The Huddle - Episode 87 - Client Education on Flooring Projects

Join Paul, Daniel and Jose on today's episode as it zeroes in on Client Education on Flooring Projects. Dive deep with us as we unravel the essentials of navigating flooring choices, installation nuances, and maintenance must-knows. Tune in and step up your flooring game!

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The Huddle was created by Paul Stuart of Stuart & Associates and Go Carrera, alongside Jose and Daniel Gonzalez from Preferred Flooring. Aimed at helping you maintain forward progress in your flooring career, they cover topics from personal and business growth, to installation tips & tricks and everything in-between.

Want to be a guest on The Huddle? Email ashlynn@gocarrera.com today!

Create your FREE Installer profile at https://gocarrera.com and become part of the future of the industry TODAY!
GET TRAINED! Find a list of training dates here: https://gocarrera.com/resources/training/
https://www.preferredflooringmi.com
https://www.stuartandassociates.com

what's up huddle crew we had a little bit of uh technical difficulty thanks for joining us here on

the Huddle coming at you every Tuesday 3 pm Central if you're joining us on one of

the live streams please uh comment give us some feedback throughout the uh

process here my two cohorts Daniel and Jose Gonzalez from preferred

flooring uh both of them are Mobile today so uh we'll be we'll be going um

we'll not only be live we'll be remote so floor God's in the

house um so anyway today we're going to be talking about and by the way we're

all we're we're creeping up on a 100 episodes folks we got to give me some ideas on what we should do special for

the 100 episode uh type in your type in your ideas for something cool to do for the h

100th episode of the Huddle anyway we're on episode number 87 and we are talking

about client education on flooring projects that's kind of a maybe needs a

little bit more uh indepth conversation just on what the topic means it means educating your client about the flooring

and the expected you know managing we've talked about managing expectations uh so

it's really educating your client about the flooring you're putting in for them

why you selected it or why you kind of uh LED them to the path of that particular

flooring and um you know properly educating them not only on what to

expect afterwards but what to expect during the installation what kind of you

know if you're doing a glue down lvp maybe explaining that you know it's got to be smooth and uh dust free and all of

these things uh that we know for for flooring per asmf 710 right so for

residential um homes or commercial properties kind of educating the process

of the installation that's kind of what we're talking about today and going to dive a little bit deeper on how to

manage that because your customers satisfaction

heavily depends on your ability to effectively communicate what to expect

during the process of the install what really all the way up to the you

know starting at the cell but particularly the install when you're in their home or their business and through

what to expect uh from the performance of the flooring and and uh you know each

job site's different each Project's different so there those expectations are different on every job

job so Jose as you're driving down the road and you probably are got a few

things on your on your uh plate here today do you mind chiming in on where do

you start managing customer expectations

well you you start at the beginning um first off is uh you know we're we're

solutionists right so we got to see what's there what's going on whether this is uh commercial residential new

construction renovation um there's a lot of there's a lot of things to factor in for for me

when I'm when I'm approaching it and uh it's a matter

of for me and this is like my opinion guys this is my Approach I try to find out what they didn't like about what

they previously had right um what is leading to the renovation is this a is

this an insurance claim or is this just uh updating is it purely Aesthetics or

yeah installed a few years ago they're just not happy with the performance yeah or maybe was you you

were breaking up there so I was going to just kind of pick up on what I think you were putting down there was you know

what what did they why is this uh renovation happening if it's obvious a

disaster of some sort then you know it's got to be replaced but if it's was it Aesthetics or the the colors are out of

date well that tells you a lot tells you your customer wants to stay trendy or at

least up to date um unless it's 1950s stuff then they just kind of skipped a

few a few generations of uh of of design

but uh yeah getting to know why they are wanting a new floor or remodeling their

home or whatever that's a great place to start plus it shows you give a oh wo woo

woo easy Paul if plus it shows you give a care about uh you know why they're why

they're shopping yeah and and can you hear me okay now I I pulled over so that way I

wasn't getting that way I have a good signal but yeah that that's that's where I was going with that it's um um setting

the expectations for for for me is is having the is understanding exactly where they're coming from and where they

want to go what's going to be the end product um uh you know and and it is different commercial than residential uh

and I'll start with the residential portion uh just to kind of get that one going is now nowadays a lot of a lot of

clients have an idea of what they want they understand a lot of the science and

performance behind the products it I feel it's it's it's my it's our responsibility as the professional to

make sure that we're educating them and setting a level of expectation that is

accurate to the product that we're going to to be installing or the product that they want because sometimes they want it

to look a certain way but it will not perform uh for for the life of the product or the warranty and um you say

