A missed call. An invoice nobody expected. A weekend spent wondering what is happening on site. Melbourne builder Alex Palazzolo says that is where client trust is really lost, and he has built his business around closing those gaps.
Most builders can tell you about the job that went wrong. The slab problem, the late supplier, the variation that blew up.
Alex Palazzolo, founder of ATLI Building Company in Melbourne, thinks the damage usually starts somewhere much smaller.
“I don’t think builders lose clients in big things,” he told Az on The Good Builder Podcast. “It can be even one small thing, or it can be a number of small things that just add up.”
It is a simple idea. But the way his renovation and extension business is set up around it offers a useful benchmark for any builder trying to grow without losing control of the client experience.
Alex Palazzolo came to building through estimating, not the tools
Palazzolo has spent around 18 years in the industry. He started in administration straight out of school and moved through scheduling and estimating roles across a number of companies.
He does not have a trade background, and he sees that as a strength. Much of the advice builders hear is to get off the tools. He started off them.
“Even if you’re a carpenter, that’s a builder, you’re not a plumber, you’re not an electrician,” he said. “So you still need to rely on those right trades.”
Seven of those years were spent at a volume builder, either side of COVID. Before the pandemic, builds ran smoothly and handovers were a highlight. Afterwards, material and trade shortages stretched builds to almost double what clients had been told.
What stayed with him was not the delays. It was how poorly they were explained. He believes the volume builders could have done better at telling clients what was happening and why.
A good build is the minimum standard, not the selling point
That experience shapes how Palazzolo thinks about what clients are actually buying.
“A good build, a great build is the bare minimum,” he said. “People remember how you made them feel.”
A well built home can still leave a sour taste. If the client spent six months not knowing what came next, why nobody was on site, or why an invoice arrived without warning, the finished product does not erase that.
He describes the goal as a partnership rather than a transaction. That includes answering the same questions he hears every week as if they are new, because for the client they are.
One renovation client, a midwife, made the comparison herself. She had delivered hundreds of babies to stressed first time parents, and saw his job the same way: staying calm for people going through something enormous. Palazzolo admits he had never been compared to a midwife before.
Why one missed call can cost a builder the client’s trust
Palazzolo’s test for communication is simple. Clients should always know the next step. If they don’t, they should know a call or message will be answered that day.
He uses an example most builders will recognise.
“If they’re making a phone call on a Friday and not getting a response back until Tuesday, it doesn’t seem that bad,” he said. “But they’ve had that whole weekend just sitting on that and thinking, what’s going on.”
Nothing may be wrong on site. But by Tuesday the silence has grown into a problem in the client’s head, and trust has already started to slip.
Systems help with scheduling and updates, he says. Nothing replaces picking up the phone.
“I don’t think builders lose clients in big things.”
How a termite discovery was handled inside 24 hours
Renovations come with unknowns, particularly in homes that are 70 to 100 years old. Palazzolo’s contracts carry a set list of exclusions for things that cannot be assessed before work starts, termite damage among them.
Earlier this year his carpenter found damaged subfloor on a job. The client was called that day. When they could not get to site, Palazzolo went straight there and walked them through it on a video call, crushing the timber in his hand on camera.
A pest controller attended the next morning and confirmed there were no active termites. Within 24 hours the client had a variation ready to sign, setting out the cost and the time it would add.
“They’re not necessarily stressed that there’s now a termite,” he said. “They would be stressed if they didn’t know the next course of action.”
The price was still the hard part. But in his view it is uncertainty that creates the stress, and speed is what removes it.
Design collaboration stops renovations being designed beyond the budget
The pain point Palazzolo saw most often was clients arriving with architect drawn plans they could not afford to build. Tens of thousands of dollars spent on a beautiful design that never leaves the page.
His answer is what he calls a design collaboration. He visits the site first, takes rough measurements and gives a ballpark figure. If the client is comfortable with that number, design starts with either his preferred architect or their own, and he stays in every meeting and email.
