There’s been several posts lately about bad potential or current customers. What about the good ones? I had one a number of years ago that kept a refrigerator full of soft drinks in the garage for a crew of fifteen. Every Friday he’d take orders for what each person liked and have them stocked by Monday morning. Numerous times he’d show up just before lunch and take orders for what we wanted to eat and order pizza or go pick up deli sandwiches (again, there were usually about 15 working). When he had a small problem less than a year later, he tried to pay me for taking care of what I considered a warranty problem.
I have another customer who has become a good friend. We met when he called me for an estimate.
As I think back, the customers who fixed lemonade or something for us always got little extras done. I’m on a job now that is very unpleasant. No one can wait to get away from that job. They’ll get what they pay for and nothing else.
Replies
I have a list of great customers.
One is retired Beth Steel shipworker and I do a few handyman projects a year for. Last year he gave me a house on the Cape Cod sound to stay in for a week, no charge.
Another comes to mind that I'll never work for again was while jackhammering out concrete steps I asked for a glass of water. She told me "the hose is around back". Hubby was a pencil pusher. They went outta their way to treat me like a second class citizen.
I find my best customers are those who actually did something rather then sit behind a desk. The working class also always tips better then the suits.
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Great idea. We all get our share from both pools. I just had a great one that I finished for last week. The contract was simple. One down payment, one final. She made a lot of little revisions along the way, and so did the interior designer, but none of them were silly or ill informed and she always asked me what I thought and if I had better methods for what they thought they wanted. And she always knew it would be an add on. Along the way twice she just kind of wandered into the room and said "I think I ought to give you some sort of progress payment" and handed me a check, unasked. Come and go as you like, here's the code for the garage door, fridge is yours. I used Jeff Bucks line that she had to pimp me off on her friends and she said "I already have. Gave your card to about five people so far." And she did. Already have more work off of it. Great gal. Sorry that job is done.
"The child is grown / The dream is gone / And I have become / Comfortably numb " lyrics by Roger Waters
My best client I've built 5 additions to his home always keeps drinks in the fridge, gave me a key I keep on my key chain alarm code and all.Calls me when the stom hit his house seconds before it hit mine in time to put the kids up safely we keep up a running tab and trade out parts for work and pays cash for everything.
ANDYSZ2I MAY DISAGREE WITH WHAT YOUR SAYING BUT I WILL DEFEND TO THE DEATH YOUR RIGHT TO SAY IT.
Was building a deck last August in the south Texas heat, and the lady, who was on summer break as a school teacher, would bring out homemade cookies and lemonade.
Not all pencil pushers are snotty. I do work for a bank president who lives in a very very uppity neighborhood, wife doesn't work, and they are the nicest most polite customers you could ask for. Couple of times I have stopped by on the eay home to chaznge a fluorescent lamp in the garage and she hands me a check for $50. I know you'll say soemthing about what my time is worth, but sometimes you do favors for people and don't ask to be paid.
Do it right, or do it twice.
There are customers like that who stick in your mnind for years after the fact.
There was this one lady out in Montrose who had me do a roof and some other things. She always fed me lunch and had the coffee pot in the AM and lemonade in PM. She was about 63 YO and looked not a day over 35 - and that was a good 35 too! I was getting uneasy about all the extra attention until we had a chat one day. Seems that I reminded her of her father because of certain idiosyncracies I had. When I was finished, she gave us a display tiem for our house that her father had made. Gifts make for a special bond between people and that still has a place of honour in our hoime
Excellence is its own reward!
Seems that I reminded her of her father because of certain idiosyncracies I had.
YOU???
Nah.......can't be true.
Joe H
You mean her father skated down the upstairs w/waxed hands and feet too?!?!
Sheesh. And I thought only one person could have done that...Life is too short so eat dessert first, especially if it happens to be Cookingmonster's triple cinnamon truffles or her ginger-fig caramels.
I think that maybe that we are more like our customers than we would like to admit. If we have a nice experience, it is nice, but the bad ones seem to get all the talk and the most memory cells wasted. I have what seems to me to be way more good than bad customers, and hope it stays that way. Gift certificates, old tools, and repeat business seem to be best signs of happiness. The one that made biggest impression on me, gave me a watercolor of a gate that I had just built. Not a fancy one, too small to hang on the wall, but one of the coolest things that I have had done for me. Like most, all I really want is to be treated decent, and I will strive to do the same. Actually have had one customer say that I should charge more, after I was finished for him, please. We should all try to remember to thank those that were nice, maybe it will become popular!
Dan
Edited 8/18/2003 3:47:40 AM ET by handydan
Yep! I have a number of great customers. I have one that calls and leaves a message to tell me what he wants done. I have a key to his house so I go do it and leave the bill on the table. He sends a check. Once he asked me to stop over on a Saturday, took me into the 3/4 bath and said " I want to keep the shower and toilet but anything else you need to do to update this go ahead". I asked what he had in mind and he said "nothing, I want you to update the bath". I did and he liked it.
I have a couple that writes down small jobs until they have something big come up or just get a long list, then they call and we go out and work off the list. Nice folks, always pleasant. I have more but I get tired of typing. I am fortunate to have so many now that I think about it. DanT
Not to highjack this thread, but the same goes for treating contractors, subs. or even the guy who picks up your garbage. If I notice that they do more than I expect, or simply don't complain when I try to get them to do something that technically they don't have to, do I usually offer something (cold water on a hot day, gift certificate at the end of a job, etc.) whatever. Incredible how far that goes and how it all comes back if it is GENUINE thanks, especially in the midwest, where people seem to be only one notch up in cheapness than Texan's.
Jon
HAd a customer recently, her and her husband were the nicest people on the planet. Lunch, drinks, key to the house. Everytime I walked in the door in the morning I'd say, "I'm home". Coffee always waiting for me.
The best part was they recommended me all over town and they know everyone.
Another nice thing they did was write me a letter of recommendation without me even asking. The letter was so nice I almost wanted to cry.....lol.
Its hard too, when you're in someones house over a month making disaray and dust before it finally comes together. I find that after a cpl of weeks no matter how nice you are they want you gone. I also find that being in someones house over two weeks and you need to charge them for being a therapist. Listening to them argue about each others decissions right in front of you... etc etc.....sorry,,thats another thread.
These customers that I loved so much tell me everytime they see me that everytime they walk in their kitchen that I built, my name always comes up.
Then on the other hand.....I've had customers that when I ask for water they (also like a previous poster said) told me the hose is out back.
Doesnt seem to matter how much money someone has but rather if they know what work is all about.
Be well
andy
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On this topic, I had a funny experience.
Gutter crew working on my house, I was home for a few minutes and checked in on them, "how is it going?"
One of them said to me, kind of brusquely, "we're gonna need some water."
So, I went inside, made a big pitcher of ice water, and some glasses for them, thinking that I really should have offered since it was hot out side, but that it was a little bit odd that he said it to me so matter of factly and all...
Got back outside and he just looked at me with a kind of funny look like, "oh, shoot, what have I done!".
Of course, they had their own drinking water, he had just wanted me to point out the garden hose to him for them to check the installation later.
Anyway, back on topic: I have offered drinks, or whatever to contractors/workers so many times and have always been told, "no thanks, we brought our own" that I've found the best approach is to not ask, just to show up with cookies, or doughnuts, and make sure that they know where they are, and they always get eaten up by the end of the day, even if they said, "oh, you did not have to do that".
Norm