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Archive for September, 2020

Serving Three Types of Painting Customers

September 25th, 2020

Your customers all may call and ask for you to paint their house. But each of them has a different goal. Click here to see three different types of customers and how to meet their specific needs.

 

JGP Painters are Oakland’s Premiere Painters

September 24th, 2020

JGP Painting is a full-service Oakland painting contractor serving the Sand Francisco Bay Area. Their skilled painters provide residential and commercial interior painting services and exterior painting services to homeowners, apartment complexes, property management companies and other businesses.

In addition to painting, they also do deck refinishing, power washing, gutter cleaning and many other things that will make your home or commercial property look great. Regardless of the type of work you need them to do, you can rest assured that you will receive great customer service, and that you’ll be happy with the results.

Does Offering Financing Increase Close Rates?

September 22nd, 2020

The economy is in much better shape than it was in April – but it’s still rockier than it was before the pandemic.  Many people are earning less than they were in 2019 (especially those in retail) and some employees don’t have a job to return to, because their employer didn’t make it to the other side of the shutdown.  Despite this, exterior paint still peels exposing wood to the elements and homeowners still need to prepare their houses for sale.  People still need painting done, even though some of them can’t afford it.

Does it make sense to offer financing to your customers?  American Painting Contractor magazine says it can help increase the number of calls you get, especially if you advertise it.  If people don’t know about it by the time you get to offering them a quote, mentioning it might also help you land the job.


One thing that isn’t recommended is to get involved in the transaction.  Financing companies are great at what they do – evaluating risk, offering credit, and collecting on payments.  Painting contractors should get their money upon job completion – offering a delayed payment to close a deal can easily leave you with all the work and none of the money.  If payment turns into a he-said, she-said situation, customers can easily take that story to online review sites for others to read.

If you do decide to offer financing through a bank, make sure you pick a good one.  The application process should be easy and fast – the goal is to increase business, and if financing slows everything down, customers could delay the paint job or go somewhere else to get it done.

The financing bank should also have a good reputation and reasonable rates – if you’re referring customers to a bank that’s taking advantage of people, it will reflect poorly on your business.  Make sure that other small businesses offering financing through the bank are pleased with their customer service.

Finally, make sure that they’re making it easy for you to get paid quickly.  The goal of offering financing isn’t to fill your calendar – it’s to increase your profitability.  If they’re slow to pay or difficult to contact, move on to another bank.

To learn how ProPainter Websites can help your painting contracting company earn more business, call us at 919-424-6121 or email us at Team_PPW@ProPainterWebsites.com.

How Painting Contractors Can Prepare for a Winter of COVID-19

September 18th, 2020

For many painting contractors (especially those in the northern parts of the United States and in Canada) winter can be a tough time to fill your calendar with painting jobs.  Some paints stop drying properly at temperatures as high as 50 degrees, and very few paints work below 36 degrees.  This can push painting contractors to indoor jobs during the winter, or to other jobs entirely.


Unfortunately, if COVID-19 is still around in your area during the winter, it’s going to make it even harder to stay busy.  The pandemic has pushed many painting contractors to exterior jobs, as many people are reluctant to let service professionals into their homes for an entire day or longer unless it’s an emergency.  How do painting contractors who face the double threat of cold weather and weak demand for interior work stay busy?

Here are three things you can do to improve your situation heading into late 2020 and early 2021.

  • Fill Your Calendar Early – If you have more work than you can handle right now, instead of pushing it out a few weeks, consider offering customers a discount if they’ll allow you to do it during the slow months instead. This strategy gives you extra time to fill your calendar during the weakest periods of the year.
  • Offer Seasonal Services – Just because it’s too cold to paint doesn’t mean you can’t provide other outdoor services. Most people aren’t as comfortable on a ladder as a painter is, so offering to hang Christmas lights on houses is a great seasonal opportunity to increase business.  Finding and sealing gaps and cracks around doors and windows can keep houses warmer and reduce heating bills.  And, of course, snow removal is a major need in many states during the winter.
  • Build a Better Lead Engine – Painting leads slow down for nearly everyone during the winter, so the best way to get more painting leads during the winter is to increase the number of leads you receive year-round. What helps with this?  A search-optimized website, of course!  But there are other ways as well.  Make sure you actively seek referrals from existing customers, sponsor events in your town and request online reviews from your customers when you know they’re happy with the work you’ve done.

    Once you reach the point where you can’t handle the number of summer leads you’re getting, you can start trying to postpone some of that work to the winter.  And if that doesn’t work, you can prioritize your most profitable jobs and refer the rest out to another painter.  It’s always better to have too many leads than too few!

To learn how ProPainter Websites can help your business get more leads, call us at 919-424-6121 or email us at Team_PPW@ProPainterWebsites.com.