There are a lot of misconceptions out there when it comes to a company’s brand promise. While your logo, website and other materials are extensions of it, your brand promise goes much deeper to represent who you are as an exterior home remodeling company – its personality and reason to exist. For example:
- Nike makes and sells shoes, but their brand promise is “to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.” This applies to the most talented professional athletes, but also anyone who is active at all. They want everyone who wears their shoes to feel like an athlete, regardless of how “fit” they are.
- Apple makes all sorts of devices that we use every day, but their brand promise is famously “think different.” It is this innovative mindset and passion to create new things that has made – and kept – them as the top technology company in the world.
- It doesn’t always have to be inspirational in nature. Wegmans’ is “consistently low prices.” They are committed to giving their shoppers a positive experience and pricing that they can afford without clipping coupons or digging through sale flyers.
Regardless of what the brand promise is, or will be, for your exterior home renovation business, one thing is absolutely true – it needs to be built on trust.
All the sales training and solid branding in the world won’t succeed if your customers can’t trust you to be honest with them, offer a fair price, deliver on your promises and do a good job. This is particularly true in today’s social media-focused society where one bad experience can be shared far and wide before you even leave the work site.
Keep in mind that the exterior home remodeling work you are doing is only a small part of the entire experience for the homeowner. Often even more important are all the other steps in the experience. You can build and prove your trustworthiness by doing small things like being on time, cleaning up at the end of the job each day, using the homeowner’s name (and their dog’s name too!), communicating frequently and answering questions as they arise. Make sure your contracts are easy to understand and the price and scope of work are clear and approved before beginning work. The exterior home remodeling industry is rife with complaints, and in many cases they are deserved. By taking these small steps to build trust – and communicating clearly and often – you can stand out for being a provider that homeowners can trust and for living your brand.
What may just be a small job for you is often taking place on the homeowner’s largest single investment of their life. They need to know they can trust you with this responsibility. And if they feel good about the experience at the end of the job, that same social media culture that can hurt your business can turn into the biggest referral source you’ve ever seen! Check out our Brand-X process for more info.