Jose just to butt in here would you say that the customer is two things this is

my thought so I'm leading you down yeah I love it but but are would you say

they're both more educated and misinformed at the same time than uh

customers 15 years ago yes I'm going to they watch YouTube

videos they got an idea but they're also misinformed because they're sold that this is a waterproof flooring and and

then nothing behind that to really understand what waterproof means or what it means to have a waterproof flooring

and and you gota think too like like uh myself as a consumer um I have a habit

of picking out the words and the the the verbiage that I want want to pay

attention to the what benefits my my thought process that's what I pay

attention to and um you know it's the like the sales gimmick you know what's what's better priced $9.99 or $10 right

it's um putting the literature in front that is going to be more valuable or maybe I

don't want to say MISD but um put the customer in a position to pay

attention to what they want to hear and what they want to see um and it's I don't want to

say it's like a sales gimmick but you know you got to read the fine print you know it it

waterproof some material could be with the right system but I would say more

water resistant as a whole and that's where we come in and try to explain to them hey I'm cutting this material

that's got a coating that's water resistant so once I cut this material and I put it against the wall I'm

removing that water resistant layer oh but it says it's waterproof well yes yes

and no to an extent this piece itself could probably be considered waterproof but I would say more water resistant

once it scratches etches or or gets cut now we have an exposed area that is no

longer uh waterproof um yeah that's the that's

probably the point I'm driving at is you know they're the the consumer is more

educated they know more of what they want so we have to as sales professionals or as flooring

professionals be able to exceed that what they watched and learned on YouTube

so we need to be educate like experts in our in our field to be able to guide them from

where they're at now uh back in the day I mean people were a blank slate a lot

of times they didn't have the the YouTubes and the the all the all the other

um yeah a quick shout out our our our uh main Tech Guy Mr Daniel not on today uh

you know he usually will throw up everybody's chat but I want to say what's up Roland and Mario

Jimmy Scott yeah Elena welcome to the to

the stream guys welcome to the podcast so um floor God in the house there we go

someone's doing it for me um you're right we have to fill in the gaps that's

what it is we got to fill in the gaps um you know so sometimes it's a matter just

uh they already know and if if they're stubborn like I am they'll have their they'll have their heart set on

something and their mind will be made up and this is the video I watch this is the information right here and that's

where we got to unfold uh everything and say all right but but check this out this is the line that I'm referring to

this is the information that I would like you to pay attention to because at the end of the day we want to make sure

that we're installing everything to specifications manufacturing recommendations um and and they are

happy with what we left and it sometimes it's uh that's

where helping a client shift their mindset from Aesthetics to Performance

and life and investment versus uh well this is what I want and this is what's

going to work it's hard sell sometimes ultimately it's about you know the

customer being happy long term with their flooring and when you start moving from residential into commercial it

comes into things like educating them on the site conditions and you got to do

that in residential as well but in residential replacement anyway most of

the times you have a much better chance of a positive site condition a good

sight condition than you would on a new commercial or even a a large commercial remodel you may not

have HVAC you may not have Windows you may have all these uh these things going on on commercial job sites and that's

where one of our one of our buddies over at floor Cloud you know that's when their technology comes in so having the

technology to back not just educating your client about um the materials and how they're

going to look but then also the site conditions that are needed for that material to be installed properly as

well as the long-term performance and then you got the backside care and maintenance of it um do you guys educate

at the end of a job do you guys do that on residential I know you have to on

Commercial like you have to give a care and maintenance package as part of your closeout documents but when you're doing

