canadiancontractor
Shell Busey weighs in on contractor referral services
... including a plug for his own. Good marketing, sir.
Two weeks we had a post from Neil Damackine, a contractor in Quebec, talking about why he was been disappointed by the contractor referral networks he recently experimented with – and abandoned.
The ever-enthusiastic Shell Busey, legendary B.C.-based radio and TV contractor, operates his own referral service, and obviously couldn’t resist the opportunity to give it a plug. Since Shell was so nice about our work, we will repost this. We are easily persuaded by flattery….
Hello Steve: I don’t want in any way to sound biased regarding contractor referral networks. However, I have been involved in and asked for advice from [many such services], i.e., The Blue ARMY, Dial One, Mr. Renovator, Mr. Build, BCAA At Home and Home 2000, to name a few. There isn’t going to be any that will survive unless they have a name brand with quality, trust and credibility. After many years of radio and TV, I can honestly say I enjoy going into the office every day to mentor our staff and help the homeowner members of my Shell Busey “House Smart” Club with their service contractor needs. I just celebrated 20 years in the referral service and operate with a 0.5% complaint ratio. All our service trade members have to pass a criteria survey developed by myself and we spot check to insure the quality of work completed. We offer this service free to the home owner and charge the service contractor a yearly fee for our service. In closing, the contractor referral business is not that easy: All of the above-mentioned are no longer in business. I love your magazine and e-news. Keep up the great work!
Shell Busey
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On the Monday after a Homeshow in 2005, while I was working for a large window reno company, Mr Busey came in to offer our president the chance to be the preferred window company in town for only $5000/mo. After 3 days of getting his tail chewed by lineups of people for the poor quality windows that his current preferred window company was installing (our booth faced the speakers area – we heard it all) he was looking for a new name to plug – with little due diligence. Credibility?? None whatsoever!