Have you recently moved into a new area and need a new electrician?
Whether it’s simply to install a new appliance or a complicated commercial project for a construction site — it is an absolute necessity to hire a good electrician for health and safety reasons.
But with so many newspaper advertisements, fridge magnets, and Yellow Pages listings, it can be extremely difficult to make a decision.
However, following the simple guidelines we’re about to provide you will ensure that you find the right electrician for your needs.
Here are 5 tips to follow when looking to hire a good electrician:
#1. 100% certified and insured
The first priority before even considering any electrician is to ensure that they are fully certified and qualified. Everyone in the vicinity has their lives at risk when ab unqualified individual works with electricity. This could mean your friends, family, neighbours, pets, and yourself.
Additionally, hiring a professional electrician can also save you money in the long run. This can be due to efficient electricals that don’t waste energy and avoiding the need to re-do work.
On top of licences and qualification, having proper insurance is also essential.
Many homeowners have worries that something could get damaged during the job, a person could be injured, and a whole list of more worries. However, having the right insurance will remove finance-related worries. This ensures that you are not held liable for any damage or injury that may occur.
You can request copies of their certifications, licences, and insurance documents by simply asking. Professional electricians will not consider this offensive or a waste of time. If an electrician is hesitant to provide you with these details, you should reconsider your options.
#2. Relevant experience
Once you’ve determined that an electrician has the necessary licences, qualifications, and insurance — the next step is judging whether or not their experience is suitable for your project.
For example, if you’re simply looking to install new appliances in your residential property, finding an electrician that specialises in residential work will be best. However, if you’re after a large scale commercial fit-out, finding a company that works with commercial or industrial fit-outs will be the better option.
If you’re unsure of their experience, it’s always worth the extra effort to do your research beforehand. This could mean visiting their website, looking at their past projects, and finding out what types of projects they usually undertake. In some cases, especially for smaller local electrical companies, their online profile will not contain much information. In these cases, it’s perfectly fine to give them a call and ask them directly.
#3. Excellent customer service
Electricians are service providers and it’s their job to provide you with a good experience. There’s no point working with someone if they don’t offer you this.
If your prospective electrician is ignoring your calls, taking forever to reply, or just being plain rude — walk away and find another one. This is especially the case if they exhibit this behaviour before a working relationship is developed and is a good indicator of a poor relationship in the future.
The easiest way to determine whether or not they are able to provide you with great customer service beforehand is to read their reviews.
For example, checking out their profiles on Google My Business, Yellow Pages, and Facebook can give you a good idea of how they treat their customers and how their customers think of them.
#4. Informative and consultative
When you hire any professional, you aren’t paying them to simply provide you with labour. You’re also paying them for their years of expertise.
It’s easy to assume a certain project is easy when in reality there is much more to it. For example, you wouldn’t tell your surgeon what to do — you’d let them guide you through the entire process.
The same should be the case when hiring an electrician. A professional electrician will provide you with guidance and give you recommendations for your project. This could mean providing ideas to increase electrical efficiency, offering alternative solutions, and overall increasing your confidence in working with them.
However, if you find that your prospective electrician isn’t guiding the conversation, this is not an indicator of a lack of experience. As a customer, it’s also your job to trust your electrician and ask for their recommendations. So go ahead and feel free to ask them as many questions as you want!
#5. Precise estimates and timelines
One easy way to determine the expertise of an electrician is their ability to deliver accurate estimates and timelines.
This indicates that they have a lot of experience with the project, know the exact deliverables, and understand exactly what it’ll take to get the job done. However, you do have to keep in mind that some jobs are unavoidably difficult to determine the scope of work for beforehand. But for smaller-scale projects, a good electrician will be able to tell you exactly the equipment that is needed, the costs involved, and how long each step of the process will take.
Before starting any project with an electrician, it is essential that you ask for this information. This way, both you and your electrician will have the right expectations set in place.
Final thoughts
Finding and hiring a good electrician is essential for a variety of reasons. Whether you need help with your electricals in your residential home, commercial property, or industrial work environment — having an electrician you can rely on can give you that extra peace of mind.
The easiest ways to determine whether your prospective electrician is going to be a good one to work with include validating their qualifications and insurance, checking for relevant experience, experiencing exceptional customer service, receiving consultative advice, and being given accurate estimates and deadlines.