The Good Helper
If you can find someone who’s reliable and good with varied hours, you’ll need to evaluate jobsite behavior. It’s important to be friendly with the customers and other contractors, but also to remain focused on the task at hand. If I’m hauling tools back to the truck while my helper chats up the homeowner, that person isn’t going to last.
All conversation with the customer should be about the project. You may care deeply about religion, politics, or MLM product, and I support your right to express those views in the forum of your choice … as long as it’s not my client’s kitchen.
The last thing I want is a helper who says something that offends a customer. You may still get paid for that job, but a person who feels that your staff said something less than professional is probably not going to refer you to their like-minded neighbor.
It’s also important that all specific project questions the homeowner brings up with your helper are referred to you. I’ve had customers who gave us the, “Hey, since you’re here…” line to try and get us to do work above and beyond our contract.
If your helper tells the customer you can help out, you end up looking like the bad guy if you say no. I’ve helped clients re-plumb their kitchen sink because my helper said yes. Not a good way to end a long day.
In addition, you need to make sure someone applying for an install helper position understands exactly what the job is about: heavy lifting, moving tools in and out, and lots of cleaning up on the jobsite. If a person doesn’t have the personality or physique for those tasks, don’t hire them.
My longest-term helper just about mutinied on our very first job together as we moved a 400-lbs island. We walked it down a ramp and set it on the law, and he told me there was no way he was going to be able to move it into the house; it was too heavy. We stood on each end of the island and talked back and forth, as he told me no way. I responded that he didn’t have a choice.
I witnessed a transformation as he convinced himself he could do it. We muscled it into the house and all was well. After that, we never had an issue with the weight of a piece again, and we moved countertops together off and on for three years. I think if I’d have prepared him more for what the job was like, he’d would’ve had the mindset to lift that first piece and saved ourselves some drama.
Lastly, your install helper needs to understand that it’s an entry-level position, and the only way to make substantially more is to become a lead installer. This means working hard and performing well, so the company grows enough for the lead installer/templater to become a full-time templater.
Only then does someone become the lead installer – and only by learning enough skills and showing a reliable track record. Set those goals in front of an entry-level person, and they’ll know the path to success.
Jason Nottestad, a 16-year veteran of the stone industry, is National Customer Service Manager for VT Stone Surfaces; he’s now on his fourth year of “The Installer” columns for Stone Business. He can be reached at JNottestad@vtindustries.com.
This article first appeared in the June 2010 print edition of Stone Business.
©2010, Western Business Media Inc.
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