Concrete is the most-used building material, and the most-used manmade substance around the world. Besides water, it is the second most-used substance today (this is including natural and man-made). If you’re a large construction business owner or a commercial project manager, chances are you need large orders of concrete. Finding the right supplier for your volumetric concrete delivery needs is an important choice, especially for large or complex projects. Here are some tips for finding a company you can trust to get the job done.
Research the Company Online
The first step is to do your research on your local concrete suppliers. Go to their business website or Facebook page. Read about them. It’s a good sign if their website is up to date and filled with information such as about pages and service info and a regularly updated blog. If you feel good about their site, then contact your local concrete supplier to ask questions and get to know them. Make sure they are knowledgable about the required permits for your project (this will let you know how experienced they are in the industry) and ask to take a look at their contracts, which will also give you an idea of their level of professionalism. Make sure they are licensed, certified, and insured (and learn the scope of what their insurance covers).
Is Their Pricing Fair?
While you’re researching the company, be sure to take a look at their pricing for volumetric concrete delivery. Of course, you want to make sure that it falls within your range so you stay on budget, but watch out for prices that are too low or too good to be true (because that is usually a red flag that there is something wrong). This is why it’s a good idea to research more than one company to compare, or to research the industry standard of prices so you know the baseline price of volumetric concrete delivery.
Make Sure They Match Your Project Scope Needs
Ideally you want to find a company that specializes in the specific demands of your project. To do that you need to research their portfolio of past projects and levels of experience. Ideally, they should have examples of this on their website, but you may need to ask them for examples or talk to colleagues you know who have worked with them in the past. This will also help you with the next step.
Research Customer Satisfaction and Company Reputation
Now that you know a bit about them, you should research their levels of customer satisfaction. Don’t only look on their website for this. Anyone can post anything on their website. This doesn’t mean that their reviews are necessarily fake (most companies wouldn’t do that) but they wouldn’t necessarily post bad reviews on their business site. To find out if anyone has had any problems, you need to dig deeper. If they are a local concrete supplier, then ask around and talk to people who have worked with them before to learn about their work ethic and skill level. Go online to their social media pages on Facebook and Instagram and see what customers say in the comments. You can also look them up on services like the Better Business Bureau, Yelp, or HomeAdvisor to see what their business rating is, or to see if anyone has made complaints about them.
Remember that complaints aren’t a bad thing. Companies make mistakes and cannot make every customer happy. The important thing is to figure out how the company reacted to the complaints. Did they do everything in their power to make it right? This will tell you a lot about how the company works and their overall ethic.
Once you’ve found a company that you trust to provide your volumetric concrete delivery needs, then you can move forward with the contracting process, and get started on your project.