— By Jack Child —
How to choose a contractor for your parking lot striping project.
Your parking lot is your welcome mat for your business. Maybe the lines are getting pretty faded. Or, maybe you’ve been tagged with a violation from the city or Fire Marshal for a code violation for improper or inadequate pavement markings. Poor or improper markings are a legal liability that should not be overlooked. It’s time to get new paint on the ground. Who do you call? The following is for those who really want to find the very best in the business.
Referrals
Given your position, it’s likely you know someone who has had work done on their parking lot(s). Reach out to them. They can tell you who they used and what their experience was with that contractor (good or bad). Short of any really great referrals, the below steps can help you gather bids from other sources. Even with a referral, I’d also look to the internet for help.
Online Searches
Most buyers today will hop on their mobile devices or laptops to begin their search for a product or service. Google is by far the most popular search engine. I love the Google! Type in the service you need in the search bar and add “near me.” For example: “Parking Lot Striping near me” or “Pavement Marking Contractor near me.” Or, if you’re getting a quote for a property not near you, type in “Parking Lot Striping in (city where the property is located).” You can vary the search terms any number of ways and get slightly different results. If you are managing multiple properties across multiple states, you have very few choices for vendors who can self-perform in this arena. Make sure you know if your contractor will self-perform or sub-contract. Their website should tell you their areas of coverage and number of locations. If they are not capable of easily handling multi-unit or multi-state projects, keep searching. Imagine a contractor willing to travel many hours for you. Great! But, what happens if they need to go back for a touch-up or minor error? Not so great.
[NOTE: Shameless plug for my fellow military veterans in the industry: try searching for “Veteran Owned Parking Lot Striping companies near me.” Thank a Vet by giving them the chance to bid!]
Back to search results. At the top of your results, you will see the Paid Ads or Sponsored Ads section(s). Contractors pay for this placement. Nothing wrong with exploring businesses that list there. Keep in mind, every time you click on those ads it costs the contractor for that click. But, before clicking on paid ads, scroll down to see what businesses show up at the top of the organic (non-paid) results. You might see the same company as listed in the Paid Ads. That might be a good sign.
But, you’ll also see others that can be confusing for the uninitiated. Lead aggregators like Angie’s List (Angi), Home Advisor, Houzz, Yelp and others will rank very well and show up on page one since they can dominate organic searches. At least for the pavement marking industry, I don’t think these are good sources for you. I often find contractors who aren’t established using these lead sources more so than the established operators. Scroll to find actual local businesses that provide the services you need in the area you need work done. You may need to go to page two or beyond.
Spend a few minutes clicking on some of the top-performing business websites in the industry. Click on their Services page(s). Maybe see if the owner is on LinkedIn and connect with them there as well. Check their local Google Business listings for Reviews. Note: Don’t let the random One Star Review with no explanation scare you away. Sadly, it’s a common occurrence for competitors to try to hurt other businesses with this method. If you aren’t finding what you need in the organic results, circle back to the paid ads. Like what you see with a few of them? Fill out their Quote Request Form or call them. If you have a deadline, be certain to express that to the contractor. Also, any unique needs should be shared early on. Now, the fun begins!
What’s Next?
If you submit a request for a bid or quote online, you might get some delay in someone getting back to you. That’s somewhat to be expected — to a degree. You should also expect to be ghosted by some. It’s just the nature of my industry, unfortunately (as much as I’m trying to change that). Ideally, if you call, the phone is answered in the first place. If you get a voice message or an answering service, you should also get some sort of acknowledgment that your request is received with some planned follow-up. If you reach out to three and only one returns your call, but they present themselves well, and the bid is within the zone of reasonableness, maybe your search is over. If you get three bids but aren’t comfortable with the way any of them are presented or the way the contractors carry themselves, maybe you need three more.
There are a lot of true professionals in the industry who wish to earn your business. With low barriers to entry, there are also many untrained folks running around doing some less than stellar work. Be careful out there!
Deciding Between Bids
Once you’ve received multiple bids, how do you choose which pavement marking contractor to work with? These next easy-to-follow steps will help make your decision easier.
