This week the guys talk about expectations from the clients perspective, and how an installer can handle and meet them.

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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

what's up floring family welcome to the Huddle com at you every Tuesday at 3 pm

Central we discuss various topics on maintaining Ford progress in your

flooring career with me as always and

sometimes I'm the one missing is Daniel and Jose Gonzalez from preferred

flooring up in Grand Rapids Michigan uh Premier

flooring flooring uh contractor and uh

installer residential commercial mainly commercial though up in Grand Rapid so

look them up all right what's going on fellas how's it going brother we're just here

wonderful yeah sh sharing the socials right now so that that's why we're looking down at

our phones yeah well we got we got to get the crowd on here and uh get some

interaction um well how was last week's huddle good I watched a little bit of it

looked like it went pretty well just everyone everyone was like man everything is so much better when Paul's not

there I heard viewership was up and everything I should Miss more often it was it Daniel pointed it out

right away so there was one of my buddies is

an electrician and then we had a meeting the next day um at one of the construction companies and he came up to

me he was like it's my first time able to actually watch a full podcast he was like it was crazy because everything

that you talk about is what's going on in the electrical industry right now and it we just it's like it's not just

flooring related it's the entire construction industry I think so a lot of the the stuff that we talk about

other trades can relate to as well yeah absolutely for sure with the special other specialty contractors you know I

mean we we run in in the same circles have the same issues I would assume a

lot of the same labor problems even I think Co bus in general probably

right just you know just a different uh different hat different title yeah we

should we should do a podcast this podcast this next year called around the

world of Trades and have all the just a a rep from every trade on and let's just

talk uh how everything is the same yeah our gc's may not like uh hearing that

every trade has the same complaints but well it's the I it was actually um one of the so as the vice president of the

co of the construction company uh came up to us he he overheard us talking and

he said the same thing like he feels it because you I mean last week was a new generation right talking about the

younger people coming in and he said we feel that too it's like people coming in

starting they just they want to make that same dollar amount as you're making right now right off the bat with you

know zero um experience and it's yeah I think I'm

sure from that perspective that was a great topic that perspective has got to be shared with

with most people in in uh Construction in general yeah and it can go a lot of

different ways under that topic too but it's just you can we could talk for days about that we can talk days about almost

anything sure we almost do sometimes well uh so this week is

managing uh customer expectations um I think this is a a

really um important topic if you're if you are doing flooring in specific um

but probably like we talked earlier here all the trade but the one thing that

with flooring is we're so disruptive you can kind of rewire a house or do some

Plumbing work or you know even painting without completely displacing your

client you know so we're pretty disruptive in that manner um so managing

those expectations uh what are some key like points under that like what are some key

I'll give you one example example um of a key um topic underneath that topic is

like time you know managing the expectation of time they a lot of times uh

specifically in in commercial they just think it's going to go down it sometimes they think they

it's going to take you a week when you can do it in two days and sometimes they think it's going to take you two days

and it should take two weeks yes and managing that that what are some of the

uh loow hanging fruit for people to to you know start doing that with their

customers because if you don't do that you're going into the Lion's Den on every

job I would um I would start by saying uh

for under or under promise and overd deliver right if you lead with that

um then it's just going to help you out in the end um if you are under promising but then

way overd delivering that could also hurt as well right you don't want to say I need this for five days push the other

trades out of the way for five days and you're done in one and a half he's like what like like if you know it's gonna

take you three days give yourself four if you know it's gonna take you you know five working days then give yourself

till the next you know if you start on a Monday give yourself to the next week Monday or Tuesday to wrap up right like

then you I think clearly communicating that too

in writing uh in some manner even if you're dealing with a homeowner um either on your proposal or

in text messages following up the proposal emails whatever the means of communication is is identifying that but

then also you know communicating that and writing it's saved our um our rear

ends a time or two by communicating it and writing so

it's not like no you said it was going to take a week no I said three weeks no

you didn't okay now it's just my word versus yours so either having it on a

nice Gant chart to show the the timing uh you know on a scheduling chart but at

the very least communicating that is very very important that's like the first piece and then when you're doing

that listen to what Jose said and you know under promise overd deliver um and

you're right uh just to speak to to your point about sometimes if you do that too well

or it goes too well then you you end up like biting your butt you know getting

bit in the butt over it because then they either expect it that next time they have you on a job or a project uh

