Sharon Koehler

Artistic Stone Design

The late, great Peter Drucker of Vienna, Austria (not to be confused with the late great Sam Drucker of Hooterville), once said, “The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.” True enough, but I would like to amend that statement to say, “The purpose of business is to create and keep a GOOD customer.” Unfortunately, I cannot debate this issue with Mr. Drucker as he passed on back in 2005.

Let’s face it, not every customer is good for every business. Unfortunately, sometimes we don’t figure that out until it’s too late. The thing is – your business will have to decide what it can live with, and what it can’t. 

Y’all know Elena, right? She is the cabinet lady down the street. Her jobs are organized. Her customers are knowledgeable and prepared. She keeps you apprised of the job schedule well in advance. Her jobs go in on time. She very rarely calls you back for a punch list but when she does, it’s a real, true problem. And to top it all off, she pays on time! And occasionally, when the need arises, you will go above and beyond for her or you cut her some slack, depending on the situation. It’s a good relationship. What more could you ask for in a customer? All customers should be this easy (We wish!). 

Then there is Corey. Corey’s company is a bit larger and a little less organized. Some of their sales people are on point, and some are not. Sometimes things fall through the cracks, and they really need you to jump through some hoops to help keep them looking good to the customer. You find yourself doing some things for him that you don’t do for other people, and he does occasionally call you back for stupid stuff – like attaching the dishwasher to the granite when it wasn’t there at install, and it turns out to be a side mount model. But he does appreciate your efforts, and he pays fairly regularly – not in 30 days, but usually in 45 days. He’s not a bad customer; you just wish he was a bit more organized. 

Kayla and Shane own a moderately large company that does mostly commercial work. Their jobs are usually large and steady. However, their jobs almost never go off on time, they wreak havoc with your schedule. You find yourself jumping through hoops to accommodate them. They call you back on jobs more than they should, and sometimes for things that are not your fault. They are a bit of a slow pay, generally in the 60-70 day range, but their work is steady, large and great for your bank account. They’re a tad troublesome, but so are a lot of other folks.

So far, these scenarios are rather reasonable, but we haven’t talked about Bruce yet. Bruce is a one-man show, but he micromanages EVERY detail of the job. He will probably never be truly successful because he nit-picks every aspect of the job BEFORE the subs are even done. He will start telling the sub how to do their job before anything ever happens, and if the sub disagrees with him, Bruce has no problem calling them names and berating them in front of others. Your installers hate going there because they know he is going to start on them, and create a situation. You hate seeing his name on caller ID because you know he will keep you on the phone forever, complaining about nothing. On the bright side, he pays really fast and you can take solace in the fact that if you were as bad as he says you are, he wouldn’t use you to begin with (and most of the time you wish he wouldn’t call).

 Lastly, there is Jim. Jim owns a remodeling business in the nice part of town. He doesn’t pay commissions, just a flat salary so he has a revolving door of inexperienced designers coming and going. Every job is a problem. He makes promises to customers that neither he nor anyone else can keep. On one occasion his designer took a customer to a local stone wholesaler to look at material, bypassing you all together. They pick a beautiful quartzite that is 115 inches long for the island. The problem is that the island is 122 inches long. Unless the island is downsized, there is going to be a seam. 

You email Jim to let him know there is going to be a seam unless he cuts the island size back by about a foot (having an email paper trail, here, is VERY important!). He says, “OK.” When it’s time to template the job, Jim meets your templater out there and your templater says, “There is going to be a seam in the island.” Again, Jim says, “OK.” The install crew shows up and the homeowner FLIPS out! “Seam?” She screams. “No one told me about a seam! I don’t want a seam in my beautiful island! Are you nuts? Get out! Now!” The install crew leaves after being screamed at by the homeowner and comes back to shop cranky and confused. 

Upon investigation, it comes to light that Jim NEVER told the customer about the seam or about downsizing the island. The homeowner goes back and picks larger material BUT everyone, including Jim, expects you to purchase, fabricate and install it for no additional charge because Jim threw you under the bus and blamed you, even though his customer never darkened your door, no one from your shop ever spoke to her, or had any kind of contact with her. 

Now, if Jim was a good customer, you might meet him halfway just to make a bad situation easier, but Jim is not a good customer. His jobs never go off on time. They are always chaotic and confusing, with a lot of last-minute changes. He has made mistakes before and blamed it on you. He expects your installations to cover up his shoddy installs, or his sub’s inexplicable mistakes, and when they don’t, he gets mad. Plus, on top of all that, he calls you back to jobs time after time to fix things that aren’t even your fault. AND he doesn’t even have the decency to pay on time! He is usually at 180 – 210 days, and the only reason that happens is because you start to hound him about payment. 

The question becomes, “What are you willing to live with?” and if you decide someone has to go, how do you do it? What can you do? 

There are a couple of things.  You can tell slow payers that they need to clear up their past due balance before you do any more work for them. That puts the ball in their court. If they are super slow payers you can also start asking for a 50 percent or more deposit on jobs before you begin the work. You can start extending your lead times to them. It’s hard to argue with, “We are extremely busy right now; it’s going to be three weeks before we get to you.” If you do it often enough, they will get frustrated and look elsewhere. 

You can raise your prices. Go up little by little until you reach their breaking point.

I am certainly not asking you to gouge anyone, but your company’s time is worth money. They should be paying for every call back, every 45-minute phone call, and every mistake that impacts your employees or your schedule. If you know in advance there is going to be a problem (and you know it because there always is), add it to your pricing.

 You could be up front and just tell ‘em you don’t want to work with them anymore. The problem with that is the construction industry is a fickle industry and the person you are talking to today will more than likely be at a new company next year, and he will bring with him the memory of you firing him. Even if you are nice or diplomatic, he won’t remember it that way. So, you don’t really want to do that. 

Look at your accounts and see what you are willing to live with. The answer may surprise you. 

Sharon Koehler is a 10-year veteran of the stone industry and currently head of marketing for ArtisticStone Design in Richmond, Virginia. She has been a regular contributor to various trade magazines for several years. Please send your thoughts on this article to sharon@artisticstonerichmond.com.