Articles written by guest contributors

Steve Jones
Steve Jones
Manage client expectations & your own limitations
By Steve Jones, President, Pave Tech

A call from a homeowner brought to focus the problems contractors face with customer service. When I was a paver contractor I actually enjoyed the difficult customers. They were usually difficult because their past experiences with contractors had been less than expected. So, it was never too difficult to exceed their expectations.

But, my biggest headaches came from homeowners who had limited experience with contractors. There was one that saw me using a permanent marker on chipped and cracked pavers during installation. When I came back the next morning the lady of the house had marked over 300 additional pavers she thought needed replacement! This was only the beginning of my frustrations with that customer.

Let me be clear
I think the best way to manage expectations is to be very clear in your documentation to set the customer’s expectations. Failure to do so can lead to a catastrophic failure in your customer relations. In your documents you should list the problem areas like efflorescence, texture, chippage, lippage, color variation, color fastness and all of the other questions that get asked.

Address failures from actions outside the scope of your work such as sprinkler line failure and foundation settling. I once dealt with a settling problem in front of the main garage of an expensive home built on a swamp. A full height garage existed beneath the main garage.

The asphalt continued to sink. That is why they came to me for pavers and the solution. I cockily told them that this was no problem to remedy. I excavated to 4’ in front of the garage and used 4 sandwich layers of woven geo-textile and base and figured Ta Da! Problem solved.

3 months after completion I got a phone call from the owners. They said the driveway was sagging in front of the garage. I was incredulous. I drove out and sure enough, it was sagging at the wheel tracks. I tapped the pavers and it sounded hollow. When I removed the pavers, the base material had disappeared.

The hole was the size of a basketball and I could not see bottom. Had I let go of my shovel, it would have perished into the abyss. Fixing the problem would be at my expense because my contract didn’t specify that outside conditions that caused failure of my pavement were not my financial responsibility.

Not wanting to keep paying to come back to fix this problem over and over, I ended up excavating about 4’ out from the garage about 12” down. I drilled and doweled the concrete garage slab and brought in the ready mix trucks. I think we poured about 3 yards into the abyss and finally with the 4th yard we were able to finish it to a level of where our base had been.

For years as a young and headstrong contractor, I never admitted to any job failures. It was later, as I listened to other contractors spout over-confidence in their work that I questioned how much I was like that. And, I started to go back to my jobs. It was then, that I started to recognize some failures, mostly small, but still evident. I immediately started to address those failures. Most were related to base and sub-grade compaction.

What is the morale of this story?
  • Take care in developing a thorough contract that includes remedies (arbitration?) for dealing with contract disputes.
  • Manage customer expectations up front.
  • Be honest with yourself on your true level of experience, knowledge and of your limitations.
  • A good customer who has received good warranty experience is the best job reference. Don’t short change warranty work because you’re not getting paid for it.
  • A good contractor will never be perfect, but continues to learn and get better.
  • Quality reduces the need for warranty work.

Steve Jones is President of Pave Tech which he started as a residential paver installation company in 1985, a time when few professional hardscape installation products were available. Today Pave Tech fills this void with a commitment to provide contractors with the best tools, equipment and hardscape products available. Call (800) 728-3832 or visit PaveTech.com.

Digital Edition
April/May 2024