and do not consider the different sight conditions they say well you got 4,000 ft of LBT you laid it in a day and this

is 4,000 L yeah this one this one's only 2,000 yeah ought to be able to do it in

a half a day well there are certain processes that take time skim coding

prep those kinds of things that you gain efficiency of scale at larger stuff and

then of course not every layout's the same not all the products are the same not all the adhesives are the same on

dry time is it a full you know 100% pressure sensitive is it

does it go in partially wet is it a wet set there's all kinds of factors into

that that can change the total Dynamic of the job so and and also I'm a big fan

and also dealing with expectations set by previous installers um you know you're going to do things a little bit

differently if they've had other installers and I'm referring more to commercial than I am residential um they

that other companies that go in there and they do they go about things a different way a different process than you um whether it takes them longer or

they can get it done in a shorter amount of time you know and it's like well the last company was only here they they did

every phase in three days or four days and you're telling me five yeah like you know I'm I'm sorry I I don't know I

can't speak for them I can only speak for myself this is our process this is you know sometimes you gotta go step by

step and they like well they didn't do that well they didn't even that right A lot of it like that we deal with is like

us going in there and then they're like well they they what he said you know

you're adding a day on and then you you know pick up a carpet tole and they didn't scrape any of the adhesive and

it's like well and then you you have to kind of explain to him well this is what

they didn't do and this is what we're going to do and then if they didn't do it why do you guys have to it's it's

constant yeah con and we always talk about this constant communication right

kind of going over education too yeah yeah I think um a lot of the contractors

that we work with don't deal with people like that they're just like and there was man there was a a post on one of the

sites earlier it was an inspection and they were like why didn't you do this and why didn't you do that wasn't on the

work order so they deal with people that are like that right you know the installs it's not on the work order that

means I'm not going to do it because I'm not going to get paid for it and that that's kind of what what

we've been having to deal with and it's like well this is how it's supposed to be and you know give them I can give

give them all the documentation too right I mean it's in everyone's documentation look at

any I mean we always start with prep just look at the prep and even the prep says that you either got to get it down

to a thin film or it's got to be gone altoe and then priming it if you do get

it down to a residue depending on which adhesive you're using you got to you possibly got to primate and I mean

there's just so many things to it um yeah it seems to me like the education

part is the the piece that a lot of people forget is giving that client the

why um I know some sometimes our guys fail to do that part um I think that's

you know you can't skin over that you got to really explain that like backing systems change right now this is the

installation instru instructions this is how it has to be done this is why it's

going to take us a day longer or two days longer whatever the case may be right and then yeah it it's just a

matter of communicating if you know your process communicate your process um and it it doesn't matter if it takes you

longer or if you get it done quicker than the previous installer just worry about that one that one portion that one

phase and communicate your your worries I mean there's nothing else you can

really do besides that unless you're in the position well you know how can I mean we're trying to give the the

audience some tools here because they we all deal with this you guys know as well as I do how

the pressure gets on during these projects and it's like we don't care we just got to get it done

and giving tools to the audience that like

communication uh education about how it's supposed to be done and why you got

to do it it's like those things are really almost Paramount to to the timing

portion of managing the client's expectations um to back up in the cycle

a little bit what about sales you know managing the the brain was already going

to right right when you go to sell something man kind of throughout that sales process managing the expectation

from a you know a wearability maybe that's just more education about uh the

products that are available and where they should and should not be installed but what what kind of things do you

think about when you think about management of expectations during the sales process so so I I I think uh

lately I've been I don't say lately but um I found success into asking questions

right trying to find out what the issues are what their what their worries are um and then and then building off of that

and then finding Solutions uh moving forward whether it's a a design build or

already uh contracted I just try to find out what their worries are right because

that's all that's going to be in their head when you're having a meeting and you're and you're in the sales process as they're concerned about losing money

they're concerned about displacement they're concerned about hours of operation dust I mean there's they have

a lot of concerns so I just try to what are your top three concerns right now moving forward in this project um and

then that leads to lot of other questions and solutions and and that's how I try to go about it but that's I

like that dude that's ask straight up what are your top three concerns yeah in

as we get started on this project and and um matter of fact I just had a meeting this uh this week over U there

was a concern about Mr a couple MRI machines and they want to keep them operational right but then you have to

worry about uh the magnetic pole and there's a lot of I had a lot of questions and the the gentleman were

just like nobody's ever asked me any of these questions I'm like well sorry I just

