Ensuring that you choose the best conservatory company in your local area is extremely important for two main reasons. First of all, you want to be sure that the conservatory construction will be completed to the highest of standards. Therefore, your new conservatory will stay in optimal condition for years to come. 

Secondly, you want the process from start to finish to be as easy and stress-free as humanly possible. For this to come to fruition, the company you choose needs to be open, honest, accessible and regular with their communication. Over-communication is always better than under-communication when it comes to any home improvement project!

The combination of these two factors will lead to a wonderful conservatory building experience from the design to the completion phase. Here are the steps we think you should take…

National vs Local Conservatory Company? 

Step 1. The first port of call is deciding whether you want to opt for a locally or nationally established company. Some people prefer working with big brands because a recognisable name can provide an additional trust factor. However, 70% of people buy their conservatory locally which is very telling. 

With a local conservatory company, you’re more likely to receive a more personalised service. You will likely be directly dealing with the same point of contact or small group of individuals from start to finish. Instead of having to communicate with multiple employees via call centres; a process which can become tiresome and time-consuming.  

Other advantages of choosing local over national is that smaller companies will have a much better understanding of your local area, as well as be able to source and transport materials at a lower cost. These savings are then passed on to you when it comes to the pricing of your conservatory. 

The ideal situation is to have the best of both worlds, and that would be a local company with a reassuring trust factor, which is where the next steps come into play. 

Ask Around For Recommendations

Step 2. A tried and tested method for sourcing a trustworthy conservatory company is asking your family and friends for recommendations. They will be able to provide you with an honest and unfiltered review of their experiences, and whether or not you should move forward with particular companies. 

You’ll more than likely source multiple options from your nearest and dearest. You may even find a company that you want to move forward with, purely based on seeing a loved one’s completed project and from hearing about their experience being a very positive one. 

However, in cases where you can’t source reputable companies via this method, this is where you would turn to Google. 

Conduct a Google Search

Step 3. Searching online is a very efficient way to find the conservatory companies in your local area. With just a few taps on your phone or keyboard, you will find countless options to delve through. Having just typed “conservatory company near me” into Google, 368,000,000 search results were generated! 

We would hope you could find a company to move forward with from that amount of options! Visit the websites of various companies and start to get a feel for each. You can have a browse through their services, as well as the styles and materials of conservatory they offer. 

A top tip we recommend is assessing how easy it would be to contact a company. A website that has their phone number, email/contact form and most importantly, their physical address on the website itself is going to illicit more trust. If any of these aren’t present, it’s not a good sign for reputability. 

Google My Business Listings & Reviews

Step 4. Check out the Google My Business listing and reviews of the companies that you’ve found. You should be able to find a company’s GMB listing by simply searching their name into Google, and it should appear near the top of the results on mobile and to the right of the results on desktop. 

Every GMB page has an overall review score out of 5 stars and you can look into each and every individual review to conduct a thorough investigation. There are also dedicated review websites such as Trust Pilot or Feefo where you can visit to read additional reviews if need be. 

At this point, you should be building up a good picture in your mind about a conservatory company but it’s the next step that will most likely seal the deal in a lot of cases. 

Social Proof 

Step 4. The proof as they say is in the pudding and social proof is a great way of seeing the true capabilities of a company. For those not in the know, social proof is where a company uses their social media platforms to showcase that they can do what they say. 

If you go to a conservatory company’s social media pages whether it be Facebook, Instagram or any other platforms, you may be lucky enough to find galleries of photos of completed projects. If you’re even luckier, you will find video content which is the holy grail of any investigation when it comes to home improvements. 

Pictures are great, but it’s far easier to pilfer photos from another company in the industry and we must not forget about the existence of photoshop. Pictures are highly editable whereas you simply can’t hide with video content. These are your opportunities to see the company’s workmanship from all angles so certainly make the most of it!

If you’re incredibly lucky, you could find some video testimonials on these social pages where you can see not just videography of a completed project, but also hear first hand from a real-life customer about their experience of working with the company you’re inspecting. If there are many of these types of videos on a social page, it’s a good indicator that customers are regularly satisfied with completed projects. 