When a request starts to push past the agreed budget, such as adding skylights to a kitchen, he prices it on the spot and offers a trade off. Once drawings and engineering are complete, the client receives a fixed price quote.
He is careful not to claim the idea as his own, noting other builders run similar processes.
What is a design collaboration in a renovation?
A design collaboration is a preconstruction arrangement where the builder joins the design process from the start. The client agrees a ballpark budget before drawings begin, the builder prices changes as the design develops, and a fixed price quote is issued once final plans and engineering are complete. The aim is a design the client can actually afford to build.
Capping live jobs at four keeps growth under control
ATLI is growing. This year Palazzolo put on a full time carpenter as construction manager to run the site side, and his wife now works two days a week on admin and bookkeeping.
That support has moved him off site. He now spends one to two hours a day working on the business, documenting the systems and processes ATLI already uses.
The business runs a maximum of four projects at a time, kept within a tighter area because the construction manager visits each site daily.
His wife also runs a client health check during each build, calling clients to ask what is working and what could be better. Palazzolo says clients often open up more to someone who is not on site every day.
The feedback is usually small and practical. A 7.30am start instead of 7am because of young kids. Trades parking down the street so the owners can get their cars out. For people living in their home through a renovation, those details matter.
The calls also work as an early warning. If a client says they did not hear from anyone last week, the business is stretching.
“As soon as we see any signs of that customer service wavering, it’s just gonna be, put the brakes on now,” he said.
Showing clients the everyday decisions builds trust before the first quote
Palazzolo started filming himself on site, talking through things that felt routine to him. The termite job became one of those videos.
“For someone that’s not a builder, a potential client, seeing what we go through and the decisions we make on a daily basis is interesting,” he said.
It is a different way of marketing a building business. The content educates rather than promotes, and the payoff shows up at quoting stage. Some prospective clients tell him they feel like they already know him.
A digital marketing company now films, edits and posts the content. After a slow June and July, a change of agency and a move to Meta ads has lifted lead quality, and he told Az the business had work booked through to around April.
Client happiness is the measure of a good builder
Every episode ends with the same question. Palazzolo’s answer was a measure, not a trait.
“I think client happiness is the ultimate measure,” he said.
If a client is as excited at handover as they were at the start, he counts the project a success. Timelines, communication and integrity all feed into it. So does profit.
“If you’re not profitable, you can’t give your client the service that they require,” he said.
That is the thread through everything ATLI does. Not one big system, but a series of small habits that stop little problems turning into lost trust. Growth is fine until the client stops hearing from you. That is the moment to slow down.
Listen to Alex Palazzolo’s full conversation with Az on The Good Builder Podcast.
The Good Builder Take
Most of what Palazzolo describes costs very little. A same day call back. A variation priced within a day. A phone call during the build to ask how it is going.
What it does take is capacity. His cap of four live jobs is the part that makes everything else possible, and it is the part growing builders are most tempted to drop.
Frequently asked questions
According to Melbourne builder Alex Palazzolo, trust is rarely lost in one big event. It erodes through small things such as an unreturned call, an unexpected invoice or not knowing the next stage. Clients who know the next step, or know they will get a same day response, are far less likely to become stressed.
At ATLI Building Company, termite damage is listed as a contract exclusion because it cannot be assessed before work starts. On one recent job the client was called the same day, a pest controller attended the next morning, and a variation setting out cost and time was issued within 24 hours.
A client health check is a call made during a build to ask the client how the project is going and what could be improved. At ATLI the calls are made by someone who is not on site, which Palazzolo says helps clients speak more openly.
There is no single number. ATLI has settled on four live projects at a time, kept within a compact area, as the point where its construction manager can visit each site daily and clients still get the attention the business wants to give.
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- Why client experience was the key ingredient behind a major builder’s growth
Last updated: 6 October 2026
General Information Only: This article is general information only and does not constitute legal, financial or professional advice. Readers should seek advice specific to their own circumstances before acting on any information in it.
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