How to Choose the Right Painting Service Provider

When it comes to hiring a contractor for your home projects, it’s always overwhelming trying to find the right service provider for your needs. Beyond that, feeling confident in your choice is difficult without having a deep understanding of what to look out for when you are making your hiring decision.

Selecting a painting service provider comes with a lot of uncertainty – largely because there are so many companies to choose from when you search “exterior painters Seattle,” “interior painters Seattle,” or “painters near me.” Any Google search surrounding professional painters is going to result in a long list of companies to evaluate, but how does the average homeowner, with no insight into the industry, make the right choice? Follow this guide and you will be able to sift through the available painting service providers to confidently hire the right painting company for you.

Experience

1. The biggest qualifier to look out for when trying to decide which painting service provider you should hire is the experience the company does (or does not) have. Given it’s relatively simple to get started in the painting industry, there are a lot of inexperienced companies out there.
2. It’s not always necessary to find the most experienced provider out there, but you also don’t want your home to be one of the first few jobs the service provider is painting – that is going to be met with problems with your project: quality issues, delayed timeline, deficient customer service, and an overall lack of understanding how to take the appropriate steps in a rainy place like the Pacific Northwest. It’s best to maintain a filter requiring a provider has at least a few years under their belt, but you should also be able to see on their website that they make a point to demonstrate how their experience benefits the projects they work on.
3. At American Classic Painters, one of the ways we demonstrate our experience, particularly with painting in the Seattle area, is by clearly articulating that we use quality paint that can withstand the PNW weather.
4. Additionally, we share with our potential clients that we check for moisture in their home’s wood before we begin painting to ensure there isn’t a potential issue lingering, caused by the rain. If you can’t clearly see a painting service provider has the experience (and lessons learned because of that) your home deserves, you can confidently remove them from your list.

Customer Service

Once you have identified a handful of potential painting contractors that you may be interested in working with, it’s best to reach out to a few of them to find the right fit for you. Part of your hiring decision is likely going to be budget-based, but just as importantly, you should also consider you own personal experience interacting with the contractor before they are officially hired for the job. A quality painting service provider will gladly answer your questions, assure you of their expertise in the way they address any concerns you have, and overall, make you feel comfortable when you are communicating with them.  

Customer service, unfortunately, isn’t something every company put a great deal of effort into, but as a customer, the service you do or do not receive is massively important to your overall experience. In your first conversation with a provider, you will be able to tell, quite instantly, how much care they place into their customer experience. If you feel supported, you likely have found a quality provider, but if you are still looking for an additional boost of confidence, there is a final qualifier you can lean on.

Reviews

You may have skimmed some reviews when you were initially filtering through the providers that populated when you searched Google for “exterior house painters in my area,” but now is the time to really dedicate energy to diving into the online reviews of the provider you are interested in. Sure, there will likely be reviews directly on their website, but those are going to be their hand-selected reviews. The best place to get an honest assessment from past customers is by checking reviews on places like Google or Yelp, where any and all reviews are posted – good and bad.

Conclusion

After evaluating a painting company’s experience, getting a sense of their dedication to customer service, then taking the time to assess posted reviews, you should be able to find a local painting service provider in Seattle you feel confident hiring. When you see the results that populate in Google after searching “exterior painting Seattle” or “interior painting Seattle,” you’ll know exactly how to narrow that list (with confidence) and select the right provider for you.