Online reviews are beginning to make or break plenty of small businesses. With research showing that 84 percent of people trust online reviews, a handful of bad reviews may be what turn potential customers away from you and towards your competitors. And this applies to construction companies and the customers who rant or rave about their services. 

Thus, it is important that construction businesses give their customers no reason to complain when they write their reviews. Here are a couple of ways to improve customer satisfaction to avoid negative reviews and possibly earn positive reviews instead.

 

Outsource Quality Building Materials

Never try to cut corners or make your prices lower by buying cheap, lower-quality building materials and sacrificing the quality of your finished project. Sub-standard building materials are one of the most common causes of building collapses or structural failure. Sure, it may not appear to be sub-standard when you first finish your project, but if potential customers see a string of collapsed buildings or sub-par quality done by your company, they’re unlikely to want to do business with you no matter how low your prices are. 

Try to expand your network of suppliers and outsource materials to tried and tested businesses that offer quality. Metal fabrication can meet all the standards of manufacturing to ensure durability and quality in the materials you use. Customers who know they’re using quality materials will be more satisfied with the results. 

 

Keep an Open Line of Communication

Even if it’s your customer won’t likely understand what’s going on, regularly updating them and helping them understand what the process can seem like you’re going the extra mile. It can also help manage their expectations and make sure things are going according to their plan and can make changes as necessary. 

As much as possible, tell your customers where they can contact you and if they can contact you 24/7 or during business hours only. Failing to manage their expectations and making them wait is one of the worst things you can do since 75 percent of customers complain about how long it takes for them to get ahold of a live person. 

Keeping an open line of communication helps you better understand their needs and helps build a working relationship with your client. This, in turn, can lead to happy customers satisfied with the results when they write about your business online. 

 

Deliver on Time 

One of the biggest pet peeves that’s sure to annoy customers is when a construction company says that they definitely can complete a project by a certain amount of time. But when that time comes, it’s clear that the project is far from complete. 

Delays are inconvenient on your client, who may have their own timeline and scheduled it around the timeframe your company provided. Being late without notice is not only unprofessional, but it is also a reflection of a poor work ethic. And both are sure to make your client unhappy.

You can do two things to avoid this: give a realistic timeline that also accounts for unexpected delays (it’s much better to finish before the deadline than after), or keep communication open and let your client know about any delay as soon as you see it’s likely you won’t meet the deadline. They’re likely to be upset by the delay, but not as much if you tell them ahead of time that you’re unlikely to meet the deadline. 

 

Now more than ever, getting positive customer reviews is important for driving business and avoiding losing customers because of bad reviews. Ensuring your customer is satisfied with your service and the finished project is necessary to get a good review. So, if your client is pleased, ask them to write about it online.