want to like I just need to make sure that I understand like how many pounds

uh for for for the mass and of the the steel item like you know what can we do

and he was just like I don't know like it's all listed under the ASM standards

for for this and that's why they have that's why we're putting the marks in the floor um so it's just a matter of

asking all the right questions at the beginning um because now I know yeah you guys going to have to use ceramic blades

and ceramic knives and all that stuff you you had to do that before right I think you you told about that yeah we

had to buy a whole BN amazingly enough there's not like a

kit we had to go searching for everything we found a c ceramic

uh you know knife like a a knife and then the blades themselves were

ceramic uh we had to use a plastic roller uh like hand

roller um or Zen what is it um potted steel or whatever it is that's not

magnetic I forget the composition of it there's like very few Metals you can use

aluminum things like that things are not magnetic but the knife blades and all that stuff

uh you still have all this stuff yeah we do yeah let me know if you guys uh at

the very least and amazingly it's pretty it's not like it was expensive stuff in fact when

you take metal out of everything it tends to get cheaper all of a sudden

it's all made of plastic and and rubber and all that stuff even the the pins

that held the roller together we still have it but I it probably won't last you more than one job if you have any any

level of work because everything is made out of plastic even the pins that hold the wheels into the plastic handh holder

the whole thing is plastic man they can they can probably do a little bit better

with some cast aluminum or or or something that's got a a lower um what's

the what's the property called it's the pins and stuff inside of them it'll suck a pin right out of one of those things

and the cotter pins and the just all the stuff that holds it together the like your regular rollers are made out of a

not they're not a lot of them aren't magnetic you know the little hand rollers you said that but the pins and

the the rod that goes through to hold the wheels on is steel one of the solutions was to wear a

a band around the arm and have all the hand tools tethered off um so everything

is grounded well is Tethered to you so that it go you know it doesn't because

the smaller the tool the less pull the larger I I I don't know the magnetic

pool exactly but I the guy that that was dealing with the the machine said he's

seen it suck keys right through people's jeans so uh I don't know if I'd want to

be Tethered to something well they they did they do have they have some new rules like um

the person cannot be between the unit and their tools anymore they've had a couple bad experiences and um one of the

guys there said that his Milwaukee uh impact gun got sucked into it boom and hit it and they had to shut it down and

it takes two weeks to power those things back on so yeah anyway I'm talk offline on in

the Weeds on that my brain is still remembering that project but yeah managing expectations from a uh on the

sales side for us is always talking about like the the product expectation

how are they going to use the product or the space and trying to get out in front

of any quality concerns we might have um and then you got to do that again if you

get to a job site that has really poor substrate or something and you start

talking about I've got five days to do this area I

cannot get it all prepped perfectly and get this lvt or sheet vinyl or whatever

installed in five days so either I need four more days or I need to manage the

quality expectations and make it very clear uh you know probably what the

floor is going to look like to the best of our ability uh that's another thing that's really important and then um you

know on the sales side just to back up a bit again uh payment expectations like I

want to make sure that we kind of have clear rules around payment and and

releasing of funds particularly when we deal with our it's kind of written in the contract when we're dealing with our

gc's but if we're dealing with end users which we do quite often you know making sure that those those uh understanding

of a big enduser project hey we need to get paid for stored materials as soon as

we either order them or they uh you know arrive at our warehouse or whatever uh

mechanism it is so if you're out there and you're just getting into commercial these are some of the things you really

want to think about if you're if you're working in residential through a shop I

know a lot of that's probably already handled and the salesperson does this stuff but if you're selling a job to an end

user on a commercial job you want to talk through the the payment expectations as well you don't want to

put yourself in a bad financial situation by floating um funds that you probably shouldn't be floating I mean um

