Juggling customers, how many can you keep ‘in the air at once’. I design, make and install custom kitchen canbinetry. I’ve got my usual three jobs on the go, one nearly finished, one in full production and one barely started. I’m also talking to a couple more people, but haven’t taken a deposit from them yet so I don’t consider them actual customers.
I’d love to be able to just work on one job at a time, but I feel it’s just too risky. If a customer has some kind of problem, house burns down, death in the family, runs out of money then I would be stuck if I din’t have other jobs on the go at the same time
What do you guys do about this stuff?
John
Replies
John when I saw your title, what popped into my mind was "Lie to at once?"
Joe H
I used to work for a couple of guys who would always have one more job than people and were always shuffling us around.
Paul, the company comedian, would say " You know how the Amish get fifty guys together to build a barn? Well if we had fifty guys, we would be building fifty barns!!!"Mr T
Do not try this at home!
I am an Experienced Professional!
One that I'm working on. It starts, I stay until it's done, with some exceptions. If a sub is going to be there for a couple of days and I can't get anything done, that's the whole reason I take on small stuff. Fillers. One or two in the lineup of finished with the details, downpayment received, contract signed, start date set. The rest are all maybes, and that ranges from 2-20 depending. The "filler" list is a separate entity. It's usually a half dozen long. The deal has always been I'll get there. It might be a month, but something will come up, I'll have an open day all of the sudden, and I'll call. I always call, and most of the time they're willing to wait.
"The child is grown / The dream is gone / And I have become / Comfortably numb " lyrics by Roger Waters
As a customer who has used many contractors over the years, the ones I never used twice were the ones who left me feeling "juggled".
When I finally found a contractor who obviously gave my big job his full attention, he became the guy I call for everything. If he wasn't on my site, he would tell me why- subs will be here for the next few days, gotta catch up in the shop, etc.
I'm now a committed client who sends him everything I have- including referrals. I don't even ask how much. If my work for him is filler-type stuff and its gonna be a while before he can do it, he lets me know and gives me a window when he thinks he'll get to it. No problem, because he's up front with me and I know he'll schedule the "window" big enough to finish the job.
I know its a business and a guy has to stay busy, but there's a difference between juggling and doing careful scheduling while being open with the customer.
I worked part time in a custom cabinet shop many years ago. Your schedule doesn't sound much different than the three man shop I worked in. Wedid kitchens for builders and individuals. As long as the customers knew our schedule, there was never any problems. Bad weather or other subs did not adverly affect shop production, like it can some of the other trades.
Like Mr. T I worked for a vinyl/alum. siding guy that was a real juggler. That still seems to characterize those guys in this area. They will sell as many jobs as they can and run from one to another for weeks getting them started as the customers call and complain about missed start dates. They will take a clients down payment, drop some material on the job and dissappear for weeks.
It is a awfull reputation that those guys have earned for themselves.
Dave
If you're in the Los Angeles area, please let me know who this contractor is.
Thanks --
-- J.S.
Sorry, I'm next to the other ocean.
=====Zippy=====
Design is a different beast. If I didn't juggle, it'd mean I was either charging too much or not having enough clients. It's not unusual for a client to be pushing hard to get done, and then just disappear into the ether for months, and then come back ready to continue. Or another to spend 3 weeks reviewing each proposal, because it was busy at work, or he broke a toe nail or whatever. If I waited till one was done to start the next, I'd quickly go broke. On the other hand, sometimes it can go the other way, like when 4 clients approved concepts within a week of each other, and want their plans NOW. Eek. Haven't found a good way to plan for that.
Granted, it seems a little unfair to knowingly overbook yourself and not complete every job before starting another. But on the other hand, if you expect your business to grow, you need to have work to move to after one job is done. Finishing one and then trying to land another will drive you to an early grave. Especially in a contractor saturated area. I give all of my clients a firm start date with a promise to inform them of any delays as they arise. For instance I started one clients pole barn, and had it framed and ready for trusses in two days. The problem was twofold, First the client had moved up the closing date on the house by a month, and was very "excited" to get the barn done as quickly as possible, and the trusses were backordered for two more weeks. I went as far as I could but had to start another job in the meantime. Standing at a jobsite doing nothing to make the customer happy makes no sense. I need to be productive to make money. Plus I do alot of subcontract fence work for GC's. Hard bid stuff that never is ready when it is supposed to be, but the super will call and demand that we start just so he can write in in his daily log. I do my best to accomodate them because they are loyal to me, and I am contractually bound to them to a point. Currently have about five projects going, but I also have people at them daily, so it goes OK, but I rarely pull guys from one job to go to another for more than one day, to help set trusses, or posts etc.. After that is is back to their job. I will explain that to the customer, and usually get a thank you.
Point is, if the economy was as good as it was five years ago, us small guys wouldn't have anything to worry about. Hell, if you had a pulse, you had work back then, but it is a different story now, you actually have to work at it to make any money. Think about taking your car to the dealer for a repair, it never gets done when they say it will. Although I'd rather not be akin to a car dealership. I have been fortunate to have never left a project with a client who was unhappy with the schedule. They all want it done quicker, but after they see what it takes to do it right, they usually understand.
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Cole
Cole Dean
Dean Contracting
We never give a set start or finish date though we try to keep customers appraised of our latest schedule. We do promise that we will work steadily on the customer's project once we have begun. If you do this, it is not hard to fill in gaps because the customer can see that you are working hard on his job. Of course, if you just have too much work in the immediate future, you need to turn down the work, raise prices, or both.