Educating your customers

[SandyFloor]

Going back to the title of this thread I've just educated my customer and won a job of installing 60sq.mtrs porcelain floor tiles. The customer is a farmer who has just taken over the main farmhouse and has had an extension built with ufh installed into the concrete. When I looked at the job last week I could already see some slight cracks in the screed and recommended using a decoupling membrane explaining the reasons for it and the risks if you don't. I knew his builder wanted his tiler to do the job but I had done his parents floor in Karndean a couple of months ago and he wanted to give me a shot although he also explained he was on a tight budget.

I priced it the following evening and included decoupling. I suspect his builder's tiler hasn't even heard of decoupling and his price would be a lot cheaper than mine so I didn't hold out much hope. I should add I added in some Schluter links on my email explaining the benefits of decoupling.

I got a call this morning asking me to go ahead as he'd thought about all the information I gave him and as it was a long term investment he wanted me to do the work. I was right in that the other tiler hasn't heard of decoupling and with my info I won credibility and the job.

My point is pricing to do the job properly doesn't necessarily mean you won't get the work....you just need to know your stuff and be able to back it up.

 

[Richard Edwards]

Spot on Sandy - an achievement for a true professional - well done. Hope it goes ok when installing.