Why We Only Offer Top-Shelf Renovation Products To Muncie Area Homeowners
Apr 29, 2022Hint: It Has Nothing To Do With Profit
There are many Muncie area exterior home solutions companies that will slap just about any product you want onto your home.
Whether it’s a great score on some big box surplus, copycat but inferior versions of top brands, or just mid-level products that will most likely outlast their brief warranties, there’s a company willing to install it on your home – it just won’t be Clemens Home Solutions.
Sure, we’d rake in the profits on each substandard job, and we’d probably not even have to worry about the fail rate of such inexpensive products since most homeowners move long before their warranties are up.
But money, while handy, isn’t everything – quality is.
Six Reasons Other Home Renovation Companies
Are Fine With Using Cheap Products
There are some solid (if not always above board) reasons for a company to offer the cheapest products they can find. Here are six of the biggest reasons other companies prefer to use inexpensive products.
- Finances – New contractors often operate just on the edge of failure each day. Every time they order materials, they are taking a huge risk that the project won’t fall through.
If they can keep the procurement costs low, then losing the project won’t be as devastating to their bottom line, and they’ll be able to survive long enough to sell the materials to a future client. - Simplicity – Low-end products go up quickly since their engineering hasn’t changed for decades. Even the greenest rookie installer could put them up in their sleep and not run into any warranty-breaking problems.
This ease of installation allows the contractor to complete more projects each month with less experienced and less expensive crews. - Availability – Decades-old technology is easy to churn out quickly, allowing supply to keep up with demand. When you combine this with a limited color choice, fulfilling orders is simple.
So, they get to brag about their speedy turnaround, and you can have any color you want – so long as it’s tan, white, or gray. - Quotes – Mass-produced low-end exterior products are cheaper than most homeowners could ever imagine. These low costs allow contractors to offer crazy low quotes while making a hefty profit. Many national contractors rely on this fact to gain a constant influx of fast and profitable projects.
And since they are so big and their quotes so low, what you think of their work five years down the road means little to them. For every unhappy homeowner, there are five more clamoring to freshen the look of their home as cheaply as possible. - Zero-Risk Warranties – Low-end products tend to come with the most complicated warranties. They’re filled with exceptions and requirements designed to all but eliminate their liability. And if you’re lucky enough to escape those traps, you discover their final trick – depreciating coverage.
“Sure,” they’ll say, “you’re absolutely right, but it’s been nine years, so you’re only entitled to 10% of the replacement cost.”
And if you think the depreciation schedule isn’t based on what they know to be the true lifespan of their product, well, we’ve got this bridge we’re looking to sell. - Profit – Let’s go down the list. Low-cost products, even cheaper materials, easy availability, cheap labor, fast (if poor) installation processes, a waiting list of customers, and warranties that are virtually useless. You can make a ton of money if you don’t care about your customers or the results of your work.
Now, not all contractors that offer these products do so with ill intent. Maybe they are just starting out or are trying to weather an industry-wide slump.
That’s fine – it’s just not who we want to be.
Defining A Top-Shelf Exterior
Home Renovation Manufacturer
The best exterior home renovation manufacturers share certain traits. They’ve been in the manufacturing business for many decades and are innovation leaders.
Longevity matters. It means that they know their product type inside and out and have a research and development program robust enough to keep their name relevant for decades.
CertainTeed perfected the embedding of granules in roofing back in 1904 and has constantly worked to improve its product and its production’s impact on the environment ever since.
Why?
Because they take pride in what they make but know new technologies offer new opportunities to make their product stronger, more reliable, and more beautiful with each new generation.
And the same is true for all the top products in the home renovation industry. To them, their best is never good enough, and that is what excellence is all about. Sure, perfection is an unattainable goal, but that never stops them from trying.
Why We Only Sell Top-Shelf Products — PERIOD
OK, But Why Would Clemens Home Solutions
Only Sell Top-Of-The-Line Products?
So, if we could make more money selling low and middle-of-the-line products, why don’t we?
It’s Smart Business
Unless you’re willing to shut down completely and change your company name every few years to avoid the inevitable lawsuits, slapping on cheap products will come back to bite you.
For those who have no interest in growing, that’s a viable option.
But we like our name and love earning our stellar reputation.
We’ve always been focused on improving people’s lives, and you can’t do that by installing products that will cause them problems in just a few years. And you can’t build relationships with your clients and their extended families by pointing to the part of their warranty that says “Take a hike” if they have a problem.
Building relationships is the core of our success. All the advertising in the world can’t compete with a solid word-of-mouth reputation, and if you want that, you have to produce quality that lasts. Then, you need to back it up with industry-beating warranties.
Selling only the very best products and having them installed by the best crews in the business protects our reputation and gives each new client the best possible results.
But that’s just the business side of the equation.
It’s The Right Thing To Do
We started small, with just a kid named Shawn Clemens, a trailer full of tools and gutters, and a desire to be the best gutter guy you’ve ever seen. Part youthful ambition, part pride, and part faith-based belief in doing the right thing at all times.
Shawn’s business grew off his reputation for good honest work.
In fact, P.R.I.D.E. is now our guiding principle. Pride in our appearance, pride in our work, and pride in what we can accomplish for our clients and the community at large.
While offering lower-shelf options to our clients could grow our market, it doesn’t fit in with what we want to do. We want to visit past projects and see that they look fantastic no matter how much time has gone by.
That’s part of why we offer the Clemens Guarantee. It allows us to ensure that our work will endure.
Even if it’s past the 15-year cutoff, we often still honor the guarantee. It’s just the right thing to do.
Better Warranties
When you manufacture the best siding, roofing, windows, doors, or even leaf guards, you put them through rigorous testing before they hit the market. And nothing goes to market unless it can live up to an outstanding warranty.
While the goal of every manufacturer is to offer lifetime guarantees, only the very best products can make that claim without hedging their claim with a pile of legalese.
Every product we sell, lifetime warranty or not, offers a clear, concise, and simple-to-understand warranty. No word games and no depreciating coverage. They know what they build and what it can do, so they’re willing to back their claims in plain English.
And since we work with only a handful of manufacturers, we have great relationships with each one. So, if you do run into a manufacturing defect, all you need to do is call us, and we’ll work with the manufacturer to resolve your issue, often at zero cost to you.
It All Comes Down To Customer Satisfaction
We’re proud of the products we offer. The high-grade materials, top-notch engineering, and unbeatable warranties guarantee that our customers will be satisfied with our work for decades to come.
And that’s the key to our success – permanently happy customers.
If you are planning a project for your Muncie area home and want to enjoy the best products available and the total peace of mind that they bring, contact us at Clemens Home Solutions for a free quote.