Being open, honest and direct is a good way of doing business. That may sound obvious but sometimes, being clear about even the slightest things can make a big difference. Like when a client of ours had issues in their floors before purchasing new ones, we broke the news to them.
In this blog post, I?ll tell you a story of particular floor repairs that needed to be done for a client and I?ll include what another flooring store told them and what we saw as the truth.
Intro to Pre-Flooring Floor Repairs
Table of Contents [show]One issue we have in our industry is floor repair that is required to bring a home to required industry standard. This floor repair is required for proper installation of many popular flooring choices and for much of what you?ll find at our store or at a big retailer.
For this floor repair to be completed properly, it can become costly depending on what is required. Although we advise all our clients when in the store, further at the time of measure and before signing the contract that it is required in the vast majority of homes, it can be a shock.
Clients will ask us how much and there is no way to know until the bare floor is exposed and can be properly assessed.
The Flooring Situation
We recently secured a job in the Port Coquitlam area of Metro Vancouver where we had supplied our quote along with another company. I was very clear with the client from the moment we had our initial discussions in the store that many homes require some kind of repair and that they need to consider this when making their decision.What Happened On-Site?
When I arrived on site to inspect the home and make my calculations, I advised the client that there was an issue with their floor, in this particular case it was very noticeable.
The issue I noticed was that their floors had a severe slope that ran across the room, and dropped significantly. The drop ended up being 2 1/2 to 3 inches over 5 feet. This is significant and how it was overlooked by the other company is beyond me. The industry standards vary but are generally around 3/16 of an inch over 10 feet.
The client asked me how much to repair and I said there is no way to tell. I told him the issue may be beyond our scope of work and that this had to do with the structure of the home.
He then responded to me that the other company (that is a reputable company as far as I know) had included the floor repairs in their quote. They had estimated three bags of leveler would be required to repair the floor. In our view, this was not possible and I simply could not commit to matching a solution like that.
The Result
In the end, the client appreciated our honesty. He further advised me that Diverse Flooring had a higher overall cost to the job. This
was with supplying the exact same material, but that he was appreciative of me being up front and honest.In the end, on this particular job, we had to bring in a general contractor to do extensive repairs. The cost of repairs was approximately $1500.00. In their quote, the other company included $300-$400 for these repairs. In my own opinion, there is no way they could have assessed the client?s floors and come up with that number.
Imagine what it would?ve been like to have paid the $300-$400 for these repairs and still not have the slope 100% leveled and flattened off? But in the end, we at Diverse Flooring were up front and honest about what needed to be done and we got the job done right. It?s now something they won?t have to worry about.
