There are many reasons for home owners choosing a company to carry out their home improvements work, be it windows and doors, extensions, decorating etc. Word of mouth is a big thing, as is being recommended. Other companies spend their money on advertising to get people through the door. But according to research from Get A Free Quotation, it may be the least effective method.
Reasons for choosing a supplier
On Monday evening I spoke to the company on Twitter and they showed me a graph of theirs which displayed the various reasons why home owners choose companies to carry out home improvements work:
Credit: Get A Free Quotation
The top two reasons, recommendations/word of mouth and being a previous customer weren’t that surprising. It’s how we get most of our business at our place, we do very little in the way of advertising. And just look at where adverts came on the list, flat last.
In all honesty, I would never expect adverts to be the main reason why people chose a company, but at the same time I wouldn’t have expected it to be bottom of the pile either.
Proof that quality work is king
What this research does is it highlights a very important point, the point that by carrying out high quality work from the start and at all times, this will become your best form of advertising.
It is vital to any installation business that any works carried out are done to the highest possible standards. It is these quality installations that then create a good reputation for the business, where happy home owners are pleased to then pass the name of the business on to family, friends, neighbours etc. And hopefully, should they need any work done in the future, they will come back to the same company, spending more money with that business.
We all know how easy it is for bad news and a bad reputation to spread. It’s key therefore to be on top of your game.
Does advertising really work?
The research above then does beg the question: does advertising really work?
Of those who took part in the market research above, just 1% of those having home improvements work done said that adverts for their chosen company was the reason why they chose them. That is a terribly low figure.
On a B2B level advertising is a bit different. B2C however is a totally different market place and patterns and habits are not the same. Advertising to home owners has changed dramatically over the past few years, with the internet taking over in a big way. But you do have to question whether the traditional forms of advertising to consumers, such as papers, radio, leaflets etc are avenues that should not be explored any more. Maybe investment in a powerful adn effective website would be money better spent?
For B2C, I’m not surpirsed that so few people listed “advertising” as the reason they *chose* a company. But that’s not what advertising is for – you could never hope to sell projects off the back of a few adverts. It’s there to raise enquiries – nothing more, nothing less. By pitching your adverts in certain ways (where you advertise, what your ads look like and say etc), you can – to some extent – control the type of customer you get enquiries from, but once the enquiry is in the advert has done its job and its up to… Read more »