You’ve no doubt become accustomed to unusual client requests. Granted, most of your jobs go pretty smoothly and your clients are fairly reasonable. But as much as you tell yourself “the customer is always right,” sometimes clients do go too far with their wishes. Here’s a sampling of demands, conditions, and terms that some of your fellow remodelers have had to deal with.
The remodelers who offered us their client-request anecdotes agreed that this is just the “tip of the iceberg.” But hey, at least a few crazy client requests now and then will allow you and your team to test your customer service acumen ... and maybe even get repeat business and a few referrals to boot.
Take a client’s unruly daughter to the airport
This wasn’t approved by the girl’s father (the client) but the daughter assured the crew member that “[Dad] said it was OK.” The remodeler never knew about the airport run until he reviewed the employee’s timesheets.
Move bagged grass clippings from the yard to the curb.
Pay for the remodeling work 30 days after job completion
This was to make sure the roof didn’t leak. If it was leak-free, the client reasoned, then and only then would he finally pay for the work done on his home.
The remodeler said “no thanks.”
Unload groceries and bring them into the kitchen
Take out the garbage
Install a slide from the second floor — for the dog
The reason: so the homeowners wouldn’t have to trudge downstairs to let the dog out into the backyard at night. Instead, they would just place Rover on the slide and let gravity do the rest. Curiously, the client didn’t mind going downstairs to let the pooch back inside.
— Mark A. Newman, senior editor, REMODELING. More REMODELING articles about how to deal with prickly clients:
Dealing With Difficult Clients
