Failed to Make Money – Finished the Job Anyway
Here’s a nice clean story for you. Some time back, we QUOTED a bathroom remodel for a customer that was selling their home. Nice and simple. Cut and dry. But here’s the bottom line – it’s called a QUOTE for a reason.
Now, there’s a whole different discussion! In your business, do you provide quotes or estimates? Because they are two very different things. If you use the term “quote” or even have that word on what you provide your customer, then that implies that the customer will be paying the “quoted” amount for the work. It doesn’t mean you can throw in extra hours, unexpected materials or account for your lack of attention to detail as the vendor. That’s just poor customer service and hedges on simply not being reputable.
Estimates for larger jobs is a different topic altogether. Yes, there’s room for the scope of a project to change or expand. An estimate can account for that. It’s the gray area in between that I think we contractor’s have created slippery slopes for ourselves.
Back to our story
So, as we dove into our shower project I realized that the shower doors and time to install were not included on the quote – oops. This was our mistake and we believe it shouldn’t be sprung on the customer especially once the job has already started. Now, how many contractors could you imagine would throw in this little detail at some point later? Sure, they may have a nice enough conversation with the customer to smooth things over – but maybe not!
As a matter of policy, we absorb these types of errors. We do this because it’s OUR ERROR and not on the customer. In this case, we didn’t even mention it to the customer. There was no, “Ya know you got a great deal here because..blah, blah, blah.” We simply finished the job and the customer was happy.
What was the result?
This customer’s recommendations turned into more work and they even hired us on jobs for their new home. Do you think they would have hired us if we sprung the news that things would unexpectedly cost more? Probably not. What’s your use of the term QUOTE VS ESTIMATE?
Here are a few quotes for you to remember…
“Let your yes be yes and your no be no.” There’s power in our words my friends. Like Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben used to say, “With great power comes great responsibility.”
