The Tim Faller Show

Today on the Tim Faller Show, Nick Sandifer details a new way to communicate in the field to help his team navigate the small details in elaborate projects. Nick and the Sandifer team use QR codes to help communicate better on the job site. The QR codes allow the project manager to view the electrical fixtures, architectural plans, and other information about the project. Nick discusses the effectiveness of the QR codes that lead to fewer phone calls from the team because all the data is in the QR code.

Nick Sandifer is the owner of Sandifer Design Build in Jacksonville, Florida.  Nick is a graduate of Florida State University with a degree in Real Estate Finance, Appraisal and Feasibility. He started his building career with a large national builder, Centex Homes. Later he worked as a project manager for local custom home builder Benchmark Luxury Homes. His experience working for both national and local custom builders has allowed him to focus on the schedule and the details.

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Today on the Tim Faller Show, Camille Jenkins joins the show to discuss the importance of the client experience and how it differs from satisfaction.  Simply put, customer satisfaction is how happy your customers are while using your company’s products and services and how well you are fulfilled their expectations. Customer experience refers to customers’ interactions with a brand’s products and services during all stages of their purchasing process.

Camille Jenkins is a results-oriented, customer experience consultant, keynote speaker, and realtor. With a decade’s worth of real estate industry experience and operational knowledge, Camille brings a real-world approach to setting and delivering on expectations. Camille served as the Vice President of National Customer Relations at Meritage Homes Corporation. During her tenure, the organization annually delivered upwards of nine thousand new homes, and customer satisfaction improved from 70% to 90%.  Currently, Camille Jenkins is the owner of Camille’s Keys located in Goodyear, Arizona.

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Have you ever gone through an entire job thinking that the client was delighted with your work and then discovered afterward that they liked most of it, BUT…. (you fill in the blank). So, the question remains, how do you ensure customer satisfaction or, as some call it, creating “Raving Fans?”

There is no better way to explore this than by asking real clients, and even better when the client has a remodeling background and can look at it from either viewpoint.

Meghan Haines is the Production Coordinator for Hercules Design Build, a remodeling company in the St. Louis area. Meghan has been with Hercules for a little over a year and a half; However, before joining the company, she was a client for three remodeling projects in her own home.

Tim, Steve and Meghan talk more about:

Hitting a schedule every time in construction is possible if you pay proper attention to planning and have a purposeful attitude.

In this episode, April Bettinger joins Tim and Steve to talk about the best practices and the common pitfalls to avoid when creating and managing an on-time project that ends with delighted clients.

April is the founder and owner of Nip Tuck Remodeling in Snohomish, WA. For more than 30 years, she’s carved out a respected niche in the construction industry. Her father was a custom homebuilder, so April grew up watching and learning about excellent customer service, and what it takes to complete a high-quality project. April has held key roles in finance, budgeting, customer service, team building, and sales management — preparing her to own and operate her own company. Nip Tuck Remodeling was founded in 2010, with a vision and determination to create a construction company with extraordinary craftsmanship and a focus on professionalism. 

April and her estimator create the master schedule, then it’s turned over to the production manager, who is responsible for creating and  managing the job schedules on BuilderTrend. One huge factor in staying on track once you’re in production is getting the schedules done and materials ordered a month before the project starts. She talks about why that works, and other aspects of keeping your jobs on schedule, including:

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Training, training, training!  

Business owners, general managers, and production managers often get caught wondering how to do it all. 

So, we turned to a former guest and a member of our production manager roundtables, Ned Trimming, to share his efficient training process involving current and new employees.

Ned Trimming is the Production Manager at Crescent Builds in Seattle, WA.  Ned and his team at Crescent are dedicated to building high-quality spaces for people to live and work in, while creating an employee review process that continues to morph into new training areas.

Tim, Steve, and Ned talk more about:

On this episode of the Tim Faller Show, Tim and Steve discuss the client experience and how to turn clients into raving fans. The client experience is all about how the client feels and not what you do. Tim differentiates the customer service a company provides from how clients perceive that service. Not only do salespeople have a major role in the client experience, but the production team and lead carpenter do as well.   

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Tess Jezek joins the show today to discuss the importance of your company’s reputation in the reputation economy.  In fact, Forbes reports that 60% of consumers are willing to pay more if they believe they will receive a better service.  Tess discusses how an accurate description of your business online is smart business practice.  In addition, good social status leads to robust pricing power, and client loyalty can lead to return clients, referrals, and new business.

Tess is the Director of Sales for Customer Engagement Solutions of Evercommerce.  She manages the sales teams for GuildQuality, PulseM, and Customer Lobby.  With close to a decade’s worth of experience in the industry, she understands the importance of customer experience, customer engagement, and customer retention as the most important drivers for your business.

Tess, Tim, and Steve discuss:

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Many business owners and certainly production managers feel alone in their business at times, and want and or need some kind of external input.  So, where do they turn?

Trade associations provide some input but are typically limited to whatever the “topic of the evening” is.  Remodelers Advantage President, Victoria Downing, saw this issue and took action through the creation of the Remodelers Advantage Roundtables Programs. 

Through the roundtables, members share support and guidance to ultimately help business owners earn more, and work less.

In addition to being the president of Remodelers Advantage, Victoria is the co-host of PowerTips Unscripted, a podcast dedicated to helping remodelers build a strong, profitable company.  She is an award-winning author and speaker and brings over 30 years of expertise in the remodeling industry to share how crucial peer groups are in order to successfully grow your business.

Victoria, Tim, and Steve talk more about:

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Do you struggle to maintain relationships with subcontractors and experience your projects not being handled with urgency or priority? If so, you haven’t built a team, you have built a contact list.  

Guest Daniel Carrero joins Tim and Steve to talk about how he has built a solid team with little turnover and kept tradesmen that have been with him for over 15 years.

Daniel Carrero, President of House to Home Solutions in Rockville, Maryland, has been able to build a Sub-Contractor Team that prioritizes his jobs over any other contractor. 

He shares his tips and tricks to how he has made a team that has stuck with him for years and are willing to take care of service issues without question.

Tim, Steve and Daniel talk more about:

While having a family-like culture is a well-intended premise, it is oftentimes impractical.

Companies may notice that one or two employees are intolerant of the family-like culture in place and leave the “family” dysfunctional. 

Creating an environment where there is a structure that resembles a team, rather than a family, is a way to avoid intolerance, and grow as a company.  In this episode, guest Jef Forward describes how he was able to achieve a team-like culture in his business, and why it has been successful.

Jef has a Masters Degree in Architecture from the University of Michigan and started Forward Design Build in 1997, focusing on a design and build method to ensure successful projects. He defines a successful project as a happy homeowner with a beautiful, functional home completed within ‘stated’ expectations of cost, service and schedule from the beginning of design to the end of construction.

Tim, Steve and Jef talk more about: