mild rant, contractors and repair folks

4x4van wrote:


Here's my take: I worked out of my house doing civil engineering for a number of years. Some good years, some lean years. But I never ignored a potential customer; I always gave them the courtesy of taking their call/listening to them. If they called, I answered, even if I had to tell them I was currently swamped and couldn't do their job, but "keep me in mind for any future work". The result was that when the economy turned sour, I still had customers.

It's not apples to apples, even with other sectors of the same industry. There was a time when I also worked out of my house doing a similar job. During that time, I recevied few calls and requests through the day. It was easy to give every caller all the attention I could. Fast forward to a different time when the nature of business changes and the calls coming in are more than an office of secretaries could reasonably manage. You have to give your attention to current customers needs and worry about potential customers some other time.

Turning down work or just simple ignoring potential customers is something that makes me cringe. But I have to do it in order to effectively run my business. I work in a very particular market, but because my company name has the word "construction" in it, I get calls from people looking for work in all markets. Come build a deck, need pricing on a roof, looking for someone to remodel a gas station or pave a parking lot. Sorry folks, leave a message and maybe I'll call you back.