|
The Price of Cheap Estimate Takeoff Software May Cost You YOUR BUSINESS! Owners often confuse price with value when the look for construction estimating software to estimate takeoff. The perception among many owners is that the lowest price estimate takeoff software is equivalent to the best value, and that’s what gets the job done. But to the contrary, most contractors know that the lowest price often means less value. If your company doesn’t care about repeat business, then there’s no need to offer value to your customers. If your estimate takeoff software is inaccurate and constantly provides bad results, then you have made a bad decision in buying cheap takeoff estimate software. Consider the Cajun word ‘lagniappe’ (pronounced lan-yap). Loosely translated, it means ‘give in full measure – and a little bit more.’ If your company works to provide service and value to its customers, and to generate repeat business, ‘lagniappe’ is the way to build customer loyalty. The same is true for your estimate takeoff software. We have seen companies that bought the cheapest construction estimating software that they could find to do their estimate takeoff and the results were disastrous. I knew a man personally that was the third generation owner in a multimillion dollar concrete company that would buy the finest yard equipment that money could buy, but bought a really cheap and ineffective estimate takeoff software program. He actually said to me, “this isn’t rocket science; it is just doing estimate takeoff work for concrete!” Those ended up being words that he will probably rue for the rest of his life. Several years of using his cheap estimate takeoff software, he bid on the largest job of his entire career. It involved doing estimate takeoff of multiple buildings resulting in over a million square feet of concrete slab, footers and piers. You probably have already figured out the end of this story. His cheap estimate takeoff system read the values for his rebar, but only reported a small fraction of the tons and tons of rebar that a reasonably priced, reliable estimate takeoff system would have reported properly. To make a long story sadly short, it cost him millions of dollars in attorney fees, lawsuits and finally the closing of a company that had been in business for over 50 years and employed hundreds of people. All for the want of saving a few hundred dollars when he bought his estimate takeoff software. In your company, striving to provide customers with value and service becomes a lifelong commitment to learning. What causes problems is what you don’t know. Learning to provide more value separates a company from a preoccupation with dollars and profit. The only thing that you will learn from selecting the wrong estimate takeoff software is that sometimes the lowest price simply equates to cheap. Customers respond to ‘win-win’ deals where both sides work to build the best structure. Don’t make the mistake of buying the wrong estimate takeoff software. I can guarantee you that selecting the best estimate takeoff software is one of the best marketing decisions that your company will ever make. By: Phillip Gilliam Mr. Gilliam is a resident of Clearwater Florida and has been involved in construction estimating software and teaching individuals and companies how to more efficiently estimate takeoff of construction projects through the use of automation and management efficiency training. Mr. Gilliam believes that anyone can be taught to estimate takeoff applications accurately and efficiently through the use of effective construction estimating software specifically designed to do one thing and one thing only; estimate takeoff construction projects. Mr. Gilliam can be reached by emailing: phil@easyestimating.com
Estimating Construction Software - Loan Modification - Stop Foreclosure © Copyright 2008 Phillip P Gilliam |