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Your Guide to Digital Transformation for General Contractors
For decades, word of mouth or phone book listings were two big ways general contractors' clients found them. But in 2021 and beyond, general contractors, like most other occupations, need to go digital if they want to keep up with the competition. But this digital transformation goes far beyond simply listing your business online.
It also means adopting strategies, tools, and best practices in accordance with a variety of tools and software that can be game-changing for the construction industry, including project completion.
Whether you call it a technological revolution or a digital transformation, one thing is for sure: it's time to get on board! That is if you want to overcome several challenges the construction industry is currently facing.
Your Guide to Digital Transformation for General Contractors
And we're here to help make this transformation into the digital world easier for general contractors, realtors, mortgage brokers, property inspectors, and other service providers.
In today's post, we're going to focus on general contractors, however. Specifically, we'll talk about three of the best practices general contractors can follow for handling a digital transformation with ease and how this will help them overcome known challenges of the job.
Common Challenges in the Construction Industry
Before we get into those best practices, let's first talk about some of those challenges the construction industry faces. Most notably, a significant proportion of construction projects run behind and go over budget.
Just consider these key takeaways from a Level Set study:
- "Overall, the construction industry accepts project & payment delays as the status quo.
- 3 out of 4 construction businesses (77%) say they are happy with how quickly they finish a job, and a majority (53%) are happy with how quickly they get paid for their work.
- In reality, fewer than 1 in 3 contractors (30%) finish projects on time and within budget.
- 70% say poor job site coordination almost always causes projects to run over budget or past deadlines.
- 80% of companies say they spend a significant portion of their workweek chasing down payments.
- Only half of the construction businesses say they receive a payment within 30 days of invoicing (15% regularly wait for 60 days or longer to get paid)."
Best Practices for Digital Transformation for General Contractors
Now that we've covered some of those challenges let's talk about overcoming, or at least mitigating them, with these best practices.
Promoting collaboration and communication
We know that timelines pose a significant challenge for general contractors. While it will never be possible to eradicate this problem entirely, there are ways to minimize the toll it takes. For starters, digital transformation means maximizing efficiency that can help these projects wrap up that much sooner.
Chances are, you're already familiar with a leading cause of project delays: a lack of efficiency when it comes to handing off projects or functions between trades. With digital solutions, you can ensure there are smoother interactions and transitions.
(Don't miss these 11 digital marketing tips for real estate agents next)
Focus on streamlining solutions
Rather than undergoing a digital transformation simply for the sake of keeping up with the Joneses, focus instead on the digital efforts that can have the most profound effect on your business.
For example, we know that invoicing is a common challenge and frustration. But this is also one that is easily managed with online invoicing from Souqh.
We help you create a hassle-free experience for your customers by allowing us to take care of payment processing. And yes, this benefits your customers. But it also works in your favor too. Doesn't the idea of not chasing payments down sound good? Not to mention, money in your account that much sooner. With our platform, you can receive payments directly into your bank accounts using leading Stripe payments technology.
(Speaking of going digital, here are six strategies to help real estate law firms scale their business)
Consolidating data
Finally, let's talk about the power of digital transformation for consolidating data that were once bulky, disorganized, and inefficient. For starters, it can help with "consolidating cost and schedule data from multiple projects and business units to increase the accuracy of bids for future tenders, thereby increasing the margin."
We've started the discussion about general contractors and digital transformation in this post. But we still have a lot more to share! At the same time, we also have a lot of different tools to help a successful transformation take place.
Ready to learn more? Click here to read about what Souqh can do for service providers.
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