This week on The Huddle Paul, Daniel, Jose meet up with some special guests (Charlotte Mendez from Craftsman Hardwood Flooring out of San Angelo, TX and John Steier from Steier Flooring out of Algona, IA) to discuss making and maintaining lasting relationships with homeowners while doing residential work.

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The HUDDLE is where the flooring industry can get together and talk about everything! Lead by Paul Stuart from Go Carerra who is joined by Daniel and Jose Gonzalez from Preferred Flooring.

https://www.preferredflooringmi.com

https://www.stuartandassociates.com

welcome to the Huddle we're coming to

you every single Tuesday to discuss maintaining poor progress in your flooring career we really designed the

podcast around that particular thing maintaining forward progress in your flooring career so we go over topics

and best practices and um you know opportunities to improve

your business every week uh with me as always is Mr Daniel and

Jose Gonzalez with preferred flooring out of Michigan I'm Paul Stewart with go Carrera and

Stewart and Associates this week is part three of uh three of a

four-part series based on relationships uh or centered on relationships

we talked about General Contractors last last week where uh is the bulk of our

business and and most of what I've done over my career this week we're talking about homeowners and that is your guys's

uh I think you know Silo better than myself uh we

do maybe five homes a year generally it's a uh general contractor's house or one of

our Architects house or something like that um we don't really have a showroom or

anything like that uh from a residential standpoint that being said I've done some uh quite

a bit over my career but dealing with homeowners uh typically brings some

particular pitfalls and and particular uh advantages as well and some some

opportunities so I thought we'd start off with um

me just telling a brief history because we don't do that much so mine's going to

be real brief and then I'll turn it over to you guys and we can have a good discussion based on how to build

relationships with these uh with these homeowners so you can get some repeat business and uh have a great reputation

so most of my career has been in commercial flooring that's how it started uh when I started subcontracting

around uh 98 um we you know I obviously did some

residential uh work I had both gamuts of residential work

back then and it wasn't really dealing directly with homeowners much I was

working with a really high-end uh and interior designer and so I do a lot of

wool carpet and things like that and um I really got my butt handed to me a few

times on that I hadn't been properly trained on how to install wool and uh

well we'll just leave it at that uh and then I had a guy that owned

I guess you call him slumlord is the the best uh slang word to use

he owns a very large portion of a area that used to be military housing and

um really kind of low end lower end homes and uh back in the old L.D

Brinkman days I would buy carpet for beldi Brinkman and uh sell the whole package to him for nine dollars a yard

and stalled so um I did everything from installing uh 12 a yard for just installation on

the wall to uh nine dollars a yard furnish carpet pad and installation

we did a brief time in 2000 and 2002 we had uh the first to my knowledge

the first real mobile showroom and at the time we had taken a eight foot box

truck and turned it into a showroom um and started doing residential

we did that for about a year figured out real quick that it just was not real

um it didn't fit our wheelhouse of of business and so we got out of it but a

few things I learned in that time homeowners value their vacation almost

as much as their money and if you mess up their vacation to replace their carpet and you do not get

their carpet done in time or something goes wrong you are in trouble

or at least that was my experience uh they my I hate to say this and I'd love

to see if you guys have a counter or if I'm just off on this with my limited amount of experience

but I found them often working to try to get something for free

or we scratched something that they wanted replaced

and every time we got those those items

uh brought up it was a it was just not a fun discussion

um so we were in it for a year we did a bunch of work in that year but

um I I found it was it was just complicated to operate from a commercial mindset

and do Residential so that's kind of my limited uh experience

um what is your guys's I I know you guys have done residential still do

Residential um probably much better uh suited to

talk about this topic and how you guys have succeeded in building those relationships with those uh those

homeowners so kick it off whoever wants to jump I'll

go ahead and get started and and I just want to I just want to clarify yes uh we do commercial and residential but we are

still primarily a commercial outfit um the the residential that that we have

obtained is through our connections through the general trades

um or through uh the the support that we've given to our school district and you know it's kind of returning the

favor and it's kind of unfortunately over the battle uh from from helping out little

leagues and school teams and all that so professional won't be our first choice

it wouldn't be um because you there there is a lot to it that we still need to work on all

right like you said the the small little things because me as a consumer I know

that I'm very picky right and I expect the I expect uh the homeowners to be as

well and it's just one of those things where if

you grew up in the commercial industry and you step into someone's home totally different here you have to prepare

yourself uh for change um

can I oh looks like we dropped him you're on me there Daniel it looks like

we dropped Jose tell him to shut his video here he goes

back on clarify maybe maybe Daniel real quick did did you guys start in

commercial or do you start in residential or did you just kind of out of the gate do both they all said turn

her video off to say bandwidth

we started we started in commercial right so that

that's where everything started from and then like like you you see something and uh it

it's like in the the book traction they call it shiny things hey residential just

fall under my left let me see what what happens and you you start going over

there and then dealing with the homeowners and stuff and personally I don't like residential like

when something like that comes across I'm just like hey you guys can handle this I can

handle something else because I don't have that like kind of like we

were talking about with Crystal like she has that um the patience and stuff to deal with

