Ryan is an award winner for his outstanding painting and marketing work, You can find his contributions to the painting community across numerous blog sites and on his YouTube channel.
His company has won Best Painting Company four years in a row by Lehigh Valley Style and Best Painting Company twice by What's Happening. Also being named Emerging Business of the year 2015 and also 2017
Ryan Amato Painting
306 S. New St
Bethlehem, Pa 18015
484-821-7112
In recent months, contractors from throughout the United States have been complaining about paint shortages. Several stories have surfaced of manufacturers being unable to deliver products to the market and contractors being unable to fulfill their demands. Everyone in the coatings industry recognizes that the supply chain shortage hasn't affected everyone in the same way. But what else is there to learn?
Gain insights on what major manufacturers are doing to solve the supply chain shortage, as well as how these changes may impact specific products. Learn from other skilled contractors about how to prepare your company and career for changes in 2022.
Ryan Amato, an exceptional member of the painting community and manager of Amato Painting, addresses and leads this Supply Chain Panel Discussion. With a true passion for his craft, Ryan is driven by so much more than the bottom line!
When you think about painting your home or business, the first thing you need is a painter to call.
You ask around or you may Google search or look on social media to find the perfect one.
Once you make your call and a few call you back you make an appointment and that's it.
But in reality, this is the start of a little bit of work you should do to be prepared for your estimate as a client.
Be Prepared
The painter and estimator also have their work cut out for them, you cannot just show up. You must be prepared and also prepare your client for this estimate.
Sending information out before the estimate prepares the client for the perfect estimate.
By answering questions before arrival, you avoid any confusion, while showing you're an expert.
What questions are asked? Answer them in an email, blog or video
As a client, you must know what you want to have done and be able to either express it on the estimate or have it written down.
Not expressing your expectations to the estimator is problem number one that can come back to bite you.
Whenever we have an issue on a project is typically comes down to missed expectations that were never expressed to the estimator.
No Two Are Alike
Do not assume each painting company is going to offer the same level of service or the same quality.
Do not assume you're receiving the top of the line level of work if it was not discussed or paid for.
Let me say that again, you cannot expect to receive a new BMW when your paying for a used car with 200,000 miles on it.
A budget should be discussed, no one wants to talk about money but why? It's the perfect time to discuss a budget, you can both agree on what will be done and not done and how much it will cost.
Once you have met, discussed the budget and expectations of the project, the best time to make a commitment is now.
Do It Now
It makes no sense to not take care of this now, especially if you have pre-planned and know how much you can afford. You do not want to be pressured however and this goes back to be comfortable with your estimator.
Discuss the price openly, it is not a bad thing to discuss pricing at all, if you can’t discuss pricing with the person you want to hire, maybe it isn't the right person to hire?
Once your budget is discussed and the price is agreed upon making sure everything you discussed is written in the proposal.
This is important for us because our painters get a copy of that wording and this is what they will do on a project, no more or less, again you want this to be clear now, not when you have painting happening inside your home.
Once everything looks great, sign the proposal and a copy is typically emailed right over to you, now you are set to go on to the next step which is scheduling. We will review that is another video
When getting a painting estimate or an estimate for work around your home for that matter it is important to be able to let the estimator know what you expect when the project is done.
You may say why? Each job no matter who I use should be prepared, painted and done the same but that is further from the truth then you would know.
There is not a specific standard of work from company to company and most painting projects have very different levels of service for the same thing, for instance spackling.
Preparation Of Surfaces
You can spackle a wall with many different levels of quality, from low to high and somewhere in the middle is typical, but if you think they are doing it to perfection and they are thinking the opposite, it doesn’t mean they did a bad job, it was a missed expectation not explained by the painter or asked for by the homeowner.
