BE. Picky Clients…

This week we traveled to back to a job to redo a floor.

I think there is some confusion on why we were back.

A few months ago we installed a floor we thought was done well.

But then the client called…

She had some concerns about a few areas.

The finish was a bit off in a few spots.

There were some hard and straight lines on the floor — that were not consistent with the movement in most of the floor.

We had to re-ask ourselves…’Was this really BEST WORK?”

It wasn’t. I knew we could do better.

I had failed as a leader to sample, show, and teach all the tips and tricks for this specific install and how we can do it the best.

The team made the best calls for what they were taught, but we left it less than the BEST, and it’s my fault.

So we owned it.

We fixed it.

…

Not acceptable work.

Not ‘eh-ok’ work.

But BEST.

So was she too picky?

To focused on the small things?

I hope so.

Because if clients were NOT picky — they wouldn’t hire us.

Many others do what we do — ‘own grinders; put down coatings.’

(‘My brother’s painter/ buddy/ uncle can do it cheap.’)

They hire us because we will do it the BEST.

They believe in Error-Free, On-Time, Every time.

If we don’t deliver — I want to be called out.

She must believe we can do better.

She was calling out the best in us to follow through with that.

Her ‘pickiness’ means I have to do what I told her I would do.

Her expectation draws the best out in me.

If I promise BEST — I need to deliver BEST.

If I fall short — I need to learn.

If there is one thing I will remember about her.

It’s that she was gracious.

We took more of here time.

We created a delay.

And she handled it all with respect to us.

She allowed us to deliver BEST.

That’s a nice client to have.