I just had a conversation with a with a a company this week about it and uh I

was just like well that's a are you guys been this I would like to but um I need to find out if there's a better better

options for payment because that's a lot of material to be sitting on for two two and a half years through the duration I

know that we'd be you know Progressive billing but she just said oh okay

Clint Daniel's like Progressive progress villing that wasn't your

department and that meeting that I was saying earlier that we were at um they were actually talking

about um like redoing their payment terms for

smaller contractors like us because they're trying to you know get more small people in there yeah and he's like

this is the only way that you know we realize now that this is going to happen is if we actually go through and rewrite

everything and it's only going to be for you know certain contracts it's not going to be in every single contract so

that way if you guys you know do win a bid it's a matter of this is these are your terms and you know if someone else

wins it they don't they don't get those terms so I think uh we're we're kind of in our area at that Forefront where we

go in and make a lot of noise and we have been for the past few years and it's it took you know three four years

but they're finally they're finally hearing us yeah that's a

um that that's an interesting problem that a lot of people don't understand if

they don't hear it from you which is yeah I mean profit money that's one

thing but you can make all the profit in the world that the cash ain't flowing the cash ain't flowing and so

yeah that's that's one of them deals where you guys going out there and and communicating that's again another

overarching theme it seems like comes up in every podcast is communicating but

letting it be known that I'd love to do your job and I'll knock it out of the park for you but we got to come up with

some payment terms that that works for our company yeah 100 and don't be shy

about it right like open communication at the beginning if if you wait until

you are awarded the contract then you say hey I can't because I didn't not getting paid for the material and it's

you know they're not they're like because of my job no it's because of all of them there's no communication but you

you can't wait until it's a problem to try to fix it that that's a really upfront

communication um or a conversation you should have up front the beginning of any project know those dollars and cents

going out know the time frames um and it could affect your installers too like if you have subcontractors doing all the

work and you're tying up your finances on materials you know just think about what it's going to do to the the the

subs and your team that you have working for you right you can't put yourself in in a bad spot there that's uh because

then communication from them home isn't gonna be so good

well and you got to have somebody put the stuff down at the end of the day you know so maintaining those relationships

a lot of times are more important than anything so you it depending on how you

pay your subs I was took a trip down to Texas and got an earful from a guy

saying well if your platform would solve the problem of Subs having to get paid

every week and when we have to wait till the contractor gets paid to get paid and

when in in law the contract is governs

all parties in the job and I'm like yeah but you you there's very few Subs that

are going to wait 30 60 days for their stuff why would they work through you then they might as well go open Accounts

at the vendor and become your competitor that the the main reason Subs are

willing to do labor only is because they get paid every week they don't have to to wait on the money as long as they do

good quality work they get PA paid each week by most contractors not all but you

know most of them anyway that's a whole another podcast if we want proba break that one down so so you're were talking

about prep earlier right we'll get back on track about prep and you know you you

can't do anything destructive sometimes when you go look at these jobs right and there was just um we just did an

orthodontics office and I was walking through and I see some signs of uh

moisture and stuff and and it looked like it was topical and come to find out

it was it was it was an insurance claim and what happened happened was the cleaning people went in there with some chemical and flooded the

place and it turned all their tile like a pinkish color so I'm like well I don't know

what's underneath here so when I priced it out I priced out self- leving the entire thing you know and good thing I

did because it was Jack look like I mean it look they

took an exterior wall down extended it out to where it looked there was a porch on there

before and I mean it was it was fun pretty gnarly it sounds

like what what T what kind of tile was it just out of curiosity it turned pink was it like lvt or was it it was an

lvt was it okay yeah it was an lvt I don't know what brand or anything no I

was just curious rubber tile lvt VCT what was the the uh type of product be

eight mil wear layer six mil wear layer uh bottom of the barrel LBT I mean I don't I don't want

to throw name name brands out there because I know who they were using and we did not put that brand back in there

but they're happy with that's probably best and you know we went in there and

um turned out really good it did well a lot of times you know the re

let me just ask you what what is why is this topic important why is it important to to

manage customer expectations because customers are what help build your business customers are the best

advertisement that any single company can have you can shoot out as much

socials as possible adverti to your blue in the face um and and it goes back to the the

thing that the guy when I start doing flooring Ray told me he's like you could do a million things right bud but people

will only remember you for the one thing you did wrong and that's the that's really the point right yeah like you

could you can knock it out of the park with quality say time is the problem but if

they get in there three days late or what they felt was three days late then

they remember that and that's what they it's like they judge you by that so it's

it's important to be clear and concise on the um what you can actually get

accomplished and not just give lip service to your clients sometimes that's a difficult conversation I want to bring

that up sometimes it's hard like I can't do that in five days or whatever the time frame is I I need 10 days or 12

days or whatever and that's when a lot of times you'll hear well I did this before at another we did another clinic

in Pennsylvania and it only took people just throw five more people on it like what's five more people gonna do

man this like this I've had that conversation quite a bit so it's incredibly important to to take this