a residential job do you do the same thing you give them care and maintenance package on how to properly care for the

floor um so I'm a little proactive when it comes to that if if right we're

putting down something simple like you know just a standard piece of carpet let's just call a carpet there's really

not a whole lot to talk about just let them know the ins and the outs don't over clean it don't saturate it I think

we had a conversation about detergents and how they attract dirt I we have those conversations as well but um when

it comes to installing some resilient uh and I'm just going to go to that because that's what what we do when it comes to

that I I I do have to have a conversation with them because I I look in the corner and they'll have a steam

mop ready to rock right and I'm like well you're not going to want to hear

this but um if this is the material you're going with h you're not going to want to use that that's going to avoid

any of the manufacturer warranty and they were like why why well and then we

have to go over the science behind it and I have to give them the literature um yeah why don't you guys in the

comments tell us what you guys do to educate your customer because Jose's

looking at it ahead of time and and a lot of times you got to say well even like one of my favorite things when I

did sell residential uh products was I'd tell the customer like depending on the

different fiber types uh for the carpet but you know bare feet are one of the

worst things for a cutpile carpet residential in particular and so if you

can wear some socks or some booties you'll help your carpet stay uh nice and

fluffy for long longer you won't get those oils into the product that then

attract dirt that then give you the traffic patterns and are harder to clean so give us some comments on what you do

to uh when you go into a homeowner or commercial uh project and education so

along those lines you were talking about the the Steam Mop what other do you you

probably also try to discover like how often do you want to clean because we want floors a lot of times when I'm

specifically dealing in the commercial world with say a um more of a tenant

finish like a an attorney firm or you know a law firm or you know a smaller

say a four five 6,000 foot a dentist that kind of thing how often do you have your cleaning crews in here how educated

are they and you know how do you want to live on this floor like do you want to

have to clean it all the time well then you probably don't want this product you know and this will be more cleanable or you

know you get this color it'll look clean for a lot longer because you only clean once a week right you only deep clean

once a week so a lot of those things we try to discover on the front side when we're selling

too and and that's uh that that's a good point and unfortunately for for some of

the I'm going to go to the commercial projects for some of the commercial project projects we do we don't we don't have a say in the color selection

material selection um so we know we're kind of put in a architect expected or

something yeah and say say we're doing the install for another company right and we're just the installation outfit

on there um we have to watch what we say we have to watch our approach because we don't want to overp and and and say the

wrong thing but at the same time you know the clients are asking questions and and I'll use for example I W say the

name of the place but there was a a white rubber tile going in a um let's

just call it a medical building and they were gonna have a lot of traffic and it was coming in right from the vestibule

right inside we're in Michigan we have you know all the elements and before we

installed we're like white and I had I had a friend that worked there in the office and we we had

an off off record chat about it I'm like man this is what's going to happen like

I don't don't think that this is the wisest choice but I mean it was too late everything was purchased they went ahead

with it the designer sold the the design and the color scheme

um and we yeah but at the end of the day it's still it falls on than whoever

you're installing that floor for to kind of educate them on you're going to have

to keep this thing you want this to look clean you're going to have to keep it clean that's one thing that I've learned

a lot with uh uh even on Commercial jobs

I thought this this grout wouldn't get stained and I'm like yeah it won't stain

but it it's not it's not dirt proof like it's not going to not get dirty you

still have to deep clean it it'll clean back to its original look very well

because it's an epoxy or it's a you know power grout does real good there um you

know in a lot of the urethanes but it doesn't mean you can't that you don't clean it like it's got some uh you know

repellent just pushes the dirt they have they have topicals that

you can use on some of the products that it's okay to use it and it is called for to to help mitigate that but even then

you have to keep up with recoding um refinishing and and that's where all of that comes into play um and let me go to

the comments here Rand had said on here that need take that off the installers plate it needs to come from the people

that spec or sold the project and he's right he's right um it it does however

it's one of those uh items where it's going to be talked about

throughout the project before the project during the project after the project and um as an installer you just

have to be prepared for those conversations um and just understand

that you are walking a fine line of throwing someone under the bus and saying something that you shouldn't say

