Builders who venture abroad have to work according to European rules. These rules are far more favorable to you as a customer than Dutch rules. So when you are selecting builders for your project, make sure to check on their previous performance, in and outside the Netherlands. To them I explained this earlier in a blog on “BouwTotaal”. Do you want to know why?
Dutch quality of work can easily compete with other European countries. Builders only have to take into account the commercial and legal differences between the Netherlands, the rest of Europe and beyond. For a good builder they should be no obstacle but rather a challenge to always deliver good quality of work. Dutch rules let him get away with less, unless you pay more than you bargained for. Let me explain how that works.
Additional work as a business model
Let’s look at the commercial side first. In the Netherlands, each party in real estate, design and construction is responsible for only his own quality delivered. What that quality represents, depends on what has been agreed upon with the customer before the work started. But most customers lack the technical knowledge needed in the field. So we create a business model where builders earn more money with every additional question, wish and need a customer expresses during the building process. That means additional work is boosting the builders revenue! Things work quite differently, abroad!
The demand behind the question
In Europe – with the exception of the Netherlands, Great Britain and Ireland – the customer is not primarily responsible for the final result of the construction process; it is the joint responsibility of all professional parties involved. The ignorance of the customer is the starting point. The builders are held to examining and understanding the customer demands exhaustively, in co-operation with the customer of course. To find the demand behind the question. To find out what the customer’s deepest wishes and real needs are. Ultimately, the customer is not interested in just a building, but in what he wants to achieve with it.
Service and quality as business model
In the Netherlands, the various parties in the process often refer to each other, when it comes to liability. That is not in the interest of the – ignorant – customer, but legally often sufficient for construction companies. But when contractors and builders really know the customers demand and fulfill it, they can easily accept responsibility for the end result. That is precisely the legal difference with the Dutch situation. Some builders may see this as a threat but the really good ones have already recognized they are dealing with an ignorant customer. They are already helping their clients to get to the core of their needs and demands. And so they have no business model based on creating additional work but on quality and service actually delivered. Added value without extra work costs.
Additional value for you
These entrepreneurs can easily expand their market to Europe. The only thing they still have to take into account is their liability insurance. This insurance often is much more expensive abroad than in the Netherlands because of the extensive liability and associated wider coverage. Those good building contractors maintain their lead over Dutch competitors, as long as our national building legislation does not take customers in construction seriously. That is why builders who actually venture abroad have additional value for you.
Take the next step and share your experiences
Do you want to take a next step? Come to the FREE* Masterclass. We will work with practical tools to instantly implement the actions of my ebook in your organizational, fiscal or financial projects and organization.
Join the conversation
Do you know how to build that new way and what you need? Do you agree on the importance of the experience abroad? Share it in the comments below.
To your health and wellbeing,
Remko Zuidema
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This post is also available in: Nederlands
