Sharon Koehler

Stone Industry Consultant

Photo by Zach Smyser (mouse over for caption)

Installers know that countertops need to be level, and more the uneven the cabinets are, the more you need to shim. This can creates a gap between the cabinets and the countertops. If the gap is small you can caulk it, but if the gap is large and caulk won’t cover it, then wood trim needs to be installed, which is usually the customer’s responsibility. But what usually happens is that the contractor or the customer calls and either says there is a gap or they can see the shims, making it YOUR problem.This has happened to all of us at one time or another. You send your competent, capable, detail-oriented installers out to do a job. They do it. They come back and say everything was great. There were no problems. They move on to the next job. You send an invoice for the current job and you move right along to the next thing. All is well.   

Then, a week later, it happens. The contractor calls and he is not happy. He has just gotten back on his feet from the flu and has seen the job for the first time. He’s yelling! “How could you do that? How could your idiot installers leave the job with a cracked sink? Why didn’t they switch it out for a good one? Surely you have extra sinks. How could they think no one would notice? What are you going to do about it? You need to come and fix this now.” 

He’s one of your best customers. What to do, what to do? So you put a guy with a new sink in a truck and send him out to the job to replace the broken sink. You are now paying a guy to remove it and reinstall a sink. You are paying for gas, drive time and wear and tear on the truck. And, you are out 2 sinks plus the wages of the original installers and possible plumbing back charges as well. You see all your profit in the job driving down the road. Now you are unhappy. 

The installers come back to the shop after working a long day, having absolutely no idea what has happened and there you are, angry. You start telling them what happened and you just keep getting madder. “I can’t run a business like this. You have to be more responsible. If you break it, fix it! Or, tell someone you broke it so they can fix it.” 

Your installers assure you that they didn’t do that. They would never do such a thing. Another trade must have come along and broken it. The last thing you say is, “PROVE IT!” The last thing they say is, “How?”

Now, in the real world, you know that the tile guy or the plumber accidentally dropped a tool in that sink and cracked it. He meant to tell the contractor but the contractor was sick in bed and as time went by, he just forgot. But, you have no proof. You can’t argue your point to the contractor without proof. Well, actually you can but then he won’t be your customer much longer if you start doing that. So you fix the problem and make a mental note to make it up on the next job.

Example #2 – Meet Crystal. She is currently sprucing up her parent’s home to be competitive in today’s real estate market. She works all day so you go in on a lockbox and install the job. The job is done. Your installers walk away thinking they did a great job. Then, several days later, Crystal calls. She is upset and wants to know what sort of operation you are running. The granite on the small cabinet to the right of the stove is crooked and the strip for the slide in range is on the floor in pieces. 

Frustrated, you have your sawyer cut a new stove strip. It is rushed through fabrication for polishing. You put a guy in a truck, send him back out to the job to fix everything and while he is driving away, you see your profit in the job eroding mile by mile. 

The installers come back at the end of the day. You confront them, ask them what happened. They have had a hard day with a huge, complicated install. They are dirty, tired and cranky. They want to go home and here you are bending their ear with something they know nothing about. 

A heated discussion ensues because they’re tired and you’re frustrated. They tell you they don’t know what you’re talking about. When they left the job, everything was great. The all important question is, “Can you prove everything was fine when you left?” And their answer is also, “No.”

Here again, you know that either the electrician or the appliance delivery guy accidentally knocked that granite crooked when they were shoving that range into place. But, since you can’t prove it, you fix the problem so that Crystal won’t give you a bad review on any Social Media sites or won’t bad mouth you to all her friends and co-workers. Social Media and word of mouth can be your best friends or your worst enemies, depending.

So, my question to you is “Why in this day and time, with all the technology flying around, do you or your installers not have proof?” I can see, back in the day, you didn’t want to trust your installers with a big, bulky, heavy, expensive name-brand camera that you have to replace every few months because it got lost or broken or stolen. 

But today with the proliferation of cell phones that can take quality pictures and videos, there are no more excuses. Everybody has a cell phone and potential camera in their pocket. There is no reason your installers can’t do a sweeping 20 or 30 second video and a couple of close-up pictures of the sink area or the stove area when they are done. 

Simply put the paperwork on the countertop to identify the job, take a close-up and then start videoing or snapping pics. Then move on to the next job, put the paperwork on the countertop and start the process all over again. Those three or four extra minutes may save your bacon, someday. 

You don’t have to download them every day. Just leave them in the phone until the job is paid for or until there is a problem and you need them. (Of course, if the phone gets replaced for some reason, be sure and get the pictures off. Don’t let the photos go when the phone goes.) 

Now, I do want to offer up a word of caution – just because you have proof does not mean you should fight every battle. (I believe the proper expression is – “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”) If your best customer has an issue and you fight the battle, you may win but he may take your need to be right as being difficult and argumentative. Do it often enough and he may decide to take his business elsewhere. 

So even with proof, you still may need to acquiesce a bit from time to time. The goal is profit AND retention. You know your customers better than anyone, so let that be your call.

 So: now you have all these great pics and videos sitting in someone’s phone doing nothing. That is such a waste. You know that social media craves pictures. Social media pictures don’t all have to be the glitzy, end result photos. People like to know how things got the way they are. Showing before, during and after pictures on a job is great. If you have a decent picture of anything, it is more than likely fodder for some social media site somewhere. Let pictures work for you.

Sharon Koehler is a 10-year veteran of the stone industry. Currently she is the head of marketing for Artistic Stone Design in Richmond, Virginia and has been a regular contributor to various trade magazines for several years. Any thoughts or comments may be sent to sharon@artisticstonerichmond.com.