This is a behind-the-scenes look at all the fun stuff that goes on in a week at Archway.
There are always ups and downs in any business, and the remodeling industry is no exception. On a daily basis, our team interacts with all different kinds of people with very specific needs. As we all know, choosing to have your home remodeled is often a huge undertaking and a sizable investment, so customers tend