or or or Mis or leading the client into into believing that they have been

taking advantage of her dup when well at the end of the day yes he's right it's not the installer but we're not only

talking from the installer standpoint from a flooring company standpoint it's our job to say those things as a

flooring installer standpoint our job is to install you know we didn't quite get

there so I think Rand jump up ahead of us in in the the in the in the uh

conversation here but yeah as installers we're there to install if they ask us how good is this going to clean we can

kind of bring that information up and say you know I have seen this clean very

well that's probably the best thing you can say and leave it at that and let the flooring company that you're installing

for uh or the architect or whoever make those uh those uh you know further

comments and you just keep yourself out of it your job's to install it uh I know

that when I was installing as a sub sometimes I get like the question H how good is this product and I'm like it

installs wonderfully ma'am um that's that's you know or I

enjoy installing this product and that's enough for them to leave me alone on it and I don't have to go down the road of

like trying to provide more information than I probably should it just not my position as an installer but we started

off kind of from the company standpoint um I do agree like time of sale Rollin

says you know it needs to be be brought up at the time of sale I think that's kind of what we were talking about

earlier and Daniel's in the house what up so

um Jimmy says the worst question from a customer is this a good product Oh my

goodness that's that's actually a very common question yeah um what do you think about that's yeah that's where I

always say I enjoy installing this product sir or ma'am whatever I enjoy installing this and you're gonna love it

too yeah I don't I don't go no further I just say I you know the product's nice

to install it's going very well let the what about how's it going to perform say

well you probably better call your salesp person on that they they probably know a little bit more about that that

the you know long-term uh longevity of this product but it does install well a

lot of times if a Salesman or a flooring company um you know kind of sets up

their projects right hopefully not a lot of that comes uh comes to the installer but I know it does so it does and um

shifting back over to like commercial where you're not really being watched

and and you don't have a lot of those those questions being asked because I I I tend to get more questions like that

when we were the residential um yeah industry and

commercialist they everybody on the project already knows what you're installing they don't ask you those

questions what the they don't is she running for president or what uh it's no

she she's got a game tonight so they had their last home game and I brought this with me so we can

uh I'm sure I'm sure she's gonna really really love that and appreciate that

um stuff right there um what I was going with the the commercial portion of it

you don't get asked a lot of those questions right the only things you get asked is why does this why does this look like

that why is this side not done how long until you get done here when do you need this area when can I have that room when

you're done um and that's where educating and being consistent on floor

floor protection um hey make sure that their overhead is done before I come in

because I'm working with the lvt they start putting ladders and Bakers on there we're gonna be you know moving

tile even though it's glued down if it's not over PS adhesive you know there's

and and I think that there's some prep that goes along with the commercial along those lines as well well even I

did a that's part of you that's where and stuff I did a post bid last week and

that's what we were going over about you know they had such a slim timeline and it's

like no like this is going to take longer plus once I install this sheet Vino you guys got to be off of it for

three days and it's he's like these are things that no one has ever told me

before yeah and that's a that's a hard truth right your customer will

appreciate that I mean they may not like it uh most of the time on Commercial

jobs you got these tight time frames but they appreciate the information at the very least you're protecting yourself

right 100% well and and you're you're prepping them for the down time as well

right you're now there's a lot of more lot more moving Parts on the commercial project too because if they got to get

in and set some fixtures they got to get in put casew workk on top of that flooring now they had it scheduled so

tight where they were in the same day or the very next day and now they're they're losing three days um depend now

let let me throw let me throw this at you so if it's a floating lvt in that area and they they plan on putting their

casework in afterwards right that's where the education comes in because there's plenty of of contractors that

don't they either don't know it or they don't think about it like hey that's got to be put in first man and then I've got

to leave my Gap around that product you can't go setting your mill work right on top of my floating floor

what that's all part of this education that we're talking about and hey by by the way uh I want to give a shout out to

