Reputation is everything when you perform construction work professionally. Your clients help you reach new people who may need similar work done on their homes. They can also leave reviews for you online that could entice future clients or send them running straight to your competitors.

Proper expertise and tools are crucial to the success of a construction project, as are the right materials. You have to manage the entire project to ensure it meets your client's standards. Unfortunately, material supply is one of the factors that you cannot fully control.

Supply chain issues can quickly complicate a construction project and cause headaches for your company. Problems with securing construction supplies are so common they have contributed to a recent slowdown of new home building. You could end up facing complaints or claims related to those reply issues. What are the two main ways that supply issues could affect your construction company?

Supply chain issues can delay project completion

The estimated timeline for the work on the project is not set in stone, but it will influence your client's expectations. If you unexpectedly can't secure the right lumber or structural steel because of supply chain issues, you may have to significantly delay certain stages of the project.

Especially when there are multiple supply chain issues that arise one after the next, you may struggle to get the work done on schedule. Customers may complain about delays, and thus factors outside of your control could reduce a client's satisfaction with the work you do.

You may have to negotiate substitutions

Some supply chain issues are serious enough that they would drastically delay the completion of a project or significantly increase a client's costs. When you don't know if you can connect with certain materials or how long it will take, and when the price would drastically increase, you may need to communicate with the client about the issue.

In some cases, the client will agree to substitutions to keep the project moving forward on schedule or to keep the prices close to the estimate as possible. Other times, they may want to wait or pay more for the materials they initially requested.

Understanding how supply chain issues could lead to expensive and potentially reputation-damaging construction disputes can help companies plan to overcome those challenges and integrate solutions for those concerns into their construction contracts.