says Peterson, who was a general contractor at the time. “I’ve always stressed that it doesn’t matter how many jobs we have going on, we have to treat every single [one] like it is the only job that’s taking place.”

The catastrophic leak soaked all the drywall on the first level and caused the hardwood floors to bubble, he recalls. Workers had completed about 80 percent of the project before the mishap, so the company needed to salvage as much material as possible and perform the labor again. They finished the job nonetheless, and the client even contracted them to remodel her upstairs as well.