Jesus he's going up he just got back from the summit and he's going up to uh

artx facility to get some uh some more training get a certification up there so

yes siros to uh to Jesus for staying in the game and keeping trained but uh that do big things right

there that dude's hitting it hard yeah great job brother um but yeah

that's part of the education too like telling them when when those things can and cannot happen

um what what do you'd guys think of doing a after um we kind of started

doing this and and had some success with it and I think we're going to kind of double down on it which is on Commercial

jobs anyway having a uh session with their cleaning company to show them how

to properly clean it like it's a three-hour deal that will come to your facility we'll work with your janitorial

staff to show them how to properly take care of this floor it's more important on like I found on biospec some of these

she vinyls biospec is one of them that man can they destroy that sheet vinyl if it's not handled right um same with like

your your textured sheet vinyls um as well as your lvts and stuff but

there's certain processes with some of the sheet vels where it's it's spray buff and you're not supposed to wax it

and they thought they were gonna wax it and all this stuff that kind of goes into that oh my goodness so uh we we've

done a few of those sessions I was curious what you guys well I'm hoping that it does happen

that way actually I mean you're telling the truth but it's usually it's not happened when we've done a session with

them because they just never we give them a car in maintenance that owner gives it to the maintenance director

maintenance director gives it to the janitorial staff and janitorial staff gives it to file 13 that seems to be

what happens the missing file yeah um no honestly that's a good idea I mean I'm

gonna be honest like um we've probably talked about stuff like that in a meeting saying that they need to educate

their staff but I don't I've never once sat down and said we need to take initiative to make sure that their staff

or the right people in their staff are getting educated so that's a yeah right down to the source to training the the

people that are going to put the their hands on it it's it's hard to get set up and Dave Gard asked are youi providing a

supply list like a cleaning supply list for them typically that's in the care and maintenance package for our projects

uh the proper whether it's a microfiber or or the proper cleaning uh chemicals

they'll tell you you know Johnson pH neutral or whoever's uh product if it's

Armstrong they're going to tell you an Armstrong product and simple green but they also they they'll also give you some you

know kind of generic ones uh that you can get from uh janitorial supply house

uh as options so for the most part we do cover that we try to highlight the most important parts which to us is when to

clean it what to use to clean it and the equipment needed to clean it so um I

think that's a great question uh Dave and uh for sure one of the falls right into

educating your client at the end of the day we do if we do a great job and the floor looks great I would I just hate to

the to think of the times that it's happened and it

has where a customer ruined the the floor because they didn't properly maintain it um so trying to find ways to

educate around that it can be difficult but um that's kind of what we've been flirting with we've done a few of them

and uh thinking about doing more of them but man it costs a lot of money honestly and costs a lot of time uh to put that

together so but at the end of the day hoping that the client has a longterm

floor not a bad idea get it set up for them to to have

one of the cleaning company Distributors to go out and do it that's not a bad

idea I guess you could always ask the uh the the the janitor the whoever's

cleaning the floors where they buy their chemicals and then make sure that send it to them and get something

set up well I the flooring distributors are like if it's a specialty product I just

hey this person is looking for this information can you provide it to them and uh I wanted them to provide it to me

and they said nope we'll take care of everything so that's kind of been my go-to since then I've always had had good luck

providing it I just don't have good luck with the with the genitori companies

like following that like actually doing it the way that the manufacturer says to

clean it so right anyway as we're on education and

speaking of Education uh we just got back from the summit I think a lot of

you guys uh that are on the stream right now some of you guys are there uh some

of you guys maybe tuned in to some of the live streams that was a good show I

love all the organizations that uh you know put

together these opportunities for for installers to get together and and chat

and find new ways to do business and H open the lines of communication up

between the installer and the manufacture was the real purpose of the summit um so yeah stay educated my

friends these are important things that you can teach your customer um you know I'm going to tap back into you guys you

guys are wealth and knowledge tell me some other stuff that we should do uh maybe from the installer side um you

know where do you f where do you find that we got to be smart and when I'm

saying educate the client this is maybe even educating the flooring company I've had this happened to me so I got an

example but that's what it is it's educating the salesman as an installer and letting

them know what is I mean since we're the ones that are on on the ground the all

the time it's letting them know hey this material can't go here this material

should be going here instead stuff like that because some of these salesmen um don't have the same training that we

