I was originally thinking of contractors and their customers - but the principles apply to inspectors as well.
Do you see them as your allies or your enemies?
Let's face it, there IS that 'enemy' element to our dealings. Our contracts have penalty clauses, there are lien laws, and anyone who's seen a "consumer" show has heard how evil contractors are.
Yet, business is all about trust, and you can't trust your enemy. It's a wonder anything gets done!
Get to the core of any customer / contractor dispute, and they all boil down to 'he couldn't / wouldn't / didn't do what I expected.'
I look back on the 'tense parts' of various jobs, and a lot of the customers' paranoia was fueled by their simply not understanding ALL that was involved in making things happen.
To illustrate this point, I had a customer hire me to install a new outlet. She couldn't understand why I was spending so much time at the panel .... she simply couldn't understand that the wires for the receptacle had to come from SOMEWHERE - or that I needed to work my way through the building until the wires made it to the place where she needed power. I guess she thought 'adding a receptacle' was like hanging a picture.
We have to remind ourselves that the customer has probably never dug a ditch, set a pole, hung pipe, or pulled wires. The customer has no real understanding of the time it takes to bend our pipe around ducts and to pierce walls. Then we MUST explain this to them, in advance, using small words and short sentences- and do it with a smile in our voice.
Maybe then they'll understand why we "cost so much," or why they shouldn't let some handyman play around.
