Ah, the joys of home ownership. To remind all, I have been living in, and fixing up, a $6000 house for the past year. As such, I get to look for, and deal with, contractors.
As an electrician, and later as a very small, short-lived contractor, I saw work from one viewpoint. Now, as the customer, I get to see the other side of the coin.
My experiences with getting the windows replaced should shed some light on the entire topic, and provide us with plenty of tangents for discussion.
First off is the matter of price- and what the contractor adds to the job. I've seen many folks attempt to replace windows themselves. Let's see: $80 at Lowes, $350 from a window contractor ... how hard can it be? Well, I've seen many such DIY efforts become horror stories. Maybe the simple fact that it took a two-man professional crew half a day to replace four windows suggests that there's more to this job than meets the eye.
Point to ponder: How do YOU get across to the customer the efforts you will put into the job? How do you justify a price four times the raw material cost?
I have worked with two different window companies. Let's look at some of the differences in their approaches:
One firm seemed totally amazed that an actual customer walked in the door. The owner even seemed confused. They measured, they did not co-ordinate scheduling with me, and the paperwork was sloppy. It almost seemed as if they forgot to ask for the second/final payment.
The second firm is a franchise, and there's no doubt this guy is going by the book. Positive-theme to the advertising ("Simply the best ... for less," and "We don't just stand by our product, we stand on it!"). Prompt call-back. Timely follow-up call.
My point her is: Do you seem organized, positive, and enthusiastic to your customers? Or, does the customer wonder if they interrupted Grumpy's nap when they called?
The first contractor's response was "OK, we'll get you windows." As an afterthought, he called back to verify the color choice (good thing, as he had guessed wrong). At no point was I advised as to what sort of windows were being provided, or what choices I might have.
The second guy came out, measured, then produced a sample window. He showed off the various features. As an aside, he produced a brochure that made clear the other offerings he had. (BTW, the demo window was upscale, but not the top of his line).
The point here is: Do you inform your customer of the different possible solutions, and bring them into the decision making process?
Now ... a word about the franchise operation ... thanks to the internet, I had no problem finding all manner of negative posts about the chain. Reading the posts, it was clear that the folks either were completely clueless (and would never be happy), or were preyed upon by imposters. It's worth remembering that everyone fears the first transaction.
Now, let the discussion begin ....
