Listening to The Customer!

Some people are better listeners than others and when you're not a good listener, you have to work hard at listening (that's me). When your goal as a home professional is to build a long-term relationship with your customers, it's critical that you get to know them and their preferences.

When you listen to your clients and deliver what they want, you earn their trust and the opportunity to keep working for them year after year. This story illustrates a long-term customer relationship. It also demonstrates the win-win that comes from a long-term relationship which grows into a partnership where my customer was open to suggestions as we walked through his new condo.

Building the Customer's Punch List

When a long term customer was negotiating to buy a condo, he called to discuss his remodeling goals and confirm if my handyman business could handle the work he envisioned. After several delays in the closing, we met one Saturday morning to walk through the condo and build a list of prioritized projects … what is often called a punch list in the trades. There were some real challenges in picking the best solution for the condo, so let's start by looking at the big picture.

• While the condo is in an oceanfront community, the owner wanted to upgrade the property so it's eclectic, not beachy.
• The homeowner wasn't certain how he would use the condo, so he wanted our upgrades to support both a professional rental and resale when the market comes back.

The biggest challenge was reminding the customer that we could/should not buy the same quality fixtures in a $300,000 condo … as we would put in a $800,000 single family home.

Remodeling a 20 Year Old Condo

Let's walk through the condo and see what's on our punch list. We covered a lot of projects so I jotted down everything and split the list into those things we would do immediately, and future projects when the budget could afford added cost. Here's the list of immediate projects along with suggestions for keeping costs down. A landscaper put in a lawn and border gardens and a kitchen remodel, interior and exterior painting were deferred to a later date.

	Customer Concerns & Requested Punchlist Items	Recommendations and/or Solutions
	This was the second floor bathroom and our customer knew what he wanted – wainscoting, new vanity and updated hardware but we were to keep the original fixtures.	Recommendation: We did exactly as the customer wanted and the bathroom came out great, although the updated bronze hardware was too expensive for the condo. Solution: New tile floor, vanity, sink, bronze hardware and wainscoting. Our decorator also picked up a shower curtain, towel bars and towels to give the room a finished look.
	The customer wanted to totally revamp this bathroom using dark chocolate fixtures, tile and paint.	Recommendation: We recommended a tile chair rail as tile walls are very costly. When we learned the shower didn't conform to current building codes, we recommended removing a wall and replacing it with a glass shower enclosure. Solution: The customer accepted our recommendations and loved the bsthroom.
	Customer wanted to refinish the hardwood floors on the first floor because there were marks under the dining room light/ceiling fan.	Recommendation: Wash the floors and inspect them to see how extensive the damage was, and provide a dining room area rug because this area will only get damaged again with moving chairs and foot traffic in and out of the back yard. Solution: We didn't refinish the first floor hardwood floors.
	Customer wanted to add additional light fixtures as the condo had too few windows, and therefore too little light compared to his home.	Recommendation: Given the owner didn't plan to live here, I suggested we search for a lower cost solution. Solution: We replaced the high hats with white walled fixtures that reflected more light into the rooms. We also added extenders to the fixtures to drop the bulbs down, which gives off more light.
	Our client wanted to remove all carpeting to avoid issues with pets.	Recommendation: We researched traditional hardwood, engineered wood and a quality laminate and recommended the engineered wood for it's lower cost and higher durability if the condo was rented. Solution: Customer went with our recommendation for engineered wood (except for stairs which were hardwood stained to match).
		Recommendation: Suggested a window seat in the master bedroom dormer nook, for added storage and cozy seating. Solution: Customer did not opt to do this.
Miscellaneous items	Built shelving in the basement, replaced dining room light/fan, repaired fencing in the backyard, painted front stairs, cleaned and painted basement windows in front of the house and made minor repairs to kitchen cabinets.