The Tim Faller Show Hitting a Schedule Every Time With April Bettinger – [Best of The Tim Faller Show]
Hitting a schedule every time in construction is possible if you pay proper attention to planning and have a purposeful attitude.
In this episode, April Bettinger joins Tim and Steve to talk about the best practices and the common pitfalls to avoid when creating and managing an on-time project that ends with delighted clients.
April is the founder and owner of Nip Tuck Remodeling in Snohomish, WA. For more than 30 years, she’s carved out a respected niche in the construction industry. Her father was a custom homebuilder, so April grew up watching and learning about excellent customer service, and what it takes to complete a high-quality project. April has held key roles in finance, budgeting, customer service, team building, and sales management — preparing her to own and operate her own company. Nip Tuck Remodeling was founded in 2010, with a vision and determination to create a construction company with extraordinary craftsmanship and a focus on professionalism.
April and her estimator create the master schedule, then it’s turned over to the production manager, who is responsible for creating and managing the job schedules on BuilderTrend. One huge factor in staying on track once you’re in production is getting the schedules done and materials ordered a month before the project starts. She talks about why that works, and other aspects of keeping your jobs on schedule, including:
- Why the project manager has to create and own the schedule
- Setting pivotal goals for each week in the schedule
- Using goals for client satisfaction
- Helping everyone buy in to the system
- Handling change orders in the schedule
- Getting clients to think ahead during selections
- Building in reasonable wiggle room
- Handling design changes and heading them off
- And more …