I must confess that it drives me nuts every time I hear about the terrible reputation that remodelers have as an industry. I guess because I feel very strongly that a little bit of effort can change our industry’s perception considerably.

True story – About two months ago the head of our Design/Build division stops in my office and says, “get ready- we’re going to be on the evening news tonight”. My first reaction was “that’s awesome”; until he said it would be for a bad incident. Apparently, a lady was playing ball with her dog at a neighborhood creek and when the dog came out of the water his legs were covered in polyurethane (as later discovered by her vet). Being the good citizen she is, she called the EPA as well as the fire department. These great agencies initiated an investigation by confirming that in fact there was a substantial amount of polyurethane in the water. They then proceeded to determine the source. They followed the sewer up the neighborhood a few blocks up and came to a drain which was stained.

Here’s where the story took an ugly turn. The drain was in front of a house (with our job sign) and one of our subcontractors had just finished the hard wood floors! Apparently our flooring sub dumped it down the drain. All this happened in one of the best neighborhoods we work in. In my opinion, these ugly situations are what separates great remodelers from the rest and where great PR is key.

Our project manager took control of the situation and immediately pin-pointed called the dog owner and paid for the vet bill. He also ordered a gourmet basket of dog treats and personally delivered them to the dog’s owner expressing his sincere apology and explaining the entire situation. He also went on to contact the EPA and even got a hazardous material crew in (the same day) to clean it up. We then went on to alert the president of the HOA of the situation explaining what happened and every measure we had taken. Lastly, we had the EPA come back to test the creek and receive a clean bill.

Everyone involved was extremely impressed with our responsiveness. In fact, the president of the HOA allowed us to post what happened on their website along with every measure we took as well as our clean bill from the EPA.

Bad situations are an opportunity for bad PR or good PR. We can all complain that the media bashes our industry, but I think we are in full control of our reputation.

By the way, the dog is OK and still loves playing ball at the creek!

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