do right and which that's an issue too they really should but they don't and it

it's educating the salesman when something goes wrong instead of just complaining about it you're actually in

there letting them know so it doesn't happen again well this thing happened this

happened to me not um not too long ago

on an epoxy floor is was coming right out of a warehouse into a break room and

my installer said hey man you need to have a um a uh satin finish and aluminum

oxide on your top coat that'll keep the dirty foot traffic from showing up I was

like all right well let's do it I mean what and it's true the floor looks clean

all the damn time there's not those dirty footprints coming out of the manufacturer plant those you know dark

gray Footprints it just it's not visible the aluminum oxide that's in the top

coat along with it being a satin finish and not a high gloss finish the floor looks amazing and the customer loves it

more to come so I would say sales people a good cheat code yeah dude even I've

been doing this my whole life I still learn so I would implore the salese out there the people out selling floors and

specking the floor for your customer listen to your installer a lot of times they'll they'll give you little tricks

little thoughts that you haven't maybe ain't been on the floor in the last 15 years and and there's some things they

know that you may not so Dave Gordon says go to CFI convention for continuing educ Hill

yeah and at the CFI convention um I think it was not not this year the year

last year and I think this year as well is they actually had an event specifically Geared for sales staff to

come in and understand and get their hands on some material and kind of go through the some of the process so they

kind of understand uh what the installer has to deal with it's it's not going to be a dayto DAT but it gave them more

information um and it maybe a little bit more Hands-On knowledge of of what they deal with um

and I'm sure that through conversation they talked about some of the pitfalls as an installer and the the disconnect

in communication between the sales staff and the installation um and I think that that's

really what it is and you know what I'm gonna go back and let you guys know communication right communication is key

like if if you are on the Forefront of a design build for a commercial project and you have as a salesperson you have

installers readily available who are always willing to discuss projects that

you have in mind for them give them a call show them what you're thinking if

if you're designing it right show them what you got if somebody else is specking it that way they can say hey

I'm sorry but you know putting a 4 inch strip of LBT around this recess mat in

this entry probably isn't G to work in the winter in Michigan you're going to end up with it failing you know I mean

we try to tell people people we we try to but well it's not always going to work but it is our it is our I feel like

it's our duty to explain these things but you can't go tell the the building owner that if

you're the installer you go tell yourself and like man hey this is going to be a problem dude don't be calling me

back in six months when that lvt comes loose in that vestibule I'm telling you now I'm going to install it perfectly

but it ain't going to last just know yep and and uh not saying I Told You So

after something happens um if you did try to direct someone is also very huge

uh just just being part of the solution um after something does go south um is

worth its waiting gold as well and and people respond to that a lot better than I Told You So told you like oh what last

time I call you Mr I told you so yeah the uh

the funny thing about that is nobody wins I mean nobody wins in that one

right I told you so just no one wins it feels good I guess if you're the guy saying I told you so

but um so a you comments uh here it opens their eyes and shows that they

have room for improving in their sales more efficient uh and less issues for

sure Elena is correct 100% that's uh that is a great way to approach it and

that is a that is a great way to sell your labor if that's what you're

providing um have that approach hey I would like to discuss future projects and this is why and then you guys get

better as a team salesperson in installation get better as a team as as your relationship

progresses yeah there's no harm in uh it's funny I I don't know if we have a

topic that communication doesn't come up on but you know it's it's always there

uh I mean I guess it's pretty much the foundation of any uh relationship or

solving any problem uh so it makes sense that it's there but uh it's funny how it

always comes up yeah I think that communicating on both sides the like you

said earlier though uh Jose when you're an installer you got you do have to be careful that you know don't try to

be captain save the project from Captain

Save A flow yeah I gotta be careful what I say right um but you you know there

there's there's truth to that you you can get your your store in trouble or your salese in trouble or throw the

architect under the bus which there's no architect on the planet that does not

that's going to appreciate that I can tell you it'll cause you nothing but harm so the best thing you can do is

communicate with your next line of communication which is the store if you're if or whoever sold the product if

