A spring 2021 survey conducted by Sherwin-Williams asked more than 1,000 members of a DIY advisory panel a question of particular relevance to painting contractors: Why, exactly, do homeowners decide to hire out painting services?

The top answer? “I couldn’t reach the areas that need to be painted.”

A total of 50 percent of respondents who had hired painters cited reach as their top reason for doing so — and by a significant margin over other responses.

The number two choice — “It was a job best left to professionals” — was selected by 41 percent of respondents. For contractors, this could be viewed as a cue that your on-site professionalism, whether it be your appearance, manners, or marketing, matters to many of your prospects.

“I didn’t have time to do it myself” was close behind at 40 percent. Neither of those responses measured significantly differently than in previous surveys. No other response selection to this question in the 2021 survey came in higher than 22 percent.

Other noteworthy findings were uncovered in the 2021 Sherwin-Williams Hiring a Painter or Contractor Study. They are organized as follows to show whether they are business-related, painting-related, or are connected to internet-based services.

Just Doing Business

• Homeowners who solicited just one quote for their project totaled 35 percent of those surveyed in 2021, while 46 percent received two or more quotes. You can help ensure that your quote stands out with a professional-looking bid from the Sherwin-Williams Project Bids tool.
• “The painter with the lowest price will win my business”: 63 percent of survey respondents disagreed with that statement.
• Referrals from family/friend/other remains consistently the top means by which homeowners found out about the painter they hired, coming in at 49 percent.
• Repeat business (previous experience with that painter) drove 17 percent of painter hires, while referrals from contractors in other trades accounted for 16 percent of painter hires.
• The importance of reputation, responsiveness during the quote process, professionalism of the painter, brand of paint to be used, and availability to start the job all measured very high — no less than an average of 4.2 on a 5-point scale of importance to the survey respondents.

It’s About Paint

• 58 percent of painter hires were for an interior project, 28 percent for an exterior painting project, and 14 percent were for both. As we head into the interior painting season in many areas of the country, now is the time to advertise those services.
• 86 percent of 2021 survey respondents who have hired painters made their own color choices, and 49 percent dictated the brand of paint to be used. Help your customers who could use some guidance in the color selection journey with the new Color Toolkit.

Help from the Internet

• Social media such as Facebook, Twitter or Nextdoor account for just 6% of jobs, but that number doubles the 3% response from the 2018 survey.
• Contractor rating and review websites generated 8% of landed leads, equal to the number from the 2018 survey. Angi.com (formerly Angie’s list) usage dropped by 35 percent from 2018 to 2021. Google reviews, meanwhile, which were not available in 2018, accounted for 38 percent of website rating and review usage in the 2021 survey.