Comparing Bids
If your company policy requires you to take the lowest bid, your problem is (temporarily) solved. Pick the lowest bidder and that part of the process is complete. However, I strongly suggest you (or the powers that be) re-think this policy. Far more often than not, the lowest bid can have terrible results — particularly if the lowest bid is quite a bit lower than the other two. Big red flag.
Often, the very lowest bidders aren’t able to perform to the standards you expected. While parking lot striping and pavement markings might seem like a commodity, they are, in fact, a service. And, it’s much harder to install clean crisp lines and markings than it might seem. It does take skills.
They say there are three elements found in a service (price, quality, level of customer service) and you can only pick two. It is indeed rare to find the lowest cost provider who can also deliver the very best in quality and highest level of customer service. It’s simply not sustainable as a business model to provide all three. Something has to give and, often, it’s the quality of the workmanship or the overall customer service experience that suffers (or both) when price is the only thing they offer. Also, you may find contractors you have to chase to get the bid, or a call, or an answer to your question. Is it worth $500 in savings on a $10,000 project to have to hound the contractor for answers or a returned call?
You should feel good about your choice of contractor. Find someone you feel you can trust and then hold them accountable for that trust. There are so many variables between contractors that you must play detective sometimes to flush them out.
Weighing Different Price Bids
Some customers throw out the lowest and highest bids and work their way from the middle. Occasionally, even the very best in the business will come in as the lowest bidder. It seems to me to be premature to just toss bids as a matter of course — high or low.
Look closely at the bids. You can easily tell a thorough bid from one that is very short on details. You can get a feel for the business’ “personality” from the interactions with the estimator/owner and by viewing their bid proposal.
Close examination of the various bids might reveal small details and extras that are planned with one contractor that aren’t present with the others. Ask questions!
How to Finish Vetting Your Contractor
Google is your friend (but it doesn’t always tell the whole story). Once you’ve narrowed down your choices to a couple of contractors with bids in the zone of reasonableness, now it’s time to do an even deeper dive on them. Ask to see their Certificate of Insurance (COI). For bigger dollar projects, you might request your business be added as an Additional Insured for the duration of the project (only if you choose them, not as part of the vetting process). Head over to Google and type in “(company name) reviews” and “(company name) complaints.” Check their Google Business Listing for content. Do they have a website? If not, I don’t think I’d use them. It’s 2024, not 1999.
When discussing the proposal, ask them what machines they use. Most professional contractors in this space use Graco® airless striping machines and those at the top of their game will have Graco® machines with laser guidance, on-board computers and an AutoLayout function for new parking lot designs. Striping in a warehouse or an apartment complex at night? Maybe pick a contractor with electric machines to avoid exhaust fumes and noise. Technology has definitely arrived in the pavement marking space!
The Better Business Bureau (BBB)
One other step you might take is to hit up your local BBB search engine and see what it says about the business you are considering hiring. While I believe the BBB’s usefulness has been mostly displaced by Google Reviews and other info you can easily gather online, it might steer you clear of a bad operator with multiple unresolved complaints. And, it might be able to assist you in resolving a complaint down the road. But, please don’t take a lack of complaints at the BBB as any sort of validation or green light to hire a particular contractor. It’s a less than perfect system.
As far as judging whether one business is better than the next because one is a member of the BBB and one is not, again, I think the BBB’s role is diminishing and membership (or lack thereof) doesn’t have the same meaning as it did 10 or 15 years ago. That’s just my opinion. Take in all this info and weigh it as you see fit to help you in your final decision.
Once You’ve Chosen Your Contractor
Once you finally pick the winner, alert their representative and start coordinating the schedule for work. Keep in mind weather often throws a striping company’s schedule into chaos. Be patient if low temps (below 50 degrees) or high humidity/precipitation are plaguing your region.
Be certain you have their COI and W-9 in place by this stage.
As the project date grows nearer, check your weather conditions and touch base with the contractor to finalize arrival times and any preparations you need to make like irrigation systems off, tenants alerted, lights on for night work, etc.
Happy painting!
— Jack Child is co-founder of Amherst, N.H.-based Veteran Service Brands, an all Veteran-owned, multi-brand, 75-location service provider which includes G-FORCE Parking Lot Striping, MACH ONE Epoxy Floors, PAINT CORPS and FIELD OPS Athletic Field Markings. Email the author at jack@veteranservicebrands.com or visit www.VeteranServiceBrands.com.