We often write about the importance Fortney & Weygandt, Inc. places on building mutually beneficial relationships with our clients. We firmly believe that loyalty and trust are the foundations of our relationships with our clients. Trust builds confidence and confidence builds repeat customers.
We have been honored to have forged an excellent relationship over the last couple of years with a national extended stay hotel brand, which serves as an excellent case study of how everyone at Fortney & Weygandt works to build a strong client relationship.
The process with this particular client began in August of 2013 when Fortney & Weygandt’s Business Development Department learned of the company’s plans to build a hotel in a nearby city and made an initial contact to inquire about qualifying as a general contractor to be able to bid on the upcoming hotel and future projects. There were a number of follow-up contacts over the ensuing months, but nothing of any real significance. Almost a year later the hotel chain’s growth strategy was pretty much set and the Director of Construction called to request a conference call wherein we learned of their plans to build 40 corporate-owned hotels over the next five years and they were looking for general contractors with design-build capabilities to partner with. We were asked to provide a conceptual budget for a new prototype design, which we did. They were very pleased with our numbers and two months later representatives from the hotel travelled to Cleveland to meet and further discuss their plans and how Fortney & Weygandt could factor into those plans.
As the hotel chain and Fortney & Weygandt continued to communicate, exchanging information and sharing ideas, both organizations’ confidence in each other strengthened. Soon Fortney & Weygandt received a call from one of the hotel’s franchisee telling us that they had been referred to us by the corporate office and requesting us to bid their newest hotel. Once again our numbers prevailed and within a few months ground was broken for the first hotel we would build with that brand name.
During the course of construction for that first hotel, our project team demonstrated the Fortney & Weygandt commitment to continuously communicate with both the owner and the architect to keep them apprised of the project’s progress and any potential issues in order to prevent issues from becoming problems. The fact that every day our team, both in the field and in the office, earned the owner’s trust by demonstrating our competency, reassured our client beyond any doubt that they made the right choice selecting Fortney & Weygandt.
Our reputation within the brand family spread and soon we were bidding another hotel for another franchisee that had actually traveled to the site of the first hotel under construction to view the quality of workmanship, observe the level of coordination and leadership and talk with the project team. We soon broke ground on a hotel for that franchisee. Not long after, we began bidding on corporate-owned hotels.
As of this writing, two hotels have been completed with two more under way. In addition, we have or will soon bid on six more hotels of this brand in six separate states, both franchisee-owned and corporate-owned.
This case study is just the most recent example of how valuable we consider our relationships with our clients and business associates to be and how our 37 years of working hard to earn the trust and loyalty of our clients have resulted in so many repeat customers.
To view our completed hotel projects,click here.
To learn more about Fortney & Weygandt's services, click here.
