The importance of professionalism in residential construction cannot be overstated.
Builder’s professional demeanour can significantly alter client perceptions, elevate industry standards, and build trust that’s as strong as the homes they construct.
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Duayne
When you start acting like a professional business, clients are going to look at you in a lot different way.
Duayne
Now, I know this one will probably feel awkward for some of the builders out there, but we’re going to talk about professionalism.
We’re very passionate about professionalism here at Live Life Build. Our purpose is to raise the professionalism of the entire residential construction industry.
1. Changes Client Perception
And Amelia, I want to ask you, and I want you to talk to people about…
Do you think a homeowner actually cares about professionalism? Or do you think a homeowner just looks at a builder as someone who has a nailbag and a hammer, turns up the site, and builds their home?
Amelia
Yeah, I think this is a really interesting one because I think a lot of builders would assume that a homeowner just wants a builder who can actually build a house.
And yes, that is true to some extent. They want to know that you know what you’re doing. They don’t, though, want that to be the only thing that you can do. And I think when sometimes builders hear this idea of professionalism, they also hear maybe elitist, or it’s that elitist is something that’s bad, and that it’s something that’s about university education, or about, I don’t know, something that doesn’t fit with the residential construction industry.
Professionalism, at the end of the day, just means something, somebody who is operating at a high quality, operating with expertise, that you’re great at what you do, and that you care about what you’re doing.
And I think that is what homeowners want. They want somebody who’s great at what they do, who’s experienced at it, and who really cares about delivering a quality product.
Duayne
And from the homeowners’ point of view, they’ve got a lot at stake. This is something like… obviously the great Australian dream, and whether it doesn’t really matter how they look.
My thing is, it doesn’t matter if someone spends $50,000 or $5 million dollars. That particular person has worked really hard to save that money or do whatever they needed to get that money so that they can trust us to build their dream with that.
Builders should really consider that when you think about it, this homeowner is coming to us, putting all this trust in us to deliver them a family home somewhere that they’re going to bring their family up, where kids go to school, kids get born, and all types of things. So, it’s a pretty big deal.
2. Builds Trust with Homeowners
Amelia
Very much so. I think many homeowners tell that story of the builder who’s rocked up late to a meeting, not shown up at all, not returned calls, turned up with their diary stuffed full of notes and can’t seem to handle their administration.
They’re running their business out of the glove box of their car. They’ve just been difficult to deal with, and then you start to think, “Oh, hang on, I’m going to trust this person with six, maybe seven figures of my money that have taken me years and years to savour. I’m going to be paying off for a long time. Plus, it’s going to be the roof that I put over my family’s head. And I want to last for decades. It’s potentially going to be the biggest investment I’m ever making my life.”
It does really matter that the builder is well presented, is organised, and shows up as a professional so that homeowners can trust that they are the right person to hand over this massive amount of money.
Not only that, but they have huge hopes, ambitions, and aspirations for what this home will actually deliver for them long term.
Duayne
Yeah. And it’s like in all other areas of their lives. They’re dealing with professionals everywhere else. I guess I really want certainty that you’re professional enough to deliver what they’re hoping to get.
Because everyone goes to doctors, dentists, lawyers, and accountants, everybody goes to accountants at least once a year. It’s just that getting builders in that mindset, a builder is more than a tradie. You are a professional business.
When you start acting like a professional business, clients will look at you in many different ways.
3. Aligns with Professional Services Standards
Amelia
Very much so. And this is the thing I think builders don’t understand is that if you’re going to act a certain way, then that’s how people will generally treat you. And if you’re not going to raise the standards for yourself about what it looks like to be a professional builder, and you are just going to act like a tradie, then that’s going to change the way that a homeowner works with you, treats you, how they consider whether what they’ll pay your bill on time, whether they’ll argue with what your bill is, whether they’ll try and stuff you around in terms of getting you to do extra work.
All of those things start to come into play when you don’t elevate your own standards about what professionalism looks like and set boundaries about what that means for you and your business.
As you said, homeowners are used to dealing with professionals in many other areas of their lives, so they know what it’s like to work with a professional. They know what that standard of expectation is. They wouldn’t go into their GPS office and argue with them about how they’re charging versus the diagnosis of what they’re being told.
The same thing with lawyers and things like that. And it is possible for builders who want to improve themselves and the way that they operate to work in a similar way to really get much better relationships with the people that they’re working with and be treated better and have their value respected as well.
The other thing is that many homeowners are professionals themselves. And if they’re professionals and they’ve set that high standard of expectation, experience, and operation for themselves, and then they’re dealing with a builder who isn’t setting a similar standard, then that can be incredibly frustrating for them.
If you’re complaining about how you’re being treated.
If you’re complaining about how people seem to take advantage of you and not respect your time, or the way that you charge for things, then take it as a sign that you need to potentially look at your own behaviour.
How you’re showing up and what that might be telling others about how they can treat you.
Duayne
If you want to be treated as a professional, you have to act like a professional.
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