people and in the commercial world we were talking like I'm more let me get

in there boom boom boom things aren't going to go my way that's how it's going to be with homeowners it's a little more

uh where can I be today well how can we work with you because this that that's

that's their home man that's something that they're that's their livelihood right it's not something that they're

just gonna go and work eight hours and then skate it's where they're gonna come home to try and be themselves after work

and that's a little bit more uh more tricky to to work around than it is so when you're in a commercial world and

you're just you know balls to the wall trying to get everything done that you can it's more give and take than it than

the commercial world so we we started in the commercial we are doing residential

and it's not something that we advertise um

so you guys are a lot like us then just maybe still doing more uh it it sounded

like you guys did a fair amount and maybe um

but it appears you're about like us like you really started in commercial did

commercial and then the residential that comes your way you do but you don't get

out advertised you know right and and we tell people straight up you know when they come to us it's

if if we're really residentially if we're being put against other people

into like a bid situation like if they're getting numerous votes we'll we'll pretty much lose every time

um the guys that and and it sucks for these guys because we we know them and we talk to them on a

regular basis but the the rates that some of these stores are going in at is like the only way for them to make money

for the most part is to cut Corners wherever they can and bang out as much

yardage in a day as they can and we try and sell our jobs so it's not

like that so you know when someone goes in there it's we're using seam sealer we're we're

using the right kind of tape or power stretching we're not just kicking stuff in and that's um

it's hard to explain to people sometimes the difference because

all they look at is the bottom dollar and they don't look at

what they're getting with that that money it's low is best because I'm trying to

spend the least amount of money and it isn't until you know they get burned and a lot of a lot of the stuff

that we actually get residentially is from people that have been burned by

some of the bigger guys in town and they're like we don't want to deal with them anymore

can you help me yeah can you guys hear me at all oh yeah

we can hear you now okay I just wanted to make sure that yeah Daniel's right but about all that

and and I do a lot of the residential bids or estimates I would say because we've not really been and he's

absolutely right we don't uh aggressively go after them but um the ones we do get were sought after

um because of the issues and we're problem solvers and I don't know how much of that conversation you guys got

before I like my screen just flashed went blank

it's funny Daniel's in the Bahamas and is just looking awesome sounding great

you're right here in the U.S and we're having Tech difficulties there yeah I

I'm sitting out in front of a Home Depot because it was the closest parking lot to pull over that's probably what it is they're

stealing they're stealing my signal so how many how many residential

projects will you guys do in a year uh we've had quite a few this year a lot

it's actually that that segment of our stuff is growing and

um we went from like two percent uh a few years ago to we're probably

probably pushing around you know eight to ten percent right now I'm I'm guessing I haven't ran the numbers but

that's that's fairly accurate I feel like that's fairly accurate the 10 mark

we have some emotions going on here huh yeah

Charlotte welcome to the call thank you

so um you guys do a fair amount of residential go ahead and like let's get

into the relationship piece of that what's the what's the uh what's the trick

what's your guys's uh approach to dealing with homeowners and making them raging fans

of your your company or your your installation business or whatever

um you guys may be a part of

Jose Daniel anyone well so pretty much do is residential so

um we're Craftsman hardwood flooring in San Angelo Texas and that's that's our

main clientele is homeowners um we pretty much you know are a Craftsman

store we you know we're about our services our customer service our craftsmanship and people kind of just

know us and they'll gravitate towards us versus you know going to a we basically

specialize in in hardwood um some laminate but mostly just hardwood we do custom design floors you

know herringbone patterns and stuff like that and so you know they're it's basically we're

just marketing ourselves as you know the people to come to if you need you know floor restoration or if you need

hardwood flooring I mean and they pretty much we've had we just got a reputation

around in the area yeah and so you're a niche uh flooring company so you're you kind of stay in

that one vertical or somewhere close to it with Hardwoods and and custom work

um is there other competitors in your area that do at least have the same

approaches you guys no there's no one in the area that just specializes in what we do I mean people

know that we are the go-to in this area there is other hardwood installers I

mean as far as we know there's maybe one other one and he only does solid hardwood on restorations in the old

homes um the other companies you know we actually have we used to work for a lot

of the other um companies in the area before we opened up our retail end of the store so

they can't call us anymore so I really have no idea who they're using but um

you know we end up you know going back and like Jose was saying going back and

fixing you know other people's problems you know so um my son Matt Garcia is the

owner of the store and he's just like super meticulous about not making mistakes we rarely have any job that you

know has messed up and to go back with and like I said we're going back in the area and fixing other people's mistakes

so what what kind of um challenges and uh

maybe some pitfalls that we can share with the audience on

dealing with homeowners in general and how do you build those relationships you're you're unique because you you

have a bit of Advantage being kind of the only one doing that in your area but you still

have to satisfy the client and take care of the client and do the right things so John does a lot he does everything so

how do you how do you do that and maintain that that loyalty from the

homeowner well the first of all we we try you know we're we're geared to I'm

the sales person in the store so you know they call on the first uh person that they touch base with here and so

you know we talk about we we I don't get into like what they want or what you know whatever we talk about their