serious to take the part of talking to your client communicating expectations and getting buyin from them that's that

final piece is like you educate and you communicate with them and you tell them

what the deal is but then getting them to buy into that and believe that that you're giving them the best your only

goal is to give them the best product then then you have a better a much better scenario that you're working

under you're going to have a happier client like you just said because you're going to have they you're going to meet

the expectation or just like like we talked about earlier maybe even beat it

because you didn't you know you you undersold and overd delivered and and I would like to add to

that too is um humility goes along with the hard

conversations I mean they're hard because nobody wants to have them but they shouldn't be put

off they they should be hey you have a few minutes we have to talk there's a

couple things not not going right and we I'd like to discuss this with you right instead of trying to put out that fire

when you hit that deadline and you're not done or you thought you have to have that communication

and as hard as it is every time

it does get easier to have that conversation it doesn't get easier to

face to face have the conversation or even on the phone but it gets easier because you understand why you have to

have it yeah and if it's gonna come up eventually anyways right and it's either

it it comes from you or it comes from the results or it comes from the people

that are are Staffing the project you know I'd rather it come from me 100% like if we ding a door or something I

mean it's happens all the time right you you hit a piece of trim you you know hit

a tool into a door or something or a wall and it's like hey this is what

happened um if you have someone to take care of it that's awesome you know let me know if not we'll see what we can do

to take care of it yeah yeah

so it's an interesting thing you said Daniel that you know you're going to have the conversation either way you

might as well have it up front right that's what you're implying and I I 100%

agree and it's because after the problems happened or after you've

already not met a schedule or the quality of the product you know maybe it

it got installed wonderfully but it was just an impossible situation having that conversation at

the end of the day what's it sound like it always sounds like an excuses on the front side it sounds like planning on

the back side it sounds like excuses that's a good way so that's that's one of those uh that's

one of those management of uh you know clients desires and then sometimes you

cannot uh you get into some situations where you cannot win and then I would

say document your rare end off yep and and uh if you do recognize early enough

those situations where where you can't win it's sometimes it's best to say you

know what this is this conversation is going nowhere I'm just going to try to take care of what we have to take care of and

and we'll continue this at a later date try to walk away um I've been the person to not walk away um because when you

feel you're right you you want someone to to to to view your point only right

but sometimes you gotta walk away cool down and come back let that let that M Meat marinate for a second let what you

said marinate for a little bit and then go back and and a lot of times you'll see they'll come and say Hey you kind of

had a good point there like you know how can we work through this you know if you

if you like you said you're you're humble right and managing the expectations right sometimes it's

managing somebody else's feelings sometimes it's managing somebody else's life um and sometimes it's managing

yours and all that's got to be considered um and it's I think the older

you get the easier it is to recognize right because you've just been through more situations but um when I was young

I definitely I definitely didn't want to recognize anything but getting floor down yeah you're in my way get out of my

way well sometimes you still got to be that way it's U different wording though

different wording just just a different delivery yeah no no uh I'm about to

shake you off that ladder yeah

yeah I know that one yeah me too just start gluing just start gluing glue them

in there glue around the ladder so

um when you guys deal with residential is there any particular like parts of

what we've talked about that matter more or a different way of discussing when you're talking to a homeowner I know uh

just to a quick um backstory I we did residential and we

we still do but it's just like new uh residential just not residential replacement unless it's for a really

good friend but back when I I actually did the mobile showroom long before

we're talking like 2002 2003 2002 uh we

had a mobile showroom and um in doing that I got out of the residential real

quick we were probably doing that for six months and not because of sales not because of profits I just could not deal

with I was too young and too uh yeah and and used to commercial um to

to manage those things so how do you do that because people take off for vacation they've got you know Christmas

holidays coming up right and people they want their bathroom to look the best for when their family flies in or they got a

kitchen that they want to get remodeled right in time a whole bunch of scenario that we just like literally went through

over the past um so

residential what's the Nuance that's what I that's what I'm trying to get like what's the Nuance for

residential patience understand that it's a home not a business and also understand that

you're not working with a bunch of contractors who understand the language already you're working with a homeowner

who is essentially asking to be educated if they don't already know a little bit

and that is the the hardest part that I have ever

dealt with for residential is making sure that I was very clear on my end so

that way the questions on the back end are towards the end of the job were well we didn't discuss that right because if

you don't say it that means it's not going to happen if you don't bring it up that means it was never an issue so so