you are in that um in that position and and somebody said in the comments you

know uh I love installing this stuff I have it in my house I don't know if that

applies on every job or how many rooms you got but uh if you do have it in your

house that's a great comeback for sure it it is and you know what I've actually I've actually honestly used

that line and were was truthful about it

yeah it's if I wouldn't install it in my mom's house I I um I probably wouldn't

want to work with it but you don't always get to pick and choose what you're installing um but you do have

control over how well you install that and and you have control over following

the specs and making sure that projects are ready ra regardless of residential

or commercial yeah and you have control over telling the the customer why you need to level that Flor floor or skim

the floor or patch the floor level this you know this uh three 3/4 inch you know

variant from the you know laundry room floor to the kitchen or whatever scenario it is I

mean the that's where your education comes in um but I there's always

relationships here and so just be cognizant of that I think I mean I know

that I wouldn't want to be thrown under the bus because I I sold something to a customer

that I think is best but the installer doesn't because there's differences of opinion too so make sure it's not your

opinion coming out you know lean on the documents and make sure that you're you're you are educated before you talk

the worst thing that H could happen is you're trying to educate somebody but you're not so make sure you're educated

on the products make sure you know your job and a lot of the installers out there do but they're there's a fair

amount that do not we all know this they always start I've been doing it this way

for 20 years yeah if they say that that is a huge huge red flag for me man every

don't tell my wife you're getting this or I will be spending more money that's Dave Garden's

line um you know um we just mentioned AR you did mention Architects a few moments

ago and I do want to this is part of the educ in the client processes the

majority of Architects do spe in their master master specs about following ASM

standards and what Daniel had just mentioned about going on the PO or the post bid um and some some generals just

don't know the what the ASM standards are and if the architect is specifying

that everything must adhere to those standards but then you're being asked not to adhere to them that is an

opportunity to educate whomever is telling you not to adhere to them about those standards that are in the master

contract yeah um that's that's that's a an education piece

that sometimes it's very hard but it has to be done yeah I mean it can it can end

up being a little bit uh contentious but dude at the end of the day you're the

installer and you're you know who's going to get called if something's going bad with that floor like you're going to

be one of the first calls if not the first call so protect yourself by knowing what you're talking about

understanding those uh standards I can't tell you like these education sessions that that we get to go through when

we're at different conferences those things I took a ton of notes at Summit when I'm at CFI I take it at their

convention I'm sitting in those seminars I'm taking tons of notes I I'm trying to learn so that I'm educated when I'm

helping out my project managers as a president of my flooring company and trying to help them understand certain

things and the same same goes for our clients when when they need some backup

when my PMS you know get into a situation and they've explained

something um the more educated they are the better off they are the more um

equipped they are to uh make sure to guide that client down a successful path

I come in as a backup when I need to I can't do that if I'm not educated so

even when I'm bidding work uh just to take this one step further when I'm bidding work one of the things I try to

pound into my estimator's heads read the product information

understand how it's supposed to be installed man it's hard for you to like bid a job without understanding these

things um when I do bid approvals for our guys I'm constantly getting into the

product data of the products if I don't know the job or if I don't know the product I'm going to learn about it

before I put a bit out that's for you commercial

guys and you know what it's funny you say that and even if it's a product or material that you're you're very

familiar with it never hurts to resim some of that information because something may change and you have to be

ready for that there is a they don't care if you didn't read it or not like

that I've been doing it this this way for 20 years sorry guys that doesn't apply anymore it could be two months

from the last time you did it much crap yeah try try uh send sending mail the

way you did 20 years ago and see how quick and efficient you are you know what I'm saying like things change man

we got technology that makes your floor go down faster makes your product look

better makes your labor more efficient I mean there's technology out there that

is a a big benefit all this if you if you're doing it the same way now that

you've been doing it 20 years ago you are are not giving yourself a compliment

dude I'm sorry that's not a compliment to yourself if you've been doing this information streamlined yeah if you've

been doing this the same way for 20 years you're not learning you're not giving your client the best and so uh

for those of you out there that might say that uh please stop saying it you're not doing yourself any

favors because because you should be learning you should be doing it the the most modern the most effective way not

the way it was done 20 years ago hey Daniel I want to point out like the obvious uh you know two podcasts ago

