I have become an approved fitter by topps tiles and I have had nothing but grief with it. Is there an other doud out there with same probs if so let me know.
a friend of mine has just been approved to do topps work,not sure how its going?
they've stoppeed handing out bus' cards now to promote their app' guys!
t0ss3rs!
As Fekin says - build a relationship with someone in the store.
(Get yourself a "champion" to use a sales phrase.)
It's also well worth having an open - straight to the point and friendly chat with the manager and staff about just how much info they are giving to the customer about your side of things - i.e. prices / grout joints / etc.
Early on I found that the staff were quoting all kinds of weird and wonderful prices - ranging from the dirt cheap to the ridiculous! I simply asked that they don't discuss price or fixing techniques AT ALL but leave it all to me.
I assured them that I would "sell" the service and educate the customer as to why they needed certain things and how I would do things. I think the staff were actually pleased to hear this - sometimes they must feel under pressure when customer fire questions they can't really answer.
Just ask them to leave this side to you - it worked for me!
(love that quote about the customer wanting monolithic look marble!)
Also - make sure you tighten up on your quotes to include specification like grout joint widths etc - get a signature before you begin.
One of the biggest issues is the staff quoting ball park fitting figures and also quoting to exactly the coverage on a bag of addy, does my head in when I look at a floor that resembles the Himalayas and I tell the customer that more addy will be needed. Oh no they say the lad in Topps said Blah, Blah. Customers, can't live with em, can't pay the bills without em!
And untrained / not fully trained sales people are lethal.
They get nervous - desperate to secure a sale and then the verbal poop just keeps on spilling out!
That's why it's critical to make sure you get them to stop before they begin.
(I also over-egg my adhesive and grout requirements - customers are thrilled when they can return stuff for a refund - not so happy to cough up extra)