projects uh you know what is their lifestyle their family dogs you know and

you know honestly we want to get them the right product if we're not the right product we'll we'll send them to

somebody that will be the right product and so that's how they we get their

words in fact this morning I had a client that actually ended up not using

us because of her budget and you know we understood that and she's bringing another client in that does have the

budget uh to come in and look at you know the floors that we provide here and

so that's the ultimate of loyalty she wasn't even our customer but she loved

the way that we went out there Matt had done a custom design for her you know when it was all done and said she just

didn't have it in her budget and sometimes that's just the way it is but the fact that she's bringing another

client back to us speaks huge so it's basically we're not trying to you know

make money off of them we really want to provide a service we want to solve their problems we want to you know be able to

uh give them what they they want we want them to come back in 10 years and say I'm so glad that you talked me into this

flooring you know because if I would have went with you know per se vinyl plank it would have been replaced by now

but this floor still looks beautiful 10 years later and that's exactly what you told us and we also guarantee

um Matt will go back and look we we do the lifetime of the floor guarantee

um which means you know obviously if there's you know flooding or something like that that's not included but you

know if it for some reason something pops somewhere I mean Matt will just go check it out it's no big deal it's like

that's just part of our customer service is to be there we answer the phones you

know we we we make them feel like whatever their problem is is important

so last week when we were talking about General Contractors and and such we

discussed actually showing them you care it sounds like that's what you do with the homeowners you you prove you

actually care uh at the end of the day what they end up with and that their long-term happiness with their floor is

uh utmost important to you we follow up with them too I've developed a basket

that I give them that has cleaning instructions um for how to take care of their hardwood floors what products to use

what products not to use which is huge um you know we we just we provide that

follow-up service you know and they really appreciate it and you know we're we're providing a quality service for

them and that we truly you know maths the same way as Mia you know I can still ask to an Eskimo but only if I believe

in the eyes yeah yeah thank you Facebook go ahead Daniel

it's about customer expectation uh be precise and detailed on what the

customers to expect and what they expect from you always under promise and over deliver

it's kind of you know where you're getting that that's everything afterwards right because not a lot of

other stores are gonna provide that that kind of information or the actual cleaning materials and stuff like that

so that's awesome that you guys do that yeah John welcome to the call yeah yeah thank

you thank you honored to be here uh and I caught the the first part and I I

would I am mainly a residential installer I I kind of go with the slogan

of a man and a van and uh I sell it all I install it all but um uh

they you guys we were talking about you know uh I get when your business gets to a certain size it's hard to be

competitive in a residential market and me even being a smaller size it's it's

at times difficult but I think the um the challenges you know that I look

at that I see in my area might be you know different from other areas not in

your area John so rural uh blue collar uh working class

and that's that's uh what I have yeah this is your this is your time for a plug brother yeah

so I got uh Steyr four in here in Algona Iowa it is uh I mean truly we are in the

middle of nowhere you know I I I was just down in Wichita Kansas and I thought you know some of those areas

just definitely reminded me on the drive there of Algona you know but uh definitely uh uh um uh

um Midwest town I mean uh real real uh uh just kind of a home body type people

um and that's that is my that's my customer base and I'm aware of it I know that

that's that's the sir the the clientele that I want to serve and and so

um one comment that I wanted to make is because I heard this you know uh while I

was actually down in Wichita and it just comes to you know pricing you know you get you get in that residential Market

you know and everybody's on a race to the bottom and I I truly don't believe

that's true um and I think you can see that by with just how people live their lives now you

know you can pull into somebody's driveway and and I'm on you know before I even go into that house I'm looking

around like okay they've got a well-kept yard their vehicles are clean their garage is organized these people like

nice stuff so to me that's almost kind of easy to sell at that point because you can you

can sell value these people understand it um where vice versa

um you know I get maybe if you're not in a neighborhood like that that might be that might be it might be a challenge

moving forward I think some of it may be your average homeowner is not when we're

taking residential and Commercial and like comparing them a bit uh your

average homeowner just it's harder to sell value when they don't understand the difference between One Carpet and

the next or one LBT in the next and they look at you maybe not in your area but in a lot of areas they look at the

salesman and it's just that a Salesman whereas when you're when you're talking to an architect or general contractor

about you know what floor is appropriate for their project you're talking they

understand some of the terminology whether you're you're talking about different types of buying final for a

hospital or different types of carpet and why to use that type of carpet in in

this area versus another you you got a little bit of understanding there I think you just have to educate the

homeowner more is that what you're saying yes yeah uh people will and that's the

uniqueness I think of what I have is as I'm the guy coming back to put it in so they're already reaching out to you know

hey we need to know we we want carpet but should we put carpet in our hallway because we're unsure of you know we got

a very busy household and I I think when you only in the bathroom

shag up the walls um you know I I am I'm very comfortable

in the residential Market I I am and uh and I think it's it's a lot um Daniel made the comment that it is

you know when you work I I'll kind of get a little sidetracked but I'll come right back two commercial

jobs I sold this year are 50 or uh 10 of of my total gross sales only two you

know so that just goes to show you that it don't take a whole lot of work on that side to keep a guy like me busy so I get that so when you're doing like

residential and and I've got let's say four jobs that week I got four personalities I

gotta juggle them I gotta get in the right mindset that okay yes yes so I it does take a unique

individual to do that and it even as an installer where you might not be on the part of the

sales part of it you're just showing up to do the install you've got to have that mindset that today you might be in

