Over the last few years, businesses across all industries have had to adapt operations to survive a shifting consumer climate. High value has been placed on creating an interactive, engaging customer experience and the companies that have made this a priority are thriving. Typically, the construction industry is farther behind the curve in adapting these innovative processes, but the companies who are modernizing the old ways of project management are easily standing out from their competition.
One of these industry disruptors is The Pavement Group, a national asphalt and concrete construction company. With a spotlight on tech innovation, The Pavement Group is optimizing client experience by focusing on more than just project outcomes. The company has implemented a personalized, customer-first approach in the planning, pre-construction, and construction phases of its projects that has increased both transparency and client trust.
“When we opened in 2018, I knew that in order to excel we had to focus on more than the quality of our work. Our services needed to center around client-facing technology, which has been a big challenge within the industry,” says Brian Hess, president and CEO of The Pavement Group. “We want our clients to be as involved in each project as we are, and we want them to understand that every recommendation and step in the process serves a very targeted purpose.”
Attention to Detail
The Pavement Group’s customer experience starts at the initial pavement assessment. While some construction companies may walk around a property and provide no further information than a cost estimate and final recommendation, The Pavement Group makes sure to add an extra level of transparency. After identifying challenges, whether drainage issues or typical deterioration, the company uploads GPS located photos of the problem areas to its project management portal.
A Collaborative Interface
The project management portal gives clients a user-friendly way to digest The Pavement Group’s recommendations and cost estimates to ensure every dollar within a budget is intentionally allocated. All prospective clients are given access to the portal, which provides real-time updates on scheduling, progress photos and videos, and onsite project manager notes.
“Our goal is to provide value and our project management system helps us do that. Not only does it allow us to educate our customers on the technical aspects of our work, but it also shows clear, actionable project steps that provide our customers peace of mind during the process,” says Hess. “This has led to increased confidence in our work, with our results only reinforcing this sentiment.”
As the construction industry continues to build momentum after the COVID-19 pandemic, Hess hopes he can serve as an example for other contractors looking to adopt similar processes in their business. This could be a major key to success in years to come, as technology has been shown to greatly aid customer loyalty, and in a time when consumers yearn for instant gratification, receiving real-time updates in an industry that is technically complex is a much-needed shift.
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