Wanting a change of scenery, whether it’s inside or outside of your home, is something that a lot of us experience. Unfortunately, painting our walls can be a lot easier said than done. That goes double for the exterior of a house or a porch. There are all sorts of factors at play that can make it a lot more difficult for us, definitely including our own busy schedules.
Of course, none of this diminishes our want or need of a paint refresh. So, it means that we need to find another way to get it done. An obvious solution is to hire house painters, but there aren’t always easy ways to find them. Today, we’ll be going over how some of that works, and explain how you can find them! Thankfully, we have several choices in Kalamazoo.
With that said, though, what should we be looking for out of our professional painters? While there are a ton of painters in Kalamazoo, Michigan, what might set one of them above the rest? Stay tuned to find out!
Customer Service
No matter what sort of thing you’re having done in your home, it’s pretty safe to assume that excellent customer service should be at the top of your “wants” list. After all, we’re inviting these contractors into our homes, and we’d like to imagine that they’ll be polite in the meanwhile. Beyond that, though, we’re hiring a service – obviously, we don’t want to pay for a rude person or group to show up.
What makes for good customer service, then? Naturally, we could list a lot of things here. We’ll try to stick to what’s relevant in terms of painting, though, since that might look a little bit different than other contexts of “good” or “excellent” service.
Flexibility With Timing
One of the main reasons that a lot of us can’t really paint our homes on our own is how difficult the timing can be. For exterior jobs, a lot of that comes down to the weather. Imagine, the second that you finally are able to do some painting outside, and it starts to pour rain, snow, or even hail – that doesn’t exactly help matters, right?
A key pillar of quality customer service for painters is being flexible when it comes to scheduling. The best of the best can typically work around most types of weather. That’s hardly the only thing that’s important for timing, though.
With interior painting, it’s generally not the best idea to inhale the fumes for long periods at a time. This can make certain times less optimal than others, of course – painting the dining room right at dinnertime probably isn’t going to work out very well. So, you can probably see why this is such an important aspect of the overall customer service experience.
Communication
We’ve all experienced it at one time or another – trying to make a phone call or to email somebody and it takes them way too long to get back to you. To say that it can be maddening is an understatement. For something as time sensitive and important as having our homes painted, this certainly isn’t going to be something that we want to deal with.
That’s why we’re including it in this list of what to look for. Smooth, simple communication is pretty much a must-have. Let’s just sum it up by saying that it makes the entire process much easier, especially if you have important questions along the way.
Quality Painting
Now that we’ve covered what makes for good service, we can turn our attention to what makes for a good quality of actual painting. You can see some examples of it on this page, although there is a good bit of flexibility in terms of the exact “guidelines.” Most importantly, you as the consumer should be satisfied with what’s been completed.
Beyond that, what is there to think about? Well, one of the big sticking points is streakiness. Ideally, you would probably hope that there aren’t any big streak marks on your walls or the panels outside – it’s not very pretty looking and is a glaring mistake to boot. So, it’s a fair expectation to have going in.
The paint shouldn’t be patchy in its application, either. Obviously, that’s a huge no-no. If you’re not sure how to find out if the contractor you’re considering is offering high quality service, though, then this might not mean much to you just yet.
Luckily, there are a few ways that we can figure this out. For one thing, you can just ask the painting company for some pictures of their past work. Ideally, this will include both far-away shots and close ups – don’t be afraid to ask for that specifically, either. This can allow you to inspect their work a bit more critically, after all.
Now, that’s not the only option available. You can also take to the internet to scope out what other customers have to say. While there may be some bias when it comes to online reviews, it can still give you some valuable perspective.
Are House Painters Worth the Hire?
To conclude today, we’ll take a moment to consider this important question. After all, you could certainly argue that these types of services aren’t really necessary. We can just do all of the work on our own, right? At the end of the day, this sort of is true. However, there’s plenty to be said for the convenience of having someone else do it for you.
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Anyone who’s got a busy schedule, a family, or both, will probably understand why this can be so worth the money. Once you get a quote, you’re likely to find that it isn’t as pocket-gauging as a person might expect. Just keep in mind that some contractors and painting companies will have more competitive rates than others, so it definitely doesn’t to shop around a bit first.