Women make the call on most home renovations
Builders and other home renovation contractors are urged to lift their game if they are serious about getting work from female customers.
“Some building contractors are losing a lot of business simply because they don’t know how to relate to women home-owners,” Pia Vogel, joint managing director of HomeSource , the legal and building advisory service for home-owners warns.
“Research suggests women make 90 percent of all major decisions to do with the home and this should be a wake-up call to professionals in the home renovation industry.”
“Many women joining HomeSource have told us about their past dissatisfaction with builders, who were treated differently because they were female.
“Some felt patronised; others felt the builder adopted a superior attitude that left them feeling exploited and vulnerable to being overcharged.
“Many women felt the builders failed to treat them as if they were actually making the decision and paying for the job. They also reported poor communication, lack of punctuality and a failure to clean-up afterwards.
“After couples, single women are the largest category of home buyers, well ahead of single men,” Vogel says. “Many will need outside help with renovations, and those builders without the required interpersonal and professional skills will miss out on the business.”
HomeSource provides members with on-call legal guidance on any aspect of a builders’ contract and performance and professional building advice on what to ask and expect from a builder. It also provides access to a network of fully qualified local tradesmen working to high standards of workmanship and customer service.
An annual HomeSource membership fee of $110 includes one hour of talk time with HomeSource lawyers and builders with unused time rolled over to the next year as long as membership is kept current.
“Many customer calls use up only 5 minutes and in one case, a woman saved $45,000 on a dud builder and only used 12 minutes of her time,” Vogel says.
13-Jun-2006