Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Customers Helping

I remember being in an auto repair garage once. On the wall they had a sign, stating their hourly rates. The sign had written on it:

  • $55/hour

  • $65/hour if you watch

  • $75/hour if you help


Installing fences on residential properties must be ripe for customer involvement. “How much if I dig the holes?” “What will it cost if I mix the concrete?” “What if I clear the brush?” etc.

There are endless opportunities for customers to either help, or get in the way.

So…

The question is. Do you have a policy for customer participation? What is it? Do you have any stories of customers trying to help, good or bad?

Just click on the comment tag below, let us know.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

no customer participation! my son did some side work for a customer one time. the customer got so into it, he started setting work schedules and telling my son how to best do certain things...if he knew so much...why didn't he do it himself. NEVER....NEVER....NEVER LET THE CUSTOMER HELP!!!! TRUST ME!!

Anonymous said...

We usually never allow customer help. Our worst experience was we needed an extra wheelbarrow to haul away dirt, and the customer said we could use his. After the job, the customer said that broke his wheelbarrow(which we needed) and made our company replace it. Now we no longer allow employees to use customer's tools, even if the customer insists.

Anonymous said...

Not a good idea to let the customer help. Exception is if they want to do the clearing or removal them self, it will need to be done before we show up.