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We surveyed a number of our customers about their thoughts how to avoid unnecessary expenses. We have compiled a short list of the most common answers:
Misunderstandings: often the home owners or builders expect more than was promised. To avoid dissatisfied customers, contractors often do more than agreed upon. Common foam insulation misperceptions are fully filled walls and exclusion of walls which are not part of the building envelope (such as garages). Remedy: complete project contracts signed off by all parties.
Scheduling: is another big issue non-passing of inspections by other trades trigger last minute delays or rescheduling of the foam contractor resulting in lost productivity. Remedy: while this one is hard to manage, frequent communication with the customer will raise early warning flags.
Employee issues: this is a very mixed bag – there are many good stories and even more ugly stories. Besides motivational and disciplinary issues there are also productivity issues
Productivity issues: are highly related to work flow, job planning and preparation, skills, and experience. Remedies (a few out of many): internal training sessions and discussions, external training (like our foam school), performance based pay or incentives.
 Profitability: quite a few contractors are unhappy with their profits – often citing competitive pressures. While nobody can control market prices, there are many more ways the raise the margins. Here are a few suggestions: don’t be cheapest but the best. Well prepared sales presentations, excellent references from previous jobs and professionalism allow at least higher somewhat higher prices than the competition. More importantly, a job done fast and efficiently is the key to keeping the money the contractor deserves. The cost of inefficiency is staggering. A few examples of expensive money wasters: runs to nearby hardware stores to get something that was forgotten, poor spraying skills with lots of scarfing, poorly maintained equipment and related downtime, poorly stocked spare parts, confusing work orders, slow employees and many other issues cost real money – often 25% of more of the profit. Addressing these issues properly may be the same as hiking the price by 20% or more!
Equipment downtime: it seems to have gotten better over the last few years as proportioners and spray guns have gotten better. Nonetheless, some of our customers say that they need to service their guns every couple of hours. Remedies: good maintenance and cleaning procedures that are enforced at all times, spare guns, properly stocked spare parts and sprayer accountability when these parts are used. We hear it too often: “both guns are broken “. The sad truth is that that is not an equipment but a management problem.
How can CPI help? Join us in our Foam School, get that spare gun (we’ve got some great specials going this week) or upgrade to the ultimate in efficiency, a CPI Platinum Mobile Spray Rig.
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