Expectations !

Are all the pieces of my Remodeling Project fitting together?

 The other day I was talking with our Site Superintendent James and he was becoming concerned that one of our clients did not feel we were progressing on their project as well as they would like.  We had been working very hard for the last two weeks on the project and the items on which James was working were items that take a lot of time, but do not show a lot of progress.  At the time we were working on putting the sheetrock up, this is a process that once it goes up it then has to be finished which is a slow process and not much changes from day to day.  Another example is having the city inspectors to come out and inspect certain phases of the project and nothing happens until they approve our work, out of our control but - more down time!!

James and I talked about it and realized the frustration our client was having was because we did not clearly communicate how the entire process would go from start to finish.  Our client did not realize we could not work until the inspector approved our work, did not understand the process of how sheetrock is installed, etc..

From this experience we learned two lessons; 

Lesson 1 - WE can usually solve a frustration by changing our actions, regardless of who is frustrated.  We must look at ourselves first and see what we can do differently.  By looking at ourselves, James and I could see how we could eliminate our clients' frustration in the future.    

Lesson 2 - We need to do a better job at setting expectations for our clients so they know what to expect throughout the entire project.

The more communication we have whether big or small is so valuable during the process.  Our goal is to make every client comfortable in the entire process knowing that their job is our priority!  

“I wanted to tell you and Erik, that Keith and I really enjoyed having James handle our kitchen project.  He is the utmost professional, handling all of our concerns quickly and thoroughly.  His dedication to quality results and customer satisfaction is exemplary. “  …..Thanks, Joan