So what it the best measure of a home inspection company?
Growth, in number or dollars?
Referrals or drop in needed advertising?
Compliments or reviews?
Lack of complaints or less complaints?
How do you measure your company(or yourself) on how you are performing your job and how professional you are? How do you know you are doing a great job for your clients? Everybody thinks they do a wonderful job, how do they know?
John,
You may get better participation by posting in a ‘closed’ section!
If I was happy and had all the money I desired then I would figure I was doing a bang up job. To achieve those things you must be doing something right.
You can always ask your clients how they feel when you are done either by survey or in person. If the clients are happy then I say you are doing a good job. This way is likely better than my first one.
Yes!
Probably not the answer you were looking for, but each metric you list is a valid measurement. No one metric provides a comprehensive picture of your company’s performance. If you fail at any one, but succeed at the others, can you really consider yourself successful? Use them all!
Growth might be the exception for those looking to taper down their business, but they know who they are and what their goals are.
When the Realtors call you to do inspections on their’s or family member’s homes and expect to pay full price.
That would be a good one for sure.
Especially if they had stopped using you or recommending you to their real clients.
When Agents “only” call you for their family purchases! :-0 ??
Your area may vary… 
Using a recall service? :sarcasm:
Actually, no, but only because I have been too busy to implement it. There is a laundry list of things I am always working. I am always working on improving things. Hence, the reason for the questions. Looking to see how others judge themselves and each other.
I judge myself by happy clients and especially the ones that I get repeat business from.
So if you have not had a repeat client in a couple of weeks, have you done a poor job?
Huh?
John I use annual profit as my guide. Making more money does not mean more money in my pocket. Doing more inspections, does not equate to more profit. We strive for more money per inspection. Average inspection fee.
Now how do we guage customer satisfaction is to ASK them. But what I love about you John is that your mature enough to listen. I personally dont always like the “Great Job” comments, I try to dig information out of them. Most of the people we inspect for are most likely millionaires. I ask them how can I improve and sometimes I get a 2 page letter back! I love it! I then usually call to discuss and then send them a gift card to a restaraunt in the area.
Then maybe a month later I will send them another email stating that, remember when you recommended that I do =======, well we started doing it today and just want to call and say thanks for the awesome idea! There are a ton of smart people out there that are willing to help, are you willing to listen and then be mature and professional enough to take an unbiased look at yourself? There is where the problem lies…
Really? What special knowledge does my client possess in regards to my business… Who’s sucking on the hookah now? :roll:
If they are happy with you or not. Guess it may not matter to your situation or bottom line but if they are not happy and you know it you can then choose to change it or not.
My above response was to a post that has been deleted
Russ, excellent. I am looking for ways to improve.
Asking a customer face to face if you did a good job is a poor way to get feedback imo.
Realtors are a better indication, but still not a great way to know how good of a job you are doing. Alot of realtors have several years of experience and have seen tons of inspection reports, watched inspectors over the years, etc etc. So they have more experience than the average home buyer, but again… they don’t really know how well of a job you did.
The number of inspections, avg price per inspection, or the number of referrals are also poor ways to judge. These are a direct result of your marketing, location, competition, and likeability as an inspector.
Off the top of my head… the best way to measure is to be objective about your ability to inspect a home. You need to have a depth of knowledge on the components of the home, you need the ability to be very observant during the inspection process, and the ability to document your findings. Be objective and then turn your weakness into a strength. Use your resources to improve on whichever category you feel you are the weakest on.
when my schedule starts to look empty I seriously start to wonder who I pissed off and what I did wrong… then a few minutes later it gets full again… 
If you ever become satisfied with how well your doing, you’re in trouble
Not sure that is true. If I could go back to the good ole days I would be satisfied and was not in trouble then 
All I want is to make enough to retire and be able to do some fun things once and a while and of course take care of the wife and daughter.
The sooner the better. I am not greedy a couple of mil and i’ll quit and just enjoy life
I am NOT one of those types that would keep on working even if I won the lottery
I would stay busy but it would be having fun or helping folks.
Sad thing is in the good ole days i could have likely sold the company for that. I just did not see the total collapse on the construction industry coming and most all my contacts moving on to other careers.
If I only had a working crystal ball .