Sweeten Tips: Juggling Jobs While Keeping Your Clients Happy

Transparency and keeping it strictly business are crucial for happy clients and smoother projects

Sweeten knows that as a general contractor, you handle multiple jobs simultaneously—you sometimes bend your schedule to accommodate delivery delays, permit snags, sick subcontractors, and whatever else tomorrow brings.

But your client probably doesn’t know any of this. Here are our tips for setting expectations—the key to happy clients and great reviews.

Sweeten matches general contractors with high-quality home renovation projects, vetted for readiness and appropriate budget. Contractors pay only when they win a project. Budgets start at $15,000 and average over $67,000.

Be upfront and transparent about how you work

Explain early that you have crews working on multiple jobs, and that it’s normal, say, for the electrician to run off to work on a different project. And that it’s normal for there to be hours—or even days—when there are no workers on site. Explain that some work may have to wait for materials to be delivered, or for adhesives to dry.

Make it clear that circumstances often force schedule changes. Then let clients know ASAP any time there’s a delay or if work has to pause. An informed client is a happier client.

Be patient and open-minded during client conversations

Remember that your client has probably never done this before. Questions that could seem insulting often just come from a lack of understanding about construction, or anxieties about their home being jackhammered. Please don’t take these questions personally! Answer as patiently and clearly as possible.

Tips for Emerging Contracting Firms

If you’re new to Sweeten, you might feel tempted to bend over backward to make clients happy. We’ve seen GCs perform work outside of scope without creating a change order, etc.  Please don’t go crazy—you’re a business, and you need to treat clients as clients.

Stepping outside the bounds of the contractor-client relationship can lose money for you, and can create false expectations. Clients who think you’re a friend doing them a favor can feel betrayed when you start acting like a business!

Tips for Established Contracting Firms

Be patient and clear when explaining why you can’t comply with a request. If it’s a technical or a code restraint, the client will be much more satisfied if they understand. Don’t let them think you’re just inflexible. You might be able to work together to find a compromise.

Remember your Sweeten Account Manager

If you’re having trouble communicating something to a client, talk to us! We can always jump in and help.