Finding good tradies

Recently when a user of our service (let’s call her “Lyn”) called our office to advise that some deck work from a tradesperson in our network didn’t quite meet her expectations, we responded with a “Consider it fixed! We know what John is like and he will be out there tomorrow”. And he was (in fact, he was actually out there that same afternoon).

But what would have happened had John refused to go out or worse still completely disappeared from the picture since he had already been paid?

Well, you have probably read the thousands of stories out there as it is one story too common - Lyn would not have been too happy (even angry) and it would have certainly consumed an incredible amount of stress with additional costs to fix.

The difference between Lyn now being able to enjoy her deck and the renovation experience as opposed to what could have been a daily curse every time she saw it, was simply because John has “the care factor”. This is care for personal reputation, quality of work and more importantly for the customer, quickly eliminates any distress and produces a positive outcome. 

We all know we want a tradesperson to be reliable and experienced but how many of us ask “will he/she still be there when things go wrong?” The reality is, especially with renovations, they just do!

Tradies that don’t care are simply costly- in terms of your time, money and stress so it pays to get the selection right up front.

Three tips to help you establish if a tradie has got “the care factor” include.
1.    What have previous clients said about them? (And we don’t mean reading online reviews!). We recommend speaking to previous customers and even seeing the work - especially for major jobs like an extension, new kitchen or bathroom. And more importantly, ask about the issues that arose and how they were handled by the tradesperson.

2.    A high repeat customer base. A tradesperson that can demonstrate that he/she is doing regular and ongoing work for particular homeowners, real estate agents, tradesmen service providers is a good indication of a high care factor. Be suspicious of tradespeople that cannot offer such references.  

3.    Sourcing!  A strong referral to a tradesperson used by others can really help you get it right without taking the risk on someone from a local paper or large online database network.  This could be through family, friends, local hardware stores or a credible tradesmen service provider that has long established relationships with its tradespeople. 

Just to finish off, Lyn was thrilled with the service and results, and has just booked John in for some more future work.

About Laorence Nohra

From the jet setting corporate world of accounting and finance, Laorence Nohra is the CEO of Tradebusters, one of Australia’s first personalised tradesmen service providers.

Based on the principal that the best way to find good tradespeople is through a quality ‘referral’,  Tradebusters aims to help homeowners take away the time, guesswork and risk of sourcing good tradespeople.

As an outsourcing and operational efficiency expert, who has held a number of international posts with global corporations establishing shared service centres across the world, Laorence now works actively with homeowners, real estate agencies and trade businesses across Australia to unlock and realise the benefits of effective outsourcing.

Tradebusters has been featured in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Daily Telegraph as well as various online, local and industry related publications.

“Tradebusters is Tradeblogging” is aimed at sharing with you real life experiences so that any home improvement or renovation job, whether it is big or small is stress-free, positive and rewarding. That’s all part of Tradebusters difference!