um I'm finding a mixture now back then it wasn't it was all conversation and

and um that's pretty much it and they would WR take notes I would take notes but a combination of emails text and and

a phone call or face to face to make sure that it's clear make sure everything is

clear um it's is well worth your time um saves a lot at the

end well you know I mean that's kind of the same as commercial I guess I mean

you're really just trying to State clearly what you can get done but a lot of homeowners

uh I I suspect you know they they have five days vacation they're going to take

it and they want to get their entire house re re fled or

whatever that that that has to take some Nuance to like Empire commercial well I

saw the commercial and Empire they did the whole living room everything and he just went like

this yeah there's a little more to it yeah yeah well and there's those companies out there those residential

companies that's like floors installed the next day yeah yeah and how often does that

actually happen I don't know that's not my world

I'm always I'm and I know it's not your guys's either that um you know again a

whole another podcast against this free installation and that kind of talk

should we do have a couple residential installers chiming in Kendall says that 100% it takes a lot of patience like

hands down right and then uh Derek says that um taking the little extra time to

to talk to the client you know get the homeowner say hey it's kind of what's going on and you know just take him

through the process and then he says once you get the homeowner on your side it's pretty much do whatever you need to

do to make it make it right I don't want to be living here and then having you

know issues popping up throughout the lifetime of this floor if it's going to be done right now do it do it right so

there's there's two pieces of nuance then yeah like a uh and I I appreciate

what Kendall commented there is patience if you show frustration I'm assuming

he's he's indicating don't show frustration to your to the homeowner and just be very patient with them and you

know it can get rough and tumble in the commercial world you got you can get into it with the superintendent and the

next day you guys are high-fiving that's just that different world you get into it with a a homeowner I'm I'm just

assuming that like the one or two times it happened to me I was the SOB of the

world like I was not their favorite person ever you look at it and I'll go back to the groups again right because I

remember seeing a post that was like per this homeowner like kicked me out of their

house and they won't give me my tools back like what is going on you gota look at it like this too like you're in

someone's home right like you are in their their personal their domain their their their Kingdom and how how would

that how feel if would you just let someone you don't like in your home

right and feel you have to babysit them or someone you don't trust no right so like as soon as I decide like I don't

like someone last place they're gonna be is in my house true you know and and that's that's the hard part right there

is and and it's not about making them like see your way because I don't try to oversell if you if you

start over selling things because you're trying to sell things instead of find Solutions they're going to pick up

anybody will pick up on that right away way anybody uh but if you're helping

find Solutions and and being authentic um then it creates a better relationship right away Express concerns

but not like ah you you know you don't want that that's garbage well that's not really

the quality that that we are talking about like we're talking about a quality that's right here and the material that

that you keep picking is down here I know that the price point isn't isn't what what you want but in order to get

that quality up here we have to raise that budget a little bit well that's when you start talking value right the

value of this flooring you're not going to get the same value out of this and it's only 15 cents a square foot more

you know you're talking pennies yeah you're and and like you brought up the electricians earlier I'm sure that that

same kind of thing whether it's light switches or Outlets or things of that nature that that they have to do that

they they have that same thing it it seems to me that managing uh uh you know

specifically the um homeowner and that other Nuance was

quality is important on our commercial jobs but you know as well as I do on the

superintendent knows he's walking away when when that job's over he's just

trying to get his job done on time and a lot of homeowners it sounds like to me

what was the other gentleman that commented that because it sounds like to me that what's that

DK it seems like to me when you when you uh if you can bring the quality that

that value to the Forefront and say Hey I want you to love your home forever and I'm just spitballing here but I want you

to love your your flooring forever and rushing through this XYZ process is not

going to do that for you I want to do it right you got to live on this floor I want you to be happy for life so

building the value around quality sounds like one of them nuances I mean I've done that tried to do that with

commercial companies and a lot of times you just run into this like I don't care you're a professional

get it done get more guys do whatever you got to do it's your problem I have you under contract and the schedule

