Vatter Values: Transparency
Glass orb sitting in the forest
Have you ever been scammed? Not the obvious phone call, "we are trying to reach you about your car's extended warranty" type of scam, but "I bought a product that ended up breaking in 2 days" type of scam. Online shopping breeds this type of stuff. You order something with a certain expectation of quality, and those standards are shattered as soon as you open the box. This often happens because you have no easy way of verifying what standards the company has, and they certainly don’t want to tell you before you give them your money. In these cases, their plain lack of transparency leaves millions of people with unmet expectations and wasted money.
Transparency is vital because opacity breeds corruption. The less that others can see, the less that others can call you accountable for. People especially call for transparency in the companies they hope to support because people care about putting their money toward safe and fair practices. Transparency also gives consumers safety by guaranteeing some level of quality. Putting your money towards a good or service is an act of trust. It says, “I believe that you will give me something worth my money and that this product is made fairly.”
So, why would we want transparency in our own company? Well, as consumers ourselves, we know what it’s like to want to shop for what we support, and what it’s like to put trust in a company. We also understand the desire to know that we’ll get our money’s worth from a product. A home renovation is a massive investment of time, money, and trust—and we want to be worthy of that trust. Trustworthiness doesn’t come from good marketing, integrated branding, or a charismatic leader with an obsessed fanbase praising the product to the skies. It comes from proving quality; time and time again. It comes from satisfied customer after satisfied customer. It comes from the people putting their money towards their goals and having those goals come to fruition.
For all of this to happen, people need to know what is going on behind the scenes. People need transparency to put their trust in a product. That same transparency puts pressure on the company to deliver according to expectations. Transparency builds trust by proving trustworthiness, but also strengthens quality at the same time.
Besides just quality standards, what else does transparency give? At a minimum, it sets standards for solid communication. Questions ought to be answered as clearly as possible, using language that the customers can understand. A lot of industries have so much jargon that an explanation from a bad communicator can sound like nothing but gibberish. A company with solid communication ought to be able to explain a problem without you having to Google every other word.
They should also keep you up to date with the status of your project. For companies like contractors, your project can take months to finish. During that time, it's painful to be kept in the dark about the status of your project. It’s your home! Are you close to being finished, or have there been weeks of setbacks? If your company doesn’t communicate, you may not know. With something as crucial as your home, you ought to be given regular updates, and feel confident that your contractors will keep you in the loop about any problems, changes of plans, or new developments that take place.
Ultimately, we want to be transparent because we want to be trustworthy. All buyer-seller relationships are built on some level of trust, and when your home is thrown into the mix, the stakes are raised significantly. The way your home is built to function affects your day-to-day life tremendously. If we fail to deliver properly, it doesn’t simply mean you own a bad product that needs to be replaced—it means the day-to-day function of your life is altered for the worse. This responsibility is heavy, and we want to prove to be worthy of the trust you give us.
Are you looking for a contractor to renovate or add on to your home? Get a quote from us to jumpstart your process!