Mrs Jones home and and she's very quiet and keeps to herself and then tomorrow you're in Tom's home and he's a lonely

guy that just wants to chit chat your ear off and how do you balance that and and uh continue working and and be known

as you know this is the go-to guy because you can you can not only are you a Craftsman with your hand and your

skills but you have some you know I'm gonna use the word like maybe some Verbal Judo to some degree

you can take on those situations and what's your and I know John I know John

too like on a personal level too like John is very is very uh good at

articulating himself and he is very versatile in any in any atmosphere so that helps him out too and maybe maybe

that's one of those things where it definitely helps to to be able to articulate yourself and be

like well Bruce Lee we don't like water my friend yeah a quick

observation John here is you got to be aware it sounds like to me

you're super aware of who you're dealing with um being aware of their home when you

pull up or the type of person and being able to um like you said you know kind of uh

Verbal Judo uh or probably even personality Judo in a way

um with all the different uh personalities and make people feel important I do know

from a human perspective like we all want to feel important we all want to feel like somebody's noticing us and and

um uh you know feel like we're valued so when you're able to do that

obviously that resides well with them I got a follow-up question I know Daniel wants to say something but just real

quick what are the some of the key pitfalls so we can add some value to people watching

what are some key pitfalls that that somebody maybe whether they're new uh to

the to the flooring industry all together or maybe someone like myself who does commercial

mostly what are what are some of the pitfalls with owners with homeowners and

and kind of how do you maneuver around those or turn them into a superpower what do you do there and and what are

those pitfalls uh for me it it's kind of like what Charlotte said

um I live in a very rural area we all we're gonna see I'm gonna see my clients at a football game I'm gonna see my

clients at the grocery store and it's providing that service that might not even be a flooring service

I might be at their house in their air conditioner and and they're I mean this is a true story their air conditioner

ain't working and they can't who do I call to fix my air conditioner and it might just be we're all contractors we

all got each other's phone numbers I'm going to call it I you know I'm gonna sound like I'm real important oh yeah this is John steyer steyer flooring over

at Mrs Jones you know her air conditioner ain't working can you what do you guys get down there and so I

might not win that um that that job because uh you know it

might be one that's just a budgeted job and and I personally me I'm not the guy for those jobs like I'm not the race to

the bottom sharp in the pencil kind of guy it is what it is um but I think you know it go you know

one thing going back to it is learning communication and soft skills and I think that is such a tough

thing you I think people either just have the ability to learn it or or to conquer it or they just don't have it

um it's that is a tough skill and I think as a residential installer it's it's almost like that is the one thing

that's going to set you above anybody because they're going to remember how nice you were or how pleasant you were

um because they don't understand the whole technical point of installation but they understand human nature and how you treated them

good Insight I think that um just a side note is it's I don't want

people to be discouraged here um I I would tell you that John the way you

deal with people is the exact opposite of how I dealt with people which is probably a good Testament to why I

didn't do so well in the residential

pretty young at the time but I was there to provide a service

figured if I did good install I didn't have to be the most personable person I

didn't know anything about human nature or humans as a you know like human needs

or or understanding people's uh problems I just was there it was a good installer

I'm here to install your floor uh if you want to chit chat I might give you five or ten minutes at

the end of the job but that's about all I got for you you you've really it

sounds like you and Charlotte and Charlotte's son I've I'm Sorry Charlie I forgot his name off the top my head here

but Garcia Matt yeah so you guys tend to have that

um that skill almost already built in I had to learn it it took me a long time to

learn um but guys I'm I'm telling you now you can learn the skill it really is based

on human emotion and human Tendencies and the human needs you can investigate

and research those three topics and really dive in and you can get a lot

better at it if you are like the old Paul it was kind of a jerk and and didn't you know I wanted to do good work

but I wasn't the most personable person so um yeah anyway just wanted to point out

that there you can get better but you you sound like you got it in spades for sure yeah and I was gonna ask you

know because you said that you don't really do the race to the bottom thing but I

didn't know how your competition was you had a lot of people that are around like that because we get some people that

come to us and it's like this is the material I want and we are sometimes we're like you should not use this

material but they're the salesman that they talked to before like sold them on it so well that they do not

want to change their mind and how do you how do you go about something like that

I truthfully don't ever believe in changing somebody's mind that's just that that's led to me in the past with

that buyer's remorse and I hate that where they they just you you they've come in they've wanted something I can't

get it I don't want to get it or for whatever reason it just I've got them to switch

um I I think that's the one unique thing about small communities we are not saturated in my area with flooring

installers flooring stores um I mean it's slim there's more if I

wanted to get a divorce today I could find more lawyers to help me than if I needed my carpet bedroom installed I

mean truthfully and and that is the one benefit we have around here is

yes I know I know I'm higher priced than a lot of places I I don't have I mean

truthfully I just don't have a way of knowing how much shopping around goes in I I do know that when I get asked to bid

