Consumer confidence in our trade is low — and most of us know it. But if we’re honest with ourselves, the solution starts closer to home than we’d like to admit.
I’ve found in life that when you get to know people they tend to be trying their best. We are all coping with a complex world and are usually a bit overwhelmed by it, but are giving it our best shot. Yes, there are some truly bad faith actors out there that are willing to harm others to get ahead, but for the most part I choose to believe that most people don’t do this on purpose. We are all guilty of not knowing what we don’t know, and therefore make a lot of mistakes along the way.
This is definitely true of the exteriors industry.
The problem is that homeowners don’t experience our intentions — they experience our outcomes. And right now, too many of those outcomes are leaving people feeling burned, confused, or taken advantage of. That perception has become our reality, and we have all contributed to that thinking at some point along the way.
We are constantly reinforcing the industry’s reputation
It’s easy to point at the bad actors — the storm chasers, the fly-by-nights, the guys who take a deposit and disappear. And yes, they exist. But if consumer confidence is low across the board, we can’t just blame them and move on. We have to ask ourselves: what are we doing to raise the bar?
Every contractor in this trade is a data point in the homeowner’s mind. When a job goes wrong down the street, it doesn’t just hurt that contractor — it makes your next sales call harder. It makes every one of our next sales calls harder. We are all connected whether we like it or not.
“A rising tide floats all boats — but when the tide is out everyone is left stuck in the mud.”
The good news is the reverse is also true. When a contractor in your market does excellent work, communicates clearly, and treats customers with respect, it builds trust in the trade as a whole. That benefits you too.
What low confidence actually costs us
When the bar is so low the consumer has a hard time choosing quality over a low price. If the bottom of the market is where pricing is anchored, then it is very hard for a high quality, honest provider to convince the consumer that their value proposition is better. They go with the lowest bidder because they assume everyone is roughly the same anyway. They tend to doubt that the company with a higher price is actually any better and give in to the cynical view. In reality it actually cost a lot more to do the job right, and to treat employees right, pay ei, cpp, and tax, let alone overtime, employee benefits or even a RRSP program. Happy, properly paid, and well trained workers are going to do a much better job for the homeowner but they don’t see that part of it in the pricing.
Simple put, pricing stays low when it is anchored at the bottom of the market. This holds back companies that are trying to actually run legally compliant businesses.
This is holding Manitoba back. Government regulators are not focusing on whether a company is operating legitimately, so it falls to MECA to advocate for betterment in this area.
So what do we actually do about it?
This isn’t a problem any one contractor can solve alone. But there are real, practical things each of us can do — starting on the very next job.
- Communicate better. Send a written estimate of what the job includes, what the timeline looks like, the pricing, and what to expect if something changes. A homeowner who feels informed is a homeowner who trusts you — even when things don’t go perfectly.
- Document your work. Before and after photos, signed change orders, written warranties. These protect you legally, but more importantly they signal to the customer that you are professional in your actions.
- Price for sustainability, not just to win the job. Undercutting to land work feels like a short-term win but it drives down expectations for the whole industry and corners you into cutting quality. Charge what the work is worth and stand behind it. Learn how to understand you costs and what your work is truly worth.
- Connect with other contractors. Share what’s working. Ask what isn’t. The contractors who are growing fastest aren’t guarding their playbooks — they’re learning from everyone around them.
- Speak with Pride. Stop speaking poorly about your own industry. I hear it all the time, and am guilty of it myself, “we are just a bunch of roofers” is a common phrase. Don’t feed into the stereotype and it will lose its power. Be proud of what you do.
This is a long game
Consumer confidence doesn’t improve overnight. It is built one job, one conversation, one referral at a time. It’s built when an industry organizes around its shared challenges instead of going at it alone.
We are all guilty of not knowing what we don’t know. That’s human. But once we know better, we have a responsibility to do better — not just for our own businesses, but for every contractor who comes after us.
“The exteriors industry can be something homeowners trust. We just have to decide that’s worth working toward together.”
That’s exactly what MECA members are trying to do. It’s a group of contractors who have decided that good enough isn’t good enough — people who are actively working to run better businesses, hold higher standards, and lift the trade along the way. Not perfect contractors. Just ones who are genuinely trying to level up.
If that sounds like you, or like who you want to be, we’d love to have you in the room. Learn more about MECA membership here.
– David Ehlers, MECA Executive Director