My husband and I are doing a few home projects this
summer. One includes painting a large
part of the inside of our house and having a few hard wood floors
refinished. We decided to call in a few
professionals to get quotes. One man
came in and gave us a quote verbally to do one room the floor and the
painting. I was not happy that he did
not put it in writing but he and my husband had worked it out so I thought, let
it be. What a mistake! He came in unprepared each time, took a long
time to finish, and then charged us more than he apparently had quoted my
husband.
So, I thought I would just see if it was possible to get a
written quote out of him. He came to finish
up the project and my husband was out of town.
So I told him I wanted a written quote and he informed me that he had
spoken with my husband and gave him a quote verbally to do the rest of the
house. I handed him a piece of paper
with all the rooms listed, what I wanted done and a place for the quote. He then said he didn’t have time that evening
to give me the quote. Really? He didn’t have time to quote what was going
to be a large project? What he told me
was clear. As long as he could get away
without anything in writing, he could charge us what he wanted. As you can guess I told him thanks but no
thanks.
How do you treat your clients? Do you and your employees always stick with
what’s quoted? Do you make sure that
each potential or current client understands what work will be done and what
the price will be? These things can make
or break a client’s confidence in you and your company. As for our house, my husband and I have
decided to do it ourselves. And we found
someone who has provided us with a written quote to handle those things we
can’t do ourselves. The other guy not
only lost our business, but a larger job I had planned to refer to him if he
had done a good job with our house.
Suzanne Cormier
Executive Director
BizWorks (Small Business Incubator)
Follow Suzanne Cormier on Facebook and
Twitter @BizWorksCenter
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