Today’s Ask the Expert column features Dan Steward, president of Pillar To Post Home Inspectors.
Q: As the home inspection industry continues to evolve, what do you anticipate for the future? Â
A: Aside from the technology that we pioneered in 1999, we’re seeing customers that understand the value of home inspections more and more. Instead of just another task their agent assigns, they’re becoming much more aware of what purpose the home inspection process has, and how much it means to the sale or acquisition of their homes. We have a much more educated homebuyer now, and it’s our goal to stay ahead of them in our discipline and practices.
We’re at the top of the industry because of our constant search and application of a better customer experience. In turn, we attract the cream of the crop as home inspectors in our franchisee program due to our rankings in several top publications (Pillar To Post Home Inspectors has been ranked first in category for 18 years in a row by Entrepreneur magazine) and because they, too, are becoming more sophisticated like our customers—so for both, the due diligence is more thorough now than it’s ever been in the past, which is a good thing for everyone.
In 1999, we were the first to bring cutting-edge technology to home inspections with electronic inspection reports printed on-site. One-third of our newest franchisees are military veterans who apply both their discipline and technology training to the home inspection process. They made us proud serving their country and now make us proud as franchisee partners. Pillar To Post and our nearly 600 franchisees put a big emphasis on teamwork. It starts at training, and it plays a role in each of their independently-owned and -operated businesses. It continues through to our annual conventions where all new technologies, systems and programs are introduced, and franchisees share and offer their new ideas and experiences. The future for us will hopefully involve adding more terrific people to our family, as great people make great companies.
For more information, please visit www.pillartopost.com.