How To Restore a Client’s Confidence After You Fall Through Their Ceiling

Like many home­own­ers, I’m always on the look­out for ways to make my home more effi­cient. Know­ing it was a poten­tial weak point, I decid­ed it was time to have some insu­la­tion work done in my attic, and being more of a painter than an insu­la­tor, I start­ed research­ing some local pros. 

After col­lect­ing two bids, I went with the com­pa­ny that edu­cat­ed me the most. Tough choice, but it helped that the own­er came out to do the esti­mate him­self. He was an old­er gen­tle­man, clear­ly an expert, and felt old-school (in a good way). The busi­ness is a fran­chise, but my guess is that he joined as part of an exit strategy… 

And then things start­ed to go wrong…

First, I had to request a more detailed pro­pos­al. Things were dis­cussed ver­bal­ly that nev­er made their way into the offi­cial doc­u­men­ta­tion, and it was so vague that I was afraid items would be missed. 

I also had to fol­low up sev­er­al times to even get the pro­pos­al, let alone sched­ule the job. 

The real high point? Or low point, actu­al­ly… One of the employ­ees fell through my ceil­ing into the mas­ter bed­room, and it took a full week to get the repairs done. A total mess. 

I also dis­cov­ered that one of the work­ers had bumped the intake HVAC duct con­nect­ed to the attic unit while spray­ing insu­la­tion. Hon­est mis­take, but it caused a spike in my elec­tric­i­ty bill, and I end­ed up being the one to find and fix it myself. 

Just like that, I lost confidence…

As I repaired that duct, I began to won­der what else was missed. What didn’t I see, and what did they not notice? Did they do every­thing right? Is the insu­la­tion at the prop­er R‑rating now? Did they real­ly air seal around all the cracks and openings? 

With the job wrap­ping up, I asked the GM to do the final walk­through with me him­self. I hate being ​“that guy” who doesn’t trust the field employ­ee, but I’ve lost con­fi­dence, all while being stuck in the posi­tion of trust­ing them to be the expert.

So, what’s the takeaway?

First, when you make a mis­take, own it. Don’t point fin­gers, but go above and beyond to make things right. The way you com­mu­ni­cate, lis­ten, and act can go a long way toward restor­ing that price­less trust fac­tor with your client.

Sec­ond, go above and beyond. Look for ways to add val­ue. Did you tight­en a fix­ture that you noticed was loose? Remove hard­ware rather than just paint around it? Throw in a lit­tle some­thing extra that need­ed to be done? Do it, and show the home­own­er. Just like a mis­take can make your cus­tomer won­der what else you missed, a val­ue-add can ramp up their con­fi­dence and appreciation.

And last­ly, take your final walk­through seri­ous­ly. Point out the val­ue-adds I men­tioned above, and take the time to edu­cate and inform. Why did you fin­ish the job a cer­tain way, or choose the prod­ucts you used? How do you KNOW it was done right and will last? 

Maybe this is already sec­ond nature for you. If so, awe­some! If not, or if there’s room for improve­ment, dis­cuss it with your team and see what points can be strength­ened.

There’s no sub­sti­tute for get­ting it right the first time, but you can cer­tain­ly win some­one back over. Maybe even turn them into a cus­tomer for life.