projects like we need a bid we're accepting bids I I am up front with them right away

that you know for me to bid this I just want you to know that I'm not gonna there's there's I'm gonna miss something

if I'm the lowest guy on this bid like there's something I'm leaving out so if they know that going into it it kind of

just saves me that that time there too of not having to deal with that but I I'm very well aware that like like in

your case Daniel with what you guys do you know I mean everybody's trying to get in there and you know it's it can be

a matter of just a couple bucks on a huge project that you know sets you apart from the next one and it might not

be you know you guys might all be good you know all good installers all great salesmen

um I I just don't deal with that a whole lot in my area so that's my one plug for living in rural America right there

that's actually pretty good man and so you have an opportunity to I don't want to say control the market but you're

you're essentially setting a standard in your area and that's awesome um well still I mean I mean just

guessing there there are still other options right correct so back to the

pitfall because I really want to make sure that we we focus on the relationship of that you get with it do

you get a lot of uh return customers yes so that that's what's gonna that's

what's Gonna Keep Me in business so how did you what what are the what are the things that were tough to deal with with

a homeowner but you were able to overcome them and maybe even turn them into a a positive like what what for

somebody just watching like they're they're gonna go into their first homeowner's appointment

the homeowner wants whatever it is you can make the story up but they're going in and gonna show some some flooring or

someone comes into the showroom it's their first experience what should they expect from homeowners that is that you

found unique to to kind of your business and then how do you overcome that

um as as great as Google and the internet is they're still for my this is for me

they're still coming in wanting to know what to do and

I can send it it to me it's tough to to you know get the points you know

they they'll go online they'll read I want vinyl plank flooring I need vinyl

plank flooring and you think oh yeah I got a great sale here here we go and you go to the house

and it turns out that they've got four layers of something over here carpet in

here that's that is a big floor prep is a big obstacle in in my opinion for me for

residential remodel that is the and I'm still working on it because my floor prep can be way more than

anything else on that estimate and so when my customers in the shop they come in here and I'm pretty good with my

numbers like I know what my square foot price of carpet's gonna cost I'd roughly know what my square foot of Labor is going to be but I never know what floor

prep is going to be and so I quote them x amount of dollars square foot and I go look at their project and they've got

ceramic tile laid on top of sheet vinyl with two layers a quarter inch subfloor

and the doors are barely open right now and it's hard to at that point articulate the amount of cost it's going

to take for them to put this new floor in and you know address the door at the height

issues address issues with appliances address uh base moldings

and so I would say as a as a a new installer you want to you want to get

make yourself very aware of everything else that goes into play when purchasing

you know a floor like that you know it's not because you can't go in I mean it's going to be really hard for you to say

yeah we're going to come in and just demo out your house when you're living in here but you got to come in with a bunch of jackhammers and shop vacs and

I mean that that's something that really needs to be addressed right up right uphand so so based on what he's saying

right now and what I've seen on some of the like retailer groups it's like

completely different because he's like make sure you have all this stuff in line you go on those retailer groups

where it's just store owners and they sub out um you know most are all of their work and they they always say sell

the job worry about the details later so so don't worry about all that stuff later and then it it gets to a point to

where it's like well who's gonna end up worrying about it probably the installer that walks in the door and then we look

like the a-holes because it's like oh there's a bunch of stuff here that we're

gonna have to address yeah I've always thought the the retail sales people

have got to have uh because they get complained about a lot I I don't have

enough history myself to to say good you

know speak good or uh negative comments about it all I can tell you is that on

the Facebook groups are different you know installer conventions it's like

the the salesman at a retail store is like the most hated person

yeah information I think that they don't add

in there and well they need to be up front here's what I've heard from both Charlotte and John

educational selling educate your client on what to expect educate and that bodes

right with what um the the uh one of the audience members

brought up there Daniel right like Edge setting the expectation yep yeah so like

educating your your client on what to expect on a floor prep situation or what

to expect long term from a flooring that they want um and then managing that expectations

so that when they get that thing that injury result that they knew they get

what they expected that's what I hear the the most I don't I I think that's the problem with

regular salesmen like you're gonna go and install it John so you're going to sell it the way that you're gonna install it a salesman's trying to get a

cell is is almost fearful of the flooring the

the real issue like you said that could be even more expensive than the fluorine itself is

the demo and the floor prep uh yes and and it's

that's a gross Miss I I think that's how do I put this

that's a that's a terrible way to get a cell because then the person following you like Daniel alluded to there when

you're going in afterwards that or going in to install the flooring the the installer that's there's at a

disadvantage from day one he's got to tell him oh you got you know

75 bags of self-leveling that's needed in this facility or in your home well

how much is that going to cost oh installed it's probably around 80 bucks a bag yeah yeah like I mean we run into

situations like that too and because we were the installation outfit who did the

sale it was a little bit easier to to explain right but like if uh I'll put an

example we had a gentleman doing some curb it on another uh one of our installs on a residential job and he

came back and said hey there's some issues with this floor like and dude like they they did chicken wire and they

packed Concrete in there over what substrate and you know and it was like

all right dude I know that you're not going to deal with that I'll just come in I'll deal with it and you've got to let the client

