How to Vet Your Dock Designer

Want to be sure you’re choosing the right pro for your dock design? Need some advice to get through the vetting process? Looking for a boost to your vetting skills before you start meeting dock designers?

Choosing a professional to work on a significant project at your home or property can be a bit daunting. You can start to feel like you need to hours and hours of research to find someone reliable. The truth is if you’re armed with just a few key pieces of advice, you can get through the vetting process more confidently!

Read Reviews Online

One of the great things about today’s internet is that there is no shortage of sources to find reviews for all types of businesses. From Google, to Yelp, to sites like Angie’s List, you can get a snapshot of a business’s reputation pretty quickly. Make sure to dig into reviews a little bit to make sure the company or designer is a good fit for your project.

Ask for References

After you’ve checked reviews online, check in with the designer personally and ask for their references. Hopefully they can give you something a little more specific than blurbs on their website, but if they have lots of those, it’s usually not a bad sign!

Multiple Modes of Contact

One of the major issues and concerns people have when working with contractors is staying in contact. Contractors have been given a bad name by the select few who try and scam clients or disappear. Make sure this doesn’t happen to you by getting one or two contact numbers, emails, fax numbers, addresses, whatever it takes to feel confident. When you have the contact info, test a few out and see what their response time is like.

Ask Questions

When you start to get serious about considering a dock designer, make sure you take one or two opportunities to ask a handful of questions. Don’t be afraid to judge the designer according to their answers and push for what you want. Write your questions down beforehand so you won’t forget anything important!

If a potential dock designer makes it through these 4 levels of your vetting process, you should be pretty confident in working with them on your new boat dock! And if you’re looking for expertise in dock designs, give us a call today. We’re ready to help you design the dock of your dreams!