A company that invests in showcasing their completed works as social proof is always a good sign. They are clearly proud of their work and want to show examples of it for you to peruse through. It adds greatly to the trustworthiness of a company! 

Accreditations, Insurance & Guarantees

Step 5. You should be able to see evidence of accreditations and insurance on a company’s website, usually in the form of logos dotted around the site. However, you can always ask for proof of documentary evidence later down the line for added reassurance that a company can complete your conservatory installation safely and legally. 

Furthermore, ensure that a company has a form of limited liability insurance. In the instance where your home has been damage during the installation process, these damages would be covered. Ask a company for a copy of their insurance policy if you want to make sure they are up to date! 

If a company doesn’t have the acceptable accreditations or insurance, or are a bit hesitant and taking too long to provide the evidence…you may be better off going with a different company. A popular insurer for conservatory comoany is the GGFi which has not been rebranded to Installsure. They are a specialist insurance provider to the UK glass and glazing industry created by the Glass & Glazing Federation in 2005. 

Guarantees are also an added element of security for you as the customer. it is an assurance that a company is committed to putting any issues right as part of their installation service. A 10 year guarantee is the industry standard but they can vary. Any less than this, we would potentially advise this being a red flag! It’s always best to enquire about the exact inclusions within a guarantee before putting your signature on any dotted lines! 

High Quality Building Materials & Conservatory Products

Step 6. It’s a reality that some conservatory companies will try and cut down on costs at that detriment of completing a quality installation. That could then result in leaky roofs, faulty or jammed doors or a conservatory being too cold. 

The knock on effect of this is that costly repairs and maintenance could be required as poor quality materials start to fail more quickly than they should. In order to prevent this from occurring, ensure that the conservatory company you chose only uses high grade materials! 

Another top tip is to find out the expected lifetime of each product that you’re looking at having fitted as part of your conservatory. This information is very useful to know as it will make you more informed about when different products will start to require maintenance and what kind of guarantees you should look for from a conservatory company.  

Start Booking Consultations & Getting Quotes

Step 7. By now, you should have a list of conservatory companies that you like the look of and want to whittle down this list further. It is time to start having some consultations with each company and receiving quotes from them. 

The consultations will not just paint an even clearer picture of a company, but it also provides you with the opportunity to attain some of the information that we’ve gone through in the previous steps e.g. accreditations, insurance, guarantee and building materials etc. 

Consultations also serve as the chance for you to pick the brains of industry professionals, which is especially useful if your conservatory project is looking to be on the more complex side of things. 

Attain multiple quotes from at least three different conservatory companies. You will then be able to compare the remaining companies on your list by each face to face consultation and also by the price they’ve respectively quoted. 

Competitive pricing is important, but do ensure that you’re not compromising on product quality to service in order to save a few quid. Cutting costs at this point, may cost you a lot more down the line. As the old saying goes…“buy cheap, pay twice.”

To ensure that each party is crustal clearing on costs, we recommend getting an itemised quote in writing. You will then have a confirmed breakdown of all required material and works cost, and everyone will be on the same page! 

Choose West Midlands Double Glazing

Step 8. For all of your conservatory needs, choose West Midlands Double Glazing. We firmly believe that we are the best conservatory company in Birmingham & the West Midlands because we have…

• built up a fantastic reputation in the region
• been in business for over 20 years
• so many reviews for you to peruse through on our Google My Business Page
• a plethora of photos and video content for you to browse through on our Facebook & Instagram pages as social proof of our amazing work
• FENSA certification
• public liability insurance
• Only ever used the highest quality products in all of our installations (in fact we source it from our very own builders merchant)
• a 10 year guarantee on our entire product range
• the latest security options in all of our glazing
• a wealth of experience in completing full build conservatory and orangery projects
• always provided FREE site consultations and quotes
• always been able to provide competitive pricing which doesn’t compromise on quality.

We are also one of the only companies in the West Midlands to provide 0% finance options on all of our products. Whether it be windows, doors, porches, conservatories, orangeries or garden rooms. 

Get in touch with our brilliant team today for a FREE consultation, and start the easiest process to acquiring a new conservatory that you will ever experience!