know and it's it's hard to prep anybody for that um but like you said if you're not prepping if

the sales person isn't prepping for uh circumstances that could happen as a

variable the installer is looking bad because now the installer is looking like their hand

is out wanting more money um and they still they're just a middleman anywhere they're putting the

sales person to the point to be middleman where they have to mediate and who's gonna lose like I've been on

the losing side of that as the installer for another company on a residential job or even directly to a homeowner

um those are hard to maintain relationships with because you do look like the bad guy and yeah

feels like a bait and switch doesn't it if I'm at home I'm told that it's going

to cost me you know four thousand dollars for this new lvt in my home and then the installer says I need to spend

another three thousand dollars to to actually do it well it feels like a bait and switch

to a homeowner I would I would guess and and that's where we talked about last week too when we were talking about like

moisture mitigation and stuff it's like I don't want to do this like it in a

perfect world I'd just go in there lay the floor and be done that's what I want to do but if we don't you're not going

to be happy yeah I I think it's all it sounds like

to me one of the most important parts to all this and you guys can correct me if I'm

wrong here but it's it's just educating the homeowner on uh not the processes and the products

themselves there you go and making sure that they're well informed about what they're buying and what they should

expect at the end I mean yeah that sounds like most problems they're

they're whole I mean residential you know like you get into it and the one thing that I always I mean it doesn't

matter whatever job you're working on that day that's the most important job you're going to do that's just how I've

always looked at it and and managing that expectation and uh

you know I and Jose is going to comment on this I know and I'm not one I don't like throwing people under the bus

um because I you know so so like with with sales I get it but you're only is

you only know what you know and so if if you know we we talk about installers not

being trained well well how what does that say about our our sales staff too if they're not trained you know if if if

we're aware of moisture issues height issues there's this whole list of stuff

that's in in our description of our flooring our sales staff needs to be aware of it and I don't think it needs

to be overly complicated discussing this with the homeowner um

um of the of these of these issues that can arise I mean I don't think you need to start throwing money around right

away I think it's just more of an issue of well I'm going to pull your vent out over here it looks as though you've got

three layers of floor I'm gonna put together some options for you best best

procedure to move forward I'll let you decide and go from there because once that

installer shows up the last thing he wants to do is is make a phone call and have to stop what he's doing because

this wasn't addressed when you think about it when they send the installers out there as soon as he stops he's not

making any more money 100 well I'm the homeowner like I said at the very

beginning you know they really value their time off I mean one of the biggest butt Tunes I've ever got in my entire

life was from a lady who took off vacation to to redo the carpet in her

house and the carpet came in a day late I I owed her for her time off and I owed

her for her to reimburse her for a vacation time I mean it was so like

if if that's true and that might just be my experience but they lost their they could be losing

those days right there the homeowner themselves are I mean really both the

installer and the homeowner then are the victims of the scenario I mean that's why we started saying all right we'll

call you when the carpet gets here to schedule only about 18 years

[Laughter] do you guys no I got a question for you

guys because you know me being where I'm at we get keys dropped off all the time we get garage door codes we get told to

help ourselves the fridge I mean is that a common thing in your area neck of the woods or is it like like what you said

there I've always wondered about that Paul is that a you know we expect you know part of our installation

um procedure is the homeowner will be at the house while our crew is working yeah I mean I think there's some that

will you know in my area and I I honestly I can't speak I can tell

you that all my clients like give us keys and stuff but it's a little bit different because they're a general contractor we do all their you know work

for or whatever um I think what what about you guys Daniel and uh most of the time they that

the ones that I've worked on they actually like to be there the entire time um there's sometimes when I'm there and

it isn't until you know they get that face to face they they talk to you for a little bit and then like yeah all right

you guys good all right yeah yeah so most of the residential sales go through me

um and when through the whole process I reassure them that you know they've had

a lot of people have had bad experiences and that's why what led them to us in the first place and I reassured them over and over again

that this is our profession this is what we do for a living um there's nothing that I am going to do that is

going to not have their best interest on on the top of my list

um and sometimes dangerous right sometimes you start out with the homeowner there and then once they get a

little acclimated to you they're like oh you got this all right I'm leaving um and we'd rather have it empty because

we just like to work right but it's not always the case sometimes you get those clients that like to learn a little bit

and ask you a lot of questions those are that's okay too um and then John just to go back about

your food and all that stuff like going in the fridge we've been put in situations like that and

some people crew-wise some people like to take advantage of that yeah some people will prefer not to do that

um so we've we've been the victim of both sides of that where we felt I'm always I'm always leery with that stuff

man I don't wanna we've done it you ate all my Candy like yeah like two

people had some candy you told us help yourself the biggest thing is uh like using the

restroom at the residents like that's going to be a Make It or Break It on the next phone call for sure

I had a client come in so I had to Dart out for a second but we most of our

clients I mean we get they're not there and sometimes they're there because they have to be there and they just stay in another room I don't

know if it's our area and just the high trust Factor but we also focus in on leaving our areas clean and no hand

prints on the walls and just making sure we had one of our guys that choose and you know it's like whatever but don't

live your spittoon Cup on the job and he he did that like one time and that was a

little annoying but we try to make them very conscientious of being very respectful say hey this is like your

home I mean what would you want somebody in your home doing right if you had someone working in there yeah

Daniel looks like he's got somebody churning butter in the background I know I think that's Jose you made a great

point there about the restroom and so you know I'm gonna back up you guys remember when covet hit that was a big

deal for us like I you know we went into people's homes we were clean we cleaned their bathrooms just so it would smell

clean because every you know the whole germ thing that's got to become like a practice that's that's kind of become a

practice for us now it's just a great we've always got those little bleach wipes I don't care I'll put a rubber

glove on clean up everybody's you know mess even if it's your kids I don't care I think that's one thing I tell you what

you want to make somebody's day have them come home to a clean bathroom and uh they they know you did it but we

always do ask if you know we can use a hall bath or uh um a basement bathroom because we're at

your house working we don't want to leave to go to the gas station and we're going to be there eight hours you gotta you know expect us to you know we're

gonna use the bathroom yeah I I'd say commercially the bathroom thing actually resides pretty well uh a

lot of times we're using porta johns and such but once say on a hotel job they

get the toilets in the upper floors and people start using the bathrooms and they start looking like

looking like contractors are using the bathroom yeah we can do anybody that

watches this on YouTube or is watching now we can do better guys

at least all right well um

what uh you know we've talked about a lot of uh the

I would almost call them sales methods but they're they're really relationship

building tools do you guys do any like uh gift cards at the end or like do you

listen to your client um want our business developer she's for

our company she's really good in the commercial World listening to our client and all of a sudden she'll

show hand she'll like homemade chili and take it to our contractor's office or

they love chili she's done that several times uh if they like a certain type of

movie she'll just go buy the movie tickets uh if and these are multi

multi-million dollar companies that we that we do business with but it builds a

relationship like crazy uh do you guys do any of those uh things like someone

loves dogs and you're just out of the blue send them a chewy pack with a whatever is any of that a part of your

relationship building uh methods or or is that too I'm going to be

honestly you know like I don't think about some of that stuff to be honest with you and

a common thing to do um I mean we try to uh do nice things

when we can but I think we've talked about it too uh at a previous conversation about

making the uncomfortable or making the GC uncomfortable or a homeowner uncomfortable like

I don't want to feel like I'm bribing someone to maintain a relationship you can bribe a homeowner all you want

there's nothing nothing illegal driving them with gifts it's a little bit different but you know if you take uh

and and Lori is is our business developer's name she she's really cognizant of taking the whole office for

example the chili not just some individual guy that she's trying to build a relationship with that's awesome

but um yeah you can do that with homeowners all you want and not break any rules

um a lot of times we're working with Builders and their homes are being built

and I've dealt with people for a year and a half they walk in there I'm all hey Katrina how are you doing you know

and you you build that relationship and there was another one she she liked wine

I I actually moved here from California from Wine Country and and I told you we

give them a gift basket but it's a basket sometimes there's coffee cups in there or something that's just for them

and I got one of my favorite bottles of wine and put it in there so you it is super cool when you can meet them like

you get them a personalized gift there was another one that she came in and she had lost her husband and she's moving

here and I put in a little practice to encourage her and so and I'm super good

at customer service you know and you know just to be able to do that you know most of the time it's just a nice basket

with something in there but sometimes if especially if I've developed the relationship for over a year with a client and helping them to you know

design their home and pick out flooring definitely you know I find something cool in there and like Hey kid you know

I push it up to upper management you know can I go ahead and just do a little extra for this person and and they're

they're putting reviews on our on our site yeah absolutely well that's that

that's awesome I mean you know those types of things one of the things we did uh commercially is uh we have a client

that owns a lot of different restaurants and they're not franchises he like builds his own brand up and he'll have

three or four of them and one of them uh we put it we put their logo in their

walk-off carpet in their main entrance form and it was a it was

it was a um big deal to them like they didn't think about it Laurie had thought about

it suggested I was like if you don't think they'll mind let's do it that would be cool and you know now they walk

in and it's a knife a nice vestibule walk-off carpet like normal except it's

got their logo water jetted into it so just a little that that was an expensive

bill but we've done a lot of business with them uh but that you like you just said Charlotte they don't it doesn't

have to be huge grandiose just showing that you're listening and notice that

they like something it seems to go a long way especially in a town like ours

I mean there was another client that we've been working with and just she's been struggling trying to find the right product she goes to the YMCA gym where I

go to you know I can't I know her kids and you know I know their names actually we have a system when somebody comes in

here and they bring in their kids I write in what their kids names are and then when they come back I'm like you

know how's little Joey doing you know or whatever or just talk because you know I've got kids and so you know you dress

the kids you dress the mom you dress the dad and you just you know they're not

just a customer they're a person that's walking in here that needs something and you want to make sure they're spending a

lot of money and you want to make sure you you know that you have that kind of relationship and Jose it's not bribing

it's just being um attentive to the customer and still and it's honest like I honestly just

really care about my customers and and like I said you know some come in and they've got different circumstances

going on in their life and for some reason I become counselors sometimes and you know but I listen you know it's like

you sit there you just pay attention to their struggles and going and I personally just renovated my home and

had to have my floors redone by our company and so I've really got another I

I understand what they're going through it's not fun you know you're displaced and all that we are super

