It can be a potential nightmare to find the right people to undertake your projects for you, but over the following pages I am going to show you how you can virtually guarantee that your new kitchen or bathroom will be stuff of dreams… and not the nightmare that without a few checks could easily come to hour home.

Due Diligence/Research

Before you invite any business to quote or design, take a few minutes online to find out a little bit about them. Do they appear to be who they say they are and are they established in the marketplace.

A couple of things to look out for would be the quality of the website itself… has it been professionally designed and is the content relevant and helpful.

It doesn’t have to be the worlds best, but a reputable business will have made sure that even the simplest of sites reflect their professionalism.

That being said… some unscrupulous folks can make a what looks like a professional site to do just that, so here are a couple of extra things that you can do to satisfy your concerns.

Do a quick search on google using their business name and the location – if they have been around for a while then their listing will appear.

Also do a search using a generic search term for the thing you are look for such as Kitchens in Telford… again do they appear in the search results?

If they are a limited company you can also do a basic free search with companies house…

http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk//wcframe?name=accessCompanyInfo

this lets you see when the business was formed and that they are indeed legitimate.

Reviews

If you have ever used used eBay or Amazon then chances are that before you buy anything, you will do a quick look at the sellers feedback. If its in the high 90s then great, same thing with amazon, how many 5 star reviews does the seller get?

No one I know that use these sites would dare to buy from a seller with no reviews or even poor reviews, and Im sure you wouldn’t either.

So why take that chance with something that is going to cost you thousands of pounds?

In todays digital age more and more businesses understand the importance of having satisfied customer leave reviews on third party review sites, with the simple aim of letting others know whether the company or individual is worth hiring.

Once you have found a few potential businesses to call, before picking up the phone, do a quick search on the company name and add reviews to the end of the search in our case that would be DPL Kitchens Telford Reviews (click the link to see the kind of results google should give you for a reputable business)

Here is a screenshot of the page what you should see is some third party sites where customers have left reviews either google plus on the right hand side or on Facebook (third listing down) If the business is on any contractors sites, then they should also appear here – see rated people (fourth Listing).

At a glance you will see whether a business cares about its online reputation or not – as in this case it is very easy to click on a couple of links to see actual reviews.

Not every business is as active in this part of their marketing, but that doesn’t mean that customers don’t leave reviews somewhere you just may have to dig a bit deeper.

The aim here is make sure the business or businesses you call to come into your home has a sound reputation, otherwise you could be wasting your time as soon as you pick up the phone to someone you haven’t bothered to research.

A little time spent here could save countless hours down the line.