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CertaPro Painters distinguishes itself from other residential and commercial paint contractors in North America through its reputation for quality and certainty of a job well done, President and CEO Rich Wilson says. Established in 1992 by founder Charlie Chase, the Oak, Pa.-based painting franchise is a subsidiary of The Franchise Company, also known as TFC Brands.

CertaPro Painters is a spin-off of TFC’s Canadian franchise College Pro Painters, founded in 1971. College Pro Painters provides quality paint jobs while training college students in real-life business skills. Wilson took over College Pro Painters in the 1990s and expanded throughout Canada and the Northeast, Midwest and Northwest United States. In 2003, Chase invited him to CertaPro Painters to help grow the franchise. Today, Wilson serves as president and CEO of CertaPro Painters, while Chase runs the brands of parent company TFC.

CertaPro Painters operates 316 franchisees in North America, specializing in residential and commercial interior and exterior painting. “Our value proposition for consumers is that we are going to focus on making the experience they have with our company an extraordinary one, from the time they call until the time we finish the project,” Wilson states.

Certainty Service System

CertaPro Painters has two key focuses for every project, Wilson explains – the interior and exterior details of the home or business and total customer satisfaction. CertaPro Painters understands that painting is not an everyday occurrence for its clientele. To ensure a project meets a client’s expectations, the company abides by its Certainty Service System of education, collaboration and communication to guide the customer through every step of the process. 

“We educate the customer on what it’s like to have your house painted,” Wilson states. “If someone’s going to be outside of your home for two of three days, there is going to be disruption to the family schedule. We want to make sure they understand what some of those disruptions may be so they can better plan for it.”

CertaPro Painters collaborates with the customer on every detail of the project. “We want to make sure they get the correct paint system they need,” Wilson says. “We ask questions upfront to make sure we understand what’s important to them, and we want to make sure we work around their schedule.”

The company prides itself on communicating with the customer “in a very timely and relevant manner from the time they call us to the time we finish the job,” Wilson notes. “Finally, we call each and every customer back two weeks after the job is completed to ask how we did and see if there are any concerns.”

The Certainty Service System is managed by a staff of skilled professionals. CertaPro Painters’ trained estimators discuss customer requirements before providing a detailed proposal and customer care form to be used by the painting crew. Site supervisors are assigned to oversee the entire project from start to finish, and an independent quality assurance team administers the callback program to obtain customer input after the job is completed.

Guiding Franchisees

CertaPro Painters offers potential franchisees “a simple but proven way to start up, develop and grow a painting business,” Wilson says. “The marketing program, operational systems and support we offer will enable someone who previously did not have any painting experience nor had ever run their own business to grow a fairly significant-sized company in their community.”

Candidates are contacted by a CertaPro Painters franchise recruiter. “We have a very systematic approach to mutual due diligence,” he says. “It’s very important that we understand who we are partnering with by doing background checks and credit checks, and it is important that they understand exactly what this business is.”

The company hosts a Discovery Day at its headquarters to talk face-to-face with franchise candidates in a relaxed setting and educate them on key aspects of the business. “We have a very extensive training program and support program assigned to one specific individual who will make sure they get through the learning curve as quickly as possible,” Wilson says. “The relationship they have with the support person is not a short one – it will be at least two years, and they can communicate with the support person on the phone, online or in the field.”

Goal Alignment

CertaPro Painters leverages decentralized individual platform management, centralized business planning, core vision and values, and the dissemination of best practices and processes. “Our culture is one of goal alignment,” Wilson describes. “From our franchisees to our painters to our customers and vendors, we all want to make sure the value proposition lines up for everybody, and we need to hit goals in order to do so, whether they be marketing goals, financial goals or quality goals. We tend to be very loyal to our vendors and want to make sure we’re meeting their needs as well as they’re meeting ours.”

He describes his management style as “situational and participative,” which reflects the management style of his mentor, Chase, and the way Chase operates TFC Brands. “When you start up a painting business and have never done it before, we are going to tell you what to do,” Wilson asserts. 

“These people are entrepreneurs,” he points out. “As they become more competent, we become more facilitative than directive. One thing to franchising is that all the great ideas and innovations don’t come from the franchisor – they come from the field. That’s why my leadership team is very hands-on; they are out in the field working with franchisees.”

Room to Grow

Operating as a franchise system enables companies to maneuver through a challenging economy, Wilson points out. Standalone companies may not be able to afford extensive marketing, customer service or quality assurance programs when times are tough, but franchisees can always turn to their franchisor.

“The recession hit us hard like it hit everyone hard at the end of 2008,” Wilson recalls. “We responded to the tough environment in 2009 by being tight on the expenses side, but we didn’t let up on the marketing. A lot of our competition stopped marketing, which is always a mistake in business during any time.” 

Looking forward, CertaPro Painters seeks to obtain a 100 percent referral rate from its existing 300,000 customers. “Right now, we’re at 98.2 percent, but we want it to be 100 percent,” Wilson says. “We don’t want people to have to ever look for another painter again once they work with us. Ultimately, I see us having 500 franchisees in North America.” •mt