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Managing customer expectations
Sep. 27th, 2005 06:24 pmDear Handyman Connection,
I think you could use some help in the area of managing your customer expectations. Some people don't know what quality work looks like, and they start to get unreasonable ideas. Here are suggestions for a notice or flyer to give to new customers having tile work done:
Your tile man will be considerate and not smoke in your house if that is your preference, however: Expect your tile man to throw cigarette butts out the window of his truck all the way to Home Depot and back, and subsequently to throw them all over your driveway and front yard.
The cost for this job does not include cleanup - expect to find chunks of baseboard in your bathtub, blobs of mastic and grout on your walls and cabinets and doors and bathtub, and a pile of baseboard debris sprinkled with half-empty bags of dry grout decorating your driveway.
Also expect a coating of mastic and grout slurry all over said driveway and covering your front lawn.
When your tile man does go above and beyond to put large heavy chunks of tile, boxes, and sundry debris into the garbage can, remember that he is not from around here. He has no idea that the green can he filled up with heavy junk is the yard waste can and that your city will not pick it up if it contains anything other than green waste. You can just shift it all over to the general garbage can yourself.
Your tile man is a professional with more than 10 years' experience, but he is still a man and gets tired in the afternoon, so the nice neat 1/4 inch lines between tiles may grow and become irregular near the doorway as he works his way backward out of the kitchen. Especialy if the alternative is cutting more tile. Also, those odd little squares where it *looks* like he cut the tile wrong and then just grouted it in anyway leaving a square of grout where tile might otherwise be - those are decorative. Really.
The tile man does tile - do not expect him to understand (despite the aforementioned ten years' experience) that when you put in over 3/8 inch of tile and mastic that your doors may not properly open and close thereafter. If it is easy he will take care of it with only a bit of whining. If it is not easy, you must threaten to call his boss and hire someone else. That will stop the whining.
Also do not expect the tile man to remember in advance that you must also purchase items such as replacement baseboard and those nifty aluminum transitions between carpeted and tiles areas. He has only been doing this for ten years, give him a break! What's wrong with yet another trip to Home Depot? Don't you like country music?
These additions to the work contract or in a friendly letter will give your customers a better idea of what happens during their tiling experience. Have a nice day.
I think you could use some help in the area of managing your customer expectations. Some people don't know what quality work looks like, and they start to get unreasonable ideas. Here are suggestions for a notice or flyer to give to new customers having tile work done:
Your tile man will be considerate and not smoke in your house if that is your preference, however: Expect your tile man to throw cigarette butts out the window of his truck all the way to Home Depot and back, and subsequently to throw them all over your driveway and front yard.
The cost for this job does not include cleanup - expect to find chunks of baseboard in your bathtub, blobs of mastic and grout on your walls and cabinets and doors and bathtub, and a pile of baseboard debris sprinkled with half-empty bags of dry grout decorating your driveway.
Also expect a coating of mastic and grout slurry all over said driveway and covering your front lawn.
When your tile man does go above and beyond to put large heavy chunks of tile, boxes, and sundry debris into the garbage can, remember that he is not from around here. He has no idea that the green can he filled up with heavy junk is the yard waste can and that your city will not pick it up if it contains anything other than green waste. You can just shift it all over to the general garbage can yourself.
Your tile man is a professional with more than 10 years' experience, but he is still a man and gets tired in the afternoon, so the nice neat 1/4 inch lines between tiles may grow and become irregular near the doorway as he works his way backward out of the kitchen. Especialy if the alternative is cutting more tile. Also, those odd little squares where it *looks* like he cut the tile wrong and then just grouted it in anyway leaving a square of grout where tile might otherwise be - those are decorative. Really.
The tile man does tile - do not expect him to understand (despite the aforementioned ten years' experience) that when you put in over 3/8 inch of tile and mastic that your doors may not properly open and close thereafter. If it is easy he will take care of it with only a bit of whining. If it is not easy, you must threaten to call his boss and hire someone else. That will stop the whining.
Also do not expect the tile man to remember in advance that you must also purchase items such as replacement baseboard and those nifty aluminum transitions between carpeted and tiles areas. He has only been doing this for ten years, give him a break! What's wrong with yet another trip to Home Depot? Don't you like country music?
These additions to the work contract or in a friendly letter will give your customers a better idea of what happens during their tiling experience. Have a nice day.