Dan Jose couldn't say nothing and he was super quiet you and I talk the whole

time and now Mr Jose you come on late and you have said four words the

audience wants to know what your best I'm your thoughts on these subjects

I'm in the country right so my signal wasn't the best but I'm on the highway now so it may be a little bit better I

was kind of going in and out and I didn't want to start talking and then start getting all chopped up get frozen

but I mean just look at the tool it was rather peaceful without the sound of your voice I know

right we're talking about you know doing the things the same way for 20 years but just look at the tooling and how

advanced it's been just over the last few years let alone 20 years I mean Robert's QP was uh over at the summit

and they were talking about all these tools that they're getting ready to release and it's like man

EAS making your life easier and if you're still trying to use the same thing that you were 20 years ago maybe

it's time for an upgrade yeah time to stay educated baby

get educated get the right tools get the most efficient tools and learn the most efficient new processes and procedures I

learned some stuff this last weekend that I was like dang man that's freaking cool I'm a old carpet guy some of that

stuff I I I won't bring it all up because you should have watched the live stream we gave you an

opportunity but but there was some cool stuff on there so uh Rollins cutting out

early everything yeah there there's plenty of

stuff that we didn't live stream because you know that's that's our way to to kind of entice you to get to these

things to to go there and learn because yeah some of the stuff that we did like

stream was very valuable but there's a bunch of stuff that we didn't that was super valuable too and it's man just the

the guys talking about concrete and the signs behind it it's crazy that was amazing that was amazing I've been

dealing withr my whole life dude and now I took a ton of notes on that and I got to say like you're 100% correct and a

lot of the you know speakers they don't want their stuff live stream so you got to go to Convention CFI convention go to

these things go to the it go to all of them that you can get your hands on they're all valuable I I remembered I

think it may have been Jose he was like man I didn't learn this that in this other class and we won't name anything

but at the end of the day I was like that's why you got to go to multiple different courses with different

teachers and different instructors is because that's where you learn different techniques from different instructors

not one instructor is going to be able to show you everything you know so

right what's up everybody views everybody views uh views life through a

different lens right and it's and that's the same thing with uh when it comes to the craftsmanship of what we do and

communication skills and approaches to clients to projects uh some people will

never set foot on a commercial project some people uh won't touch a residential project right um you know you have to

you got to be versatile you got to you got to be willing to look through somebody else's lens for even if it's

just a short period of time to kind of see what's out there for you to absorb for you to use and for you to teach and

and and that's the joy of going to these events is you're always having a little Peak through somebody else's lens and

this amazing the amount of information that everyone has they're willing to share yeah and it just makes you better

as an installer A salesperson an individual um makes it a lot easier to

communic with the end users with the clients uh with everyone yeah it just makes you better and at that I'm going

to say stay educated my friends uh and then educate your client I mean that's

what this whole episode was about uh but you first have to be educated yourself

you can self-educate a lot but um you know we push the events a ton but at the end of the day at the very least read

your product data get to know the product get your hands on it learn it you know go to your local when there's

training courses uh locally go go to those um you know get get trained again

I'll say the guy that tells me I've been doing it this way for 20 years to me is just a guy that does not want to learn

doesn't want to stay educated doesn't want to stay up to date with the newest processes and procedures of of our

industry and they change every year I go and learn something new so with that guys we're going to break

up for this week so you guys you guys have a great

rest of your day thanks for everybody for the comments if you like what we you know bring to the table here on the

Huddle please give us a like subscribe download our stuff comment uh you know

tell us what you do and don't like and definitely give it a share

uh Alana says knowledge is power I got to leave that one out there that's always good so um with that guys we'll

see you guys next week and I will be at the fuse conference flying in just

getting back uh just in time for the Huddle next week so we'll see you next week and uh until then stay

successful hey I like it thanks everyone all right guys guys thanks we'll see

[Music] you