Maintaining Home Improvement Standards
When the roof is leaking or the attic needs insulation, who you gonna call?
Well, not Ghostbusters certainly but perhaps Franzoso Contracting.
Based in Croton-on-Hudson, the 42-year-old company deals with a range of home improvement needs, from roof repair and replacement to gutter protection to attic siding, window and door insulation, for customers in Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess counties.
“Almost 78% of our work is referral and repeat customers, which is pretty much unheard of in the home-remodeling business,” says Mark Franzoso, president of Franzoso Contracting. Random customer surveys conducted monthly by customer feedback platform GuildQuality have been glowing, he adds, with average customer satisfaction for May 2022 coming up at 99%.
“We”™re booking for August already. We normally stay a few months booked up. Obviously, if you called one of my competitors, they could score the job next week or in two weeks. They”™re using either subcontractors or they”™re slow, and there”™s got to be a reason for that.”
Franzoso has no need for subcontractors. He cites his capable team as key to what makes his business special and successful.
“We have the same teams and people. We have very little turnover,” Franzoso says, adding that from the moment when “the phone is picked up and the customer is addressed to the ground man cleaning up the last bit of debris on one of our installations, everyone takes pride in what we do.”
Franzoso Contracting”™s approach to building a cohesive team involves promoting from within its pool of established workers rather than hiring from outside. This may involve giving new responsibilities to an employee who, after about five or six years, has displayed initiative and ability working within a team. “If that particular individual was ready, we would support him with a truck and equipment and let him go out on his own and run jobs for us, be a team leader,” Franzoso says.
The company has survived the direct effects of the pandemic well enough, he adds, with 2021 being an “incredible year.” However, like so many other companies, his business has been affected by inflation, and he has responded by raising prices. “Material is just going through the roof,” Franzoso says. “We”™ve had to adjust our prices to cover not only the material, but there”™s hard costs, insurance, gas.”
Franzoso illustrates the high cost of continuing business by giving an example of a Trex deck board, which has gone from $3 a foot to $7 a foot recently. Franzoso Contracting buys many of its products by the trailer load in order to keep prices down, however, and it was able to dodge a large hike in prices for plywood as a result. “We have a big warehouse,” Franzoso says, “When plywood hit almost $100 a sheet, I was able to secure 20 skids of plywood at $45 a sheet to keep our prices as low as possible.”
Indeed, Franzoso Contracting”™s ability to receive products others in the field are unable to, such as certain roofing and siding materials, is another reason for its success.
Despite the challenges, Franzoso is confident that the company will be secure for the foreseeable future. “Home remodeling is at an all-time high, even though the cost of goods is so high,” he says. “People are investing in their homes, and we mostly hear, ”˜Hey, you know, you were more than the next guy, but look what we got. We”™re really happy.”™”
For more, visit franzoso.com.