This is the year to take control of your business.

Listening carefully and communicating with clarity create a better process for all parties and help avoid issues.

The success of your water damage restoration business is dependent on the quality of work your production staff puts out and the feeling the water damage victim is left with after the fact.

Here are five ways to train and prepare your restoration employees to provide the best customer experience, both in their everyday work and after disasters.

In most cases when a home is damaged by a disaster, the homeowner(s) are already upset by the time the restorer gets there. The last thing a restorer wants to do is add insult to injury by doing or not doing something that could add stress or make the situation worse.

“In a crowded marketplace, it can be hard to cut through the noise and reach customers,” Josh Miller writes. “With a micro approach that focuses on how we can do our jobs more effectively, and a macro approach that communicates our expertise to the marketplace, we can all help promote the credibility and competence of the professionals in our industry.”

In this episode of Ask Annissa, Annissa Coy responds to the following message: “My customer is asking me for a guarantee of my work and for the removal of odor. … I don’t know how to answer this.” 

Marketing expert Laura Nelson covers how restoration contractors can stand out on Google, optimize online prospects and customers, convert more browsers to buyers, and drive more referrals through an elevated customer experience.

In this episode of Ask Annissa, Annissa Coy responds to a question from a restorer who disposed of contents on a non-salvageable list and now is dealing with an unhappy homeowner. She clarifies how they can avoid going through this in the future.

In a time when production schedules are full, lead times are long, and resources thin, what exactly are contractors to do to appease their customers? The answer can be found in improving project communication. While this might seem to be a daunting task for some, a simple tool that can be used to guide the efforts is a project communication plan.