Avoiding the Bad Customer
If she’s dead-set on a color, and you can’t get to her price point, thank her for the opportunity to bid … and move on. Don’t take a risk on an unprofitable job.
Edge profiles are the same way. If Ms. Jones sees an edge profile she wants, but you don’t have the tooling, be honest and offer her your closest alternative. If you get requests for a certain edge profile time-after-time, consider that a serious hint from the countertop gods that you need to upgrade your edge-profile selection.
Since a set of CNC tools is $4,500 at the low end, it’s doubtful you’ll be able to justify the purchase for one job. If you make it a stock profile, and can spread the cost over many jobs, you may be able to make Ms. Jones happy.
Seam placement is also an important item where you need to reach an early agreement. If the customer wants a seam in a difficult place, or doesn’t want a seam at all, make sure your sales staff is trained to check with production before agreeing to the change. Selling a job on a seam placement that subsequently can’t be produced is bound to cause trouble.
Finally, it’s important that Ms. Jones recognizes a realistic timeline for getting her new countertops. Ask her if there is a cutoff date when tops must be installed, no questions asked. If there is, and you can’t meet that deadline, be honest.
This doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll lose the sale. If Ms. Jones discovers that no one else can meet her deadline (or, at least, she doesn’t believe they can) she may come back to you.
In short, don’t overpromise. You may get the job by making false promises, but the resulting unhappy consumer will never send any future work your way.
2. Keep Your Customers Informed About the Process
Don’t just give your customer template and install dates. Describe the progression of creating their countertop, from sale to measure to production to install. And give them an approximate timeline for each step of the process. If they understand the work that’s involved, they’ll be more-comfortable with the spacing between the template and install.
When Ms. Jones calls once a day to ask when her countertops will be installed, she can get bothersome. A clearly defined timeline at the beginning of the job will help prevent this, and may give her the confidence that you know exactly what you are doing.
When Ms. Jones asks how long the install will take, give plenty of cushion. If you tell her you’ll be out of there in three hours and you’re still there after five, she’s going to suspect that something’s gone wrong, and you can bet she’ll inspect those countertops with a magnifying glass.