Why Daily Photos and Updates Should Be a Requirement from Your Contractor
Picture this, you are in the middle of an ongoing project and the phone rings; on the other line is a Manager or Director demanding answers about the project. In many situations you don’t have those answers. Wouldn’t it be great to have full transparency during and after projects? Wouldn’t it be great to address and assess scope discrepancies and quality issues when they are occurring, rather than once the crew has been pulled off the job? Wouldn’t it give peace of mind to know exactly where your contractor is on the project? The solution is simple; require daily photos and updates from your contractor. We’ve all been asked a question that we couldn’t answer. The manager on duty calls the Director of Operations, who walks down the hall at corporate, and sticks his head into the Facility Director’s office and asks about a specific project that is yours. The next call is to you, and sometimes it is a conference call with both YOUR Director and the DO. It’s an uncomfortable feeling – lack of knowledge or not having an answer you are expected to have. There is no reason for a facility professional, in charge of a project, to EVER feel this way. Daily photos and updates from your contractor would put you in a much better position to answer these questions.
Have you ever been relieved that the project is over, and you walk into the restaurant, only to find the tile your contractor has laid is the wrong shade of tile throughout the front of house? The paint color is wrong, and the stretch of floor that was re-grouted, is on the opposite side of the kitchen from the original project scope? These are huge mistakes, and from what we hear, they happen too often. If your contractor had provided you daily pictures of the jobsite, you could have identified and corrected these discrepancies in the scope of work, before it was too late. Being on the same page as your contractor is a necessity for the successful completion of any project.
While a project is underway, full transparency is vital. Whether you’re trying to determine when the project will be over, attempting to coordinate multiple projects at once, or just doing a quality check, it becomes difficult if you are not in alignment with your contractor. Daily updates and photos allow you the transparency necessary to assess progress and address any quality issues while your contractor is still onsite. Ultimately, this allows for fewer headaches and mistakes and raises your stock within your organization.
Quality, scope of work and job progress are things where execution should align with expectations. Daily updates and photos will allow any damage control necessary, and provide peace of mind in an otherwise stressful situation. Here at RFS, these updates aren’t requested, they are required. Our team believes transparency is one of the keys to achieving a well-executed job, every time. At RFS, we are remodeling the renovation experience, and daily photos and updates sent to the facility manager are standard work – part of the fabric of who we are, and one of the many things that set us apart among facility contractors.