State you're going to be done on this day you got to figure that out it's it's more AB BR you just made me think of

something too and in um commercial World they don't want to micromanage what you're doing right they they want you to

come in do your job they're just expecting that you're going to do the best possible job you can with the

equipment material you're ordering um residential if they're present and

they're there they want to feel like they are part of the progress they want to micromanage I would call it but it's

not really micromanaging microw watch yeah it's a

it's they're just absorbing information and helping through the process and once something clicks they want to be part of

it 100% so you just made me think about it in a different different way so now yeah learn how to be nicer I

guess huh well we also don't I'm assuming you don't have like written not

the contracts we go through I was just reading contracts you know some of them are that thick you know what I'm saying

you don't have that kind of governance around a residential job either so your your real governance is your relationship with that homeowner it

sounds like I'm just picking up on some Nuance from the comments here but you

know you gotta your contract is kind of more of the relationship with that person because they can kick you out of

their house tell the store wherever they bought the stuff I want someone else

or if it was direct with you just hire someone else and there's just not a lot of recourse for you I really like this

person we'll just order the material before the down payment I don't like we're not ordering anything till I get

paid Kendall say we talked about you know a few times too it's presentation when you're working in residential you

know show up introduce yourself introduce your crew and you know look the part you you

don't want anyone just I mean we've all we've all known one or two of the guys

that's like I can't really send you to this job man because you're the nicest guy I know but

the face tattoos are not going to work you know what I mean I've always been to

go against the grain so it's it's I try not to use that right but but you know

as well as I do that certain things uh would put would

make clients feel uncomfortable right like you can't bring your kid to work sometimes in residential just like um

you you have your your kid doing what you know and you certainly can't do it

in commercial you're kicked off you can't send a leak van um a van that's

leaking oil into um a concrete driveway with this brand new you know brand new

construction you know there's just things that you can't do you know what I mean um but as far as like um let's just

say demographic and then uh two different demographics coming together on a job site man like back in the day

it was like am I gonna be okay going there because I'm Hispanic right well now it's

they don't care if you have a man Bond they don't care you're black white whatever like they just if you're

professional and you're cordial and you do a good job yeah so as see if I can mentioned we were talking to uh Brian

artioli I don't know if you were there for this conversation or not yeah he was he was saying that um he does like a

white glove service and he'll go in there and when he starts moving furniture you know they they put on the

white gloves to make sure that they're not leaving fingerprints and stuff he says and you know most of the time it's

just a gimmick you just you want those clients to see like if if we have the house the white gloves ain't going on

but if there there's a homeowner there you're like and they're not paying attention you're like hey um you don't yell hey but you're

like um the white gloves on you know just getting their attention real quick just walk around looking like Mickey

Mouse but you want to make sure that they know that you're you know how precious their stuff is to them because

it's the same thing in your house right like the hell are you doing move my stuff around like that bro like that's been in the family for 50

years yeah that that that side of the world man you guys um kudos to to the

residential guys out there because it takes a certain demeanor um and approach it sounds like

for sure to to gain the trust and you only have a few minutes right I mean

that's human nature uh you only have a few minutes whereas like

superintendent or something like that on a on a commercial job even if they don't

like you they don't care as long they don't care you don't care as long as you get the job done and and there's plenty

of superintendant over the years that did not care for me and but I got their

job done and I was respectful enough and you could get into it

and I you know there's just different solutions in the construction uh commercial construction world not so

much as as today as it used to be but I remember um getting into a a little

verbal scuffle with the superintendent taking him a six-pack of beer the next day and saying uh I still don't like it

but here's here's beer for uh as a peace offering you know we got along the rest

of the job he still didn't care for me probably but at the end of the day we got the job done it looked wonderful and

he helped make sure that the areas were ready so you know there those nuances

between how to keep different types of customers happy and it starts with

managing the expectation going into the job we talked about a lot of what we

talked about was like gc's and then homeowners right but you also have your commercial where you contract with you

know those owners direct and then that's when you you do have to think more like

the orthodontist that we did I went and bought a bunch of plastic they got you know all their their equipment in there

that's going to stay in there and it's like I'm not trying to have you guys clean everything so we plastic everything off and take everything up

right there there's there's things like that that when you're working direct with the the client on commercial that

they're just not thinking about the same things that a construction company knows like that's a standard we know we're gonna have to clean this while we're

done you know but they're we're just doing the floors we shouldn't have to do anything if if you do the same job

through a GC you're like you go in there and you do it and then they're like all this stuff is Dusty and it's like wasn't

in my contract man like yeah I didn't have protection of yeah everything in

dust dust protection and yeah it all comes down to understanding

what the client's really looking for it sounds like you know yeah how to best manage that uh I hope that everybody got