The same goes for exterior preparation work such as scraping peeling paint, under most circumstances work is done by preservation techniques, meaning loose paint is scrapped, some caulking may be done, usually bare wood is pot primed but then it is painted. If you're thinking the surface will be completely smooth you will be very upset with the final appearance. It will certainly how old levels of paint, uneven surfaces and more, without stripping the entire surface you will not get a level surface under a normal repaint project.
The Estimate
I cannot tell you how many times I have gone out for an estimate and the person who ultimately would be critiquing the work was not there, leaving it to another person to try to explain what they wanted to be done or no one at all was home. These projects go bad 9 out of ten times.
Comments like bad quality, not enough prep or scrapping are mentioned when in reality it was a mixed expectation or an expectation that could never be met with a normal repaint.
So what to do? It’s simple be home, if you cannot be home at the least have a conversation with the estimator and create a detailed list, then its possible this can be matched up with the estimator's notes and work order.
We have actually implemented a policy that we will not go out on an estimate unless the decision make will be onsite, this may cost us a few estimates opportunities but in the long run, it is better to have less work than clients who are upset with the quality of the work from missed expectations.
The number one thing that turns a new project bad is missed expectations, it always comes down to this, when we look back at a bad project or one that turned bad.
What’s not to love about making people’s dreams for their home come true? We get to see this process start from the first day at the estimate when they explain to our estimator what their vision is for a room or the entire home, whether inside or out paint can do so much and quick.
Transforming a home can be a life changing thing for some families, people save to be able to do a professional paint job and we take that seriously each time.
Does everything always go perfectly? No not every time but the thing with us is we stand behind everything and we preach accountability to everyone around us, and if we see they do not understand accountability they aren’t around any longer.
We have had a lot of great painters that turned out to not be a good fit because as soon as something goes wrong (and it does) they blame everyone else, that is the perfect time to see someone’s true colors. We work hard to keep good people around us who are professional, respectful, dependable and great at communication. To find these people takes a lot of hard work , sometimes we can’t tell right away but people always show their true self in tough times.
What does this mean to you? It means you have nothing to worry about, even in the rare case something happens you can rest assure it will be corrected any way possible and that means a lot in this day and age with contractors.
We are a small company who specializes in customer satisfaction, we just happen to paint.
The best clients become our raving fans and tell everyone, their friends and family, click on our social media posts and keep in touch with us.
It’s great when we are out in the area, at a store and someone comes up and tells us how much they love us and the job we did.
As I said it’s not perfect, we have had disgruntled clients as well as painters, that is going to happen when you do so many jobs and work for people and with people you don’t know personally, we try hard to qualify our clients and painters but every now and then some slip through or we make a mistake. Anyone company who says they never have made a mistake isn’t telling you the truth.
I get the great opportunity to meet, train and teach and learn from many other painting contractors across the United States as well as some of the largest and best and trust me we all have the same issues. Employee issues, client issues, expectations are unreasonable or just very difficult people.
But to push on and persevere and grow is what makes it all worthwhile , remember the great clients more than the few bad ones, remember their is always a bad apple in the bunch. It doesn’t mean you do bad work.
What is more annoying than an estimator who you scheduled with not showing up at all? A contractor who doesn't return a phone call ever?
I went through this same thing recently when I needed work done at my home. I simply could not get anyone to call me back except for a few who I mentioned in my video blog.
When you want something done inside your home or business you expect a call back at the least.
A scheduled appointment takes time away from your busy schedule and family so a call, email if that person cannot show up, would be the right thing to do.
I am amazed at the number of estimates I go to and the look of surprise on the faces and they say "wow I am surprised you showed up" It was crazy to me they would call multiple painting contractors and we would be one of the few that showed up to at least discuss the project. maybe at that point, it wouldn't be right for us but we can let them know that or refer them to someone great.
To be professional is not much to ask for from anyone.
With our company we call if were a minute late, let alone I cannot recall ever not showing up.
I have been on the other end of that with the homeowner not being home but that's a blog for another time.
Here is my recent video discussing this topic. Get your acts together contractors.
