Adding Value

I've never thought about it bc it's always been the MO, but good questions and my answers:

What does value mean to you?
As a service based business, making the client's life easier

How do you know what your customer will value?
I don't know going into a job but on the spot I just do a little extra to take care of something that I know would bug me if I left it unaddressed. I'm not unique so I know if the work looks like shit and bugs me then it will usually bug the client. And they paid for professional work so it's our obligation to do a professional job.

So in general customer's value making life easier.... i.e. yesterday I completed my scope of work but saw what the client had left to do DIY to meet a tight deadline. Before leaving I did 10min extra labor for free of something I do all the time that what would've taken him 2hrs his first time trying and he was already fed up with the laborer's before me. It's just being empathetic at the end of the day

What are someways that you add value to your work?
Being transparent and honest about the services the client chooses
Under promise timelines and over deliver
Leave the space cleaner than the way you found it
Communicate with the client promptly

Honestly if you do those 4 things you're ahead of 99% of contractors and automatically more valuable

I believe that providing value is solving the need of the customer. If a customer calls you out to, for example, plant some flowers to fix cover a bad smell in their yard, and you know that the smell is coming from a dead raccoon but plant the flowers anyway, you did the job and got paid but provided no value. On the other hand, if you can educate the customer and address their actual need, this will be providing value

Good question!

I agree, providing value has little if anything to do with price. In fact, the cheapest service providers have the least amount of opportunity to do so as they have to rush from job to job in order to stay afloat. 

For us, providing value is all about the client experience. Most of our work involves working inside families homes for 2 or 3 days (HVAC) so it's imperative that they feel safe and comfortable sharing their space with us. From the first phone call, to how we treat the home, to our follow-up after the job is complete, we try to create an atmosphere of trust and relaxed professionalism. We let them know at the end of each day how the job is progressing, and spend as much time as they need at the end of the job to ensure they understand how to use and maintain their new systems, including a hard copy of our discussion which covers common FAQ's. 

I did an interesting experiment in a local Facebook group using my personal profile, and asked "What irritates you the most about home improvement contractors?". ALL of the answers were about experience, and not 1 person mentioned price or quality of work. Here are some of the replies: 

• Not returning calls/emails.
• wearing dirty shoes in the house
• sloppy, making messes in the home
• loud music, swearing

It's almost like customers are putting it right out there what makes them happy!