some like tidbits and tips and and tricks um I do like the you know

learning about the residential World um tell you in building go careera one of

the things that has come to light is we basically have a toggle on the site on

when you sign up for your profile that's like how much residential and how much commercial have you done versus

commercial have you done in the last three to five years or whatever one of the retail clients were

were doing a beta test with now said well where's your retail replacement toggle and I like what are you talking

about he goes man our we have residential guys that do wonderful work

that are like Bulls in a China closet when you send them to a residential replacement like you need to figure out

a way to identify the residential replacement installers versus just the

residential installers who know how to do good stretch in or good residential installation I was like it's a Nuance I

never even thought of you know there's so many vertical markets just in our industry that it's crazy it does

right um a a build a brand new build is way different than

uh a renovation and I think Daniel has it categorized in our system too from uh

remodels to new construction to health care so he's got all those markets separated in there so we can see where

we're where we're where we're making money and where we're not yes yeah

that's that's the reason but it probably does help you planning on the front side too um it definitely

helps it helps everyone understand that there's going to be a different set of guidelines for that project does that

make sense like yeah this is residential remodel I don't think I've ever done a brand new residential project I'll be

honest I don't think I've ever had that luxury no all brand new residentials had

been multif family units whether it's you know yeah like it

could just be like four Apartments but it's never just a brand new house that's

more like what Dirk does he he'll go you know he has accounts with some Builders and it's like we're building 24 houses

this year first one starts on this day and last one is going on this day

interesting yeah there are a lot of verticals in our business so key takeaways for sounds like be respectful

build rapport communicate and educate like that's

that's what I've I've gotten out of this and execute and execute yeah do what you

say you can do and then kind of buffer that a little bit

awesome we always goad we talk about exceeding e customers expectations so

that's where under promise and O overd deliver comes from right it's like go in there

with a mindset that you're gonna you're going to blow every single

job out of the water you want them people to look at everything and be like this is amazing just have that mindset

every time you go on a job yeah and if you're not confident um in how you're gonna the process or the

execution be confident that you're G to have a solution for that right because then then you can talk around that point

I I say talk around it then you can avoid having that conversation about how you're not comfortable and have the

conversation about this is what I'm GNA do to remedy um if we were to hit the

scenario awesome well guys got we've we've kind of uh mustered through that

one and uh I I tell you there's always like this thought in my head when I come

away with some new ideas of of or new nuggets from the podcast because I learn

as much as as anybody in these things of how do I go back and uh Implement some

of it you know and I think the being really clear with your customer um is

probably the the the give it like how do I say it

it's the um everybody knows that but building the relationships in different

manners and specifically when you start talking about residential um it sounds

like to me that it goes a long way if the person likes you like you said you're going to be in their home so it

goes a long way if if they like you and you treat them they got more going on later they'll invite you back

yep cool well guys um I'm sure we're gonna talk about the scholarship before

we get off of here too oh good point uh so coming up we're GNA be the the Sim

scholarship is still uh going uh we we will be announcing that here in about 10

days the the winner we announc it in January but it's still going on closes

in about 10 or yeah EXA thank you for the clarification that's why it closes

it closes uh in about 101 15 days and then we'll be announcing that in January

so make sure to sign up I know it's on all of our socials um Ashlin if you'll

post it again as a reminder to everybody and we'll all reshare and reshare so uh

you can also go to our blog and and find about it there at go career.com um and then Ty is coming up that's kind

of the next show in January I'll be speaking at that event on a few different topics I have two speaking

engagements there so I'll be speaking at that event and and and um one of them uh one of the topics

already been set and it's going to be about Labor obviously I I feel like that's where my uh at least competency

is so uh come join us there it's in Las Vegas you'll never have a bad time anyway especially Las Vegas in January

so don't bring the right shoes you'll have a bad time yeah stores everywhere

though so it's fine yeah if you don't bring it just buy it that's what my wife says anyway that's what I say too except

for when we travel out of the country then I'm like I'll be all right without this for five days or

whatever all right guys well um we will catch you guys next week and uh we'll be

coming up on you guys got any Christmas parties planned for your company not yet I was actually just looking at a

few things earlier I haven't even talked to him about it yet so stay tuned stay tuned all right all right guys well I

appreciate you so much and uh great topic really good conversation so I

appreciate everybody participating if you are watching this on one of our social channels please comment let us

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algorithm the more people that watch and and interact with our videos so with that I will let you guys go and we will