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Why the “Best Restoration Companies” Often Aren’t the Biggest Ones

Mold removal, water damage restoration, fire damage restoration

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Whether you’re facing fire damage, water damage, or other home damage, everyone wants to find the best restoration companies. Ones that you can trust every time, anywhere, to do the job well and treat you right.

Many people choose the largest franchise restoration companies, with the flashiest marketing, because they assume that if they are the biggest, they must be the best. We want to propose 5 evidence-based reasons why this is very often not the case.

We are Cleaner Guys, a water damage restoration company in Mount Vernon Washington. Our team has more than 60 years of combined experience in the industry. We regularly have to deal with the inherent problems that come with large restoration companies. We believe that everyone should be aware of these inherent problems. Please read on.

This information is very often the deciding factor in whether you have a happy and smooth experience with the restoration of your home… or a frustrating one.

5 Reasons That Big National Restoration Companies Often Aren’t Your Best Option

1: They’re Too Big to Need to Care About Every Individual Customer

Probably every normal American citizen has experience with corporations that are “too big to care”. Unfortunately, we have seen in our decades in the industry that this is no different with large franchise restoration companies.

Countless people have come to us after trying to work with one of these large restoration companies. They’re then surprised that we treat them like real people, and not just another faceless customer!

Genuine customer care matters. Every person in the middle of a home damage crisis deserves to be empathized with. And their things deserve to be treated with care! Sadly, in our experience, often the larger a restoration company is, the less time it feels it has to spend on each individual customer. You get lost in a sea of millions of other clients. You deserve better than that.

2: They Tend to Emphasize Speed at the Cost of High-Quality Workmanship

We couldn’t count the number of times we have taken on and completed a half-finished water or fire damage job, that was started by a much larger franchise restoration company, because the homeowner was so dissatisfied with their work that they left them. It happens all the time.

Unfortunately, another inherent problem of large franchise restoration companies is that they have so many jobs, they tend to prioritize completing the work as fast as possible. This is often at the expense of taking the time to really do the job right.

This may not always happen. We are sure that some individuals in some franchises of these companies have good work ethic. But we have also dealt with a consistent stream of poorly done work from these large companies. This workmanship nearly always needed to be redone, and we fixed it.

3: They’re Often Slower About Working With Your Insurance Company

Homeowners like you constantly tell us that they are grateful that we communicate actively with their insurance companies. They love that we actually keep the ball rolling with them! Frustration with the lack of swift communication and action on the part of the large franchise company is very common.

Again, this is not true of all large franchise restoration companies everywhere. But it is a consistent pattern we see in our practice, and something you should be aware of. Insurance claims are already frustrating enough as they are! You deserver a restoration company that will help with that process, not be an additional frustration in it.

4: Dishonest Price Padding Is a Problem

You would think that the trade-off for iffy customer service and subpar workmanship would be cheaper prices, right? Sadly, this is not always the case in the restoration industry.

Just as we have fixed much poor workmanship by big franchise restoration companies, we also frequently see them quote much higher prices. And we bid on the same jobs they do. Usually, the only explanation is that they charge more for the exact same services, simply because they can. They know that most people will choose to trust them over a smaller local company, simply because they’re bigger. So if they quote a client a higher price, the client will assume that’s the cost of good workmanship. But too often, it’s not.

Now, we’ve certainly seen some small companies choose to pad their prices like this, as well. The world is unfortunately full of people who will trade integrity and honesty for more profit. But we see this pattern most often in large franchise companies. We simply urge you to get as many quotes as you can, from both large companies and small ones.

5: They Often Have Much Laxer Hiring Standards

Unfortunately, most people have experienced interactions with tradesmen who were surly, unkempt, inattentive, or display other frustrating qualities. Why do poor-quality employees like these still get hired and stay hired? Sadly, it’s often because the larger a company is, the less the quality of individual employees impacts their bottom line.

Smaller local companies have to be more careful about who they hire. Every employee is the face of the company, and that matters more to small businesses.

We’ve found that this usually translates to small businesses providing an overall better experience to every client! This is because they are only staffed by high-quality people, who care about the wellbeing of every client.

We here at Cleaner Guys are proud to hire only the best. It matters to us that no matter who our clients interact with, they will encounter integrity, professionalism, friendliness, and honesty. It’s the heart and the pride of our company! Larger companies often simply feel that they have the leeway to not care as much about that.

Conclusion

If you have interacted with local businesses and large franchise corporations, then this article probably rings true for you! In your hour of need, we encourage you not to look at restoration companies any differently than any other businesses. If, in your experience, local companies generally provide a much better experience than large franchise companies, then apply that knowledge to home damage as well. This has certainly been our experience.

And we do not simply say all of this for our own benefit. We provide high-quality water, fire, and mold damage restoration services to Western Washington State only! But we hope that this important information spreads much farther than our own hometown.
We hate to see regular people be hoodwinked, inconvenienced, and frustrated, especially when they are trying to deal with the crisis of home damage. That is why we think it worthwhile to let people know that, often, they will find a much better experience with a smaller, more local restoration company, over a larger franchisee.

We hope you find this information useful as you seek out the best restoration companies in your area!

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. No part of this article is medical or legal advice, and may not be used as such. For all serious medical matters, consult your doctor. For all serious legal matters, consult your legal advisor. This article contains Cleaner Guys’ experience and opinions only.

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