"Meeting the customer’s expectations should be your most important criteria." Victoria Downing, President

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Video Helps Clarify Project Scope

Visuals go far in communicating customer expectations and the particulars of a project site. To help nail down every last detail, salespeople at B-Line Construction, Inc., in Sacramento, Calif., take a video of each project site during the initial sales appointment. The video captures the elevation, orientation, and layout of the house as well as every room in which work is to be done.

Back at the office, the salesperson reviews the video to complete the 25-part template B-Line Construction uses for its proposals. If the scope of the project changes significantly after the initial sales appointment, the salesperson will take another video to document the additional work to be done. After the project is sold, the general manager and project manager review the video to get a feel for existing site conditions, set up the job, and evaluate possible constraints, such as site access. Next, the field crew studies the video to become familiar with the project and the scope of work before they even set foot on site.

The company began making the videos a year and a half ago. Since then, the transfer of information has become much more efficient. “If the first person who sees the video has a question about something, the information about that detail is clarified in writing so that everyone else who views the video receives consistent information,” says Chris Lattuada, president of the full-service design/build remodeling company. “The video saves the salesperson lots of time in explaining details about information that will be used by all departments. This cuts down on interruptions, and the people who need the information get it much more quickly.”

If you’d like to do project scope videos on your sites, take Lattuada’s advice and be sure to involve the client. “After you have built trust with the client, explain that it is crucial to create an accurate description of the scope,” says the remodeler. “Have them follow you and, as you finish filming a room or area, ask them if there is anything to clarify or anything you may have missed. Make the process fun and reinforce to the clients that they are helping you understand what it is that they want to accomplish.”

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