4 minute read
Want a better bottom line? Make sure your installers are certified
Steve Abernathy, Floor Covering Education Foundation Interim Director
Installers with certifications drive value along three major fronts—effectiveness, efficiency, and employee engagement.
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Effectiveness is seen in improved service quality, customer satisfaction, project execution, and compliance. Efficiency is bolstered through operational excellence, return on investment and reduced installation costs. Put simply, certified workers are more confident, more knowledgeable, more reliable, and perform at a higher level. They are artisans.
To the consumer, floorcovering has no value until it’s installed. Getting it installed—and installed correctly—is a challenge faced by every professional flooring dealer across the country. In the sales process, it can be treated as an after-thought when, in fact, it represents a critical service experience, the final and most impactful touchpoint.
For the craftsmen, expertise gained through training and experience and up-todate product knowledge matter intensely, particularly as new flooring products and installation technology is being introduced into the market rapidly.
For the professional flooring dealer, competition for installers is tough, and supply is tight, and there’s uncertainty about how well prepared the future workforce will be. That combination places a high value on the workers who possess the right qualifications.
Artisans inherently understand the value of training and certification. They know an improvement in their skillset opens opportunities, increases efficiencies, builds their confidence, adds value to their billable work, and possibly higher wages. But to understand the value of certification to the entire industry, think about how it affects the whole consumer experience. What does it mean for the retailer, the installer, and the customer, and how does this impact your bottom line?
For the retailer, there may be resistance to supporting independent contractors in their training efforts when they may take those skills somewhere else (even if they mostly work for you.) You also may lose installers for a period of time while you are already trying to keep up with the load in front of you. Of course, there is also a question of who will pay the cost. Training is viewed as an expense rather than an investment. You need to consider the long-term benefits of certification—advanced troubleshooting and the ability to do many jobs. Subpar installation services have a higher opportunity cost at every level of the sales process, impacting call-backs, margins, time on site, and customer loyalty.
Calculate these gains in effectiveness and efficiency across multiple projects. You can easily see how investment in a worker’s technical training and certification can pay back an organization many times over a short period of time. If you are a retailer, ask yourself:
● What is the cost of a call-back? (not just the actual cost in lost dollars, but the lost time for support and sales personnel managing the relationship and the installer set out to make it right)
● How much more gross revenue could you have made? Trained installers allow for more upsell opportunities in custom installations.
● What is the value of a happy customer? Though the time between projects may be long, the relationships are hard-won, and the all-powerful online reviews and word-of-mouth from a dissatisfied customer can translate into a meaningful impact on your bottom line.
Learning and development is one of the primary drivers of worker satisfaction, attraction, and retention, bolstering engagement and elevating the industry. Essentially, workers are telling organizations, “If you fully invest in me, I’ll fully commit to you.”
In addition, many commercial projects are writing certification into spec as a way of protecting the quality of the work. This trend will continue. If commercial work is important to you, then certifications and training should be as well.
According to CFI Executive Director Robert Varden, “A beautiful floor is only as good as the installer behind it. There are value and confidence that comes with certification. That confidence, quality, and craftsmanship of someone who knows and understands how to complete a project correctly, the first time is easy to see in their work. As the demand for high-quality flooring installation increases, so does the demand for properly trained craftsmen. Our goal is to set the standard and raise the bar across the industry.”
In the end, the person that appreciates the certification and the training the most is the customer. The installer is the final touchpoint for the customer’s experience. It is one of the most critical and will reflect most strongly on how the customer views the retailer even more than on the product or the installer. Having professional, confident, loyal, well-trained craftsmen will ensure good work and a happy, satisfied customer, which is what everyone wants. According to flooring industry guru Tom Jennings, “The consumer will willingly spend more for services when you show them the value of a quality installation compared to substandard offerings.”
There is a great and necessary focus in the industry on the installation crisis. How do we expect to grow the industry if we don’t change the perception? In addition to the need to add more craftsmen, it is also critical to understand the value of the training and certification for installers. We must continue to provide training and educational resources, supporting those programs that develop a future workforce. Certification is a mark of a skilled flooring installation professional. If you are a retailer, this all equates to a better bottom line. ❚