I'm surprised anybody ever replaces their floors I mean you got to get it you know what I mean like you got to get

all the way out of your job it's extensive right you can repaint by

moving stuff Center throw some plastic over it and throw up some paint even and a high quality painter won't

get a thing on nothing and it's like move back and that you got to move out

if you are stuff and then and then you know it's expensive on top of that paint

a room for 200 bucks or do the floor for you know 1200. so I yeah I'm always

amazed like it's a it's a big commitment I think for uh people when they go to replace their

flooring yeah it really is and you know I lived in one room and then when they

fart guys did it I had one guy one day a week a floor that should have took three weeks took me five months and I was

literally moving while they were doing the sanding I was waiting for the last minute to move out so when our clients

come in here and they start talking about that it's just a matter of relating my own experiences I've also

had a family and we lived in one room with a hot plate why the why they were doing and obviously we're from multiple

generations of Floor Covering so we were doing it but I know what it feels like and I think just to relate to them and

and really and let let them know that you understand where they're at and we're trying to do our best to get you in there and and get the job done for

you so basically she's saying Daniels that you owe a lot of gift baskets

I do I I'm like going through gift basket

that's cool I don't deal with the residential remember but you you take care of all the back

end stuff like that and and Charlotte said just so you know it is I didn't call it Brad I said I just didn't want

to feel like I know I'm I'm just teasing the whole day I know who you are

well I I uh I want to tell everybody thank you for for joining Charlotte and

John I appreciate you guys jumping on and and uh giving your your experience and freely sharing your um

I wouldn't call them tactics but you know the way that you go about building relationships I mean anybody on the call

he should have got some nuggets here a educational selling works so education

and and you guys can chime in here but I it seems to me that

it's very familiar to me in the commercial world we have to be pretty educational based on our sales tactics

uh maybe even more so on your guys's residential stuff and then giving a care

about the person maybe listening tossing a gift basket or like I said you know if

if uh somebody's a huge dog lover Lori will find something that

matches uh she knows what kind of dog they had so actually listening and

understanding their need and what they enjoy and you can bring a little you

know along with the new floor you can bring a little bit more light to their day by just giving them a nice little

gift uh thank you um so that's all good stuff those those are two big things I think that came out

of this call and I hope people really take it to heart because you guys everybody on this call is successful at

doing what they're doing and uh so it's encouraging to hear some of those uh you

know approaches work for both sides of the industry uh but there are some

specific ways to go um you know with your homeowners so

anything any closing thoughts there by anybody I going back to the education that's one

thing that we try to just do if you educate them and then you let them you know pick out what they want once

they've been educated you know they they like they sell vinyl plank as being invincible and it's not and we don't

it's not that we don't want to sell it or do whatever it's just like just understand the limitations of the

product so I education is huge yeah waterproof flooring is not waterproof people no

[Laughter]

the doctor's office and I took a picture of a scratched vinyl plank floor and sent it to my son and I was like it can

scratch yes it will it will scratch in fact if uh if you got the right dog

um so all right uh Jose Daniel closing

thoughts before we uh before we get out of here the it's all the time is almost up for

the scholarship so everyone get on the scholarship if you signed up to be a

part of the webinar you'll probably get another email before it ends I'm assuming I think I got one today

uh yeah so uh what Daniel's talking about is uh our forward progress scholarship

with AFC ICA it's a Salesman you could really benefit from it

honestly um sales minute at uh flooring retailers installers uh several of our guys are

cims and it's the certified installation manager uh through the fcica it's a

great program it's valued around thirteen hundred dollars I believe so uh sign up it's it's a scholarship and and

uh we're looking forward to giving that out we have two days left for

um to apply for that scholarship so if you're interested in kind of learning the best uh practices and management and

things this it's skewed a little bit heavy because it's the I am so he can attest that you know there's some great

knowledge that you can gain in there yeah there's a lot of information that they have in there and I think that the

information that is available through the Sim program is worth its weight and gold if you're a salesperson it opens up

your eyes from the installation aspect if you're an installer it opens up your eyes to the sales aspect it just it

helps uh it helps bring common ground to uh the the full process versus one side

or the other yeah I agree I think that uh that program

anybody from any part whether you're salesman installer owner project manager

at a commercial firm can benefit from it it's got such a wide variety of uh of uh

of uh knowledge and and information and education so I know all this even though

I'm not cim because I have a several on my staff there Paul I also have the book

so I've gotten to read through their books and and their binder so again guys

uh we've come to the end of the podcast it I say this every week but man if an hour flies it was a pleasure this was

fun chatting with everybody and talking through uh everything thank you guys I do have one closing statement it was

huge man well one thing to close out with is good luck mom kick butt down there okay

yeah she's here we're in the Bahamas right now because she has a gymnastics competition

all right good luck [Laughter] good job all right guys we will

um catch you guys next week and um we appreciate Charlotte and John joining

and uh believe the audience got some value and we'll talk to you guys later see ya