Editor's Focus: Aug. 1999

I hear the stories all of the time about companies that practice poor business skills and, in turn, treat customers or prospective customers so poorly that the entire industry suffers a blow to its image. And call me naïve, but I never really thought such contractors existed.

Now, I know differently, and what truly concerns me is that the contractor who opened my eyes to this reality did so only after sneaking past a consumer’s natural defenses and securing trust, a con-tract and a deposit.

Naming the offending contractor serves no purpose, but I think it is important to relay how this contractor treated two customers.

These customers solicited proposals from three area contractors for a $4,000 installation job.

The contractor they hired for the job impressed them with its professionalism, friendliness and qualifications. This contractor was in a perfect position to do a quality installation and secure a source of positive referrals.

So the contract was signed, a check for one-third the price of the job was written and a date for the project’s installation was agreed upon. The customers took the day off from work to be available at home in the event a problem or question would arise. And, a problem did arise – the contractor never showed up to do the job on the scheduled day. Or the next day. Or the day after. And, for three days, repeated phone calls by the customers – customers who have already paid $1,300 – were not returned.

Finally, the contractor called his customers and said a big job had come up, which prevented their installation from taking place.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I understand that sometimes unexpected circumstances arise that wreak havoc with schedules. And, certainly, $4,000 jobs do not make or break a business. But the second that a contractor adopts the opinion that customer phone calls don’t need to be returned or the contractor loses sight of the magnitude of any $4,000 expenditure for a homeowner, that contractor has lost sight of what a service industry is all about.

The customers ultimately got their landscape installed, albeit 11 days after the scheduled installation. And they are pleased with the work that was done. But they certainly have no plans to refer this contractor to their friends, and this experience has done nothing to improve their image of the landscape profession.

Instead, I wish these customers would have helped better our industry. I wish they would’ve cancelled their deposit check and fired this contractor. I wish they would have sent the message that customers, whether they’re spending $400, $4,000 or $4 million deserved to be treated with the utmost care.

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