WHAT DO YOU WANT YOUR CONTRACTOR TO "START" & "STOP" DOING?
We are about a month into our traditional winter season here in Boston, and while our seasons usually average around 60” of snowfall, we have just crept over the 30” mark. With that being said, this season has been a bit busy for everyone, property owners, property managers, and snow contractors alike. But this time of the season is a great time to do some reflecting on performance.
With that in mind, we asked current clients, and prospective clients to give us some honest feedback on things they wished all their vendors, snow contractors included would start doing, and things they wished they would stop doing. That if we were to call them into an office with the two words “start” and “stop” written on a whiteboard, what would be the first things that came to their mind?
And while there were some outliers, the most popular responses were around proactiveness, responsiveness, and communication.
Proactiveness
- Start early and efficient pretreatments for storms, stop only reacting to the weather
- Start regular check ins with client contact, stop going MIA
- Start finding and correcting issues before requested to do so, stop waiting for clients to point out issues and request service
- Start reaching out as storms wrap up to confirm client satisfaction, stop waiting for client to initiate contact
- Start covering site specifics such as which doorways take precedence, dumping locations, locations of gas meters, fire hydrants, catch basins, and transformers. Stop assuming knowledge of the property from previous years will stay the same - vacancies, procedures, and construction are all things that can vary season to season
Responsiveness
- Start being reachable, stop going MIA
- Start responding when issues arise, and following-through that the task has been completed, stop keeping the client in the dark with status updates
- Start being available and ready to service the property (days, nights, weekends, holidays), stop providing different qualities of service out of normal business hours
Communication
- Start hosting preseason, during, and postseason meetings, stop assuming knowledge of the property from previous years will stay the same
- Start being honest and upfront with the client, stop avoiding difficult conversations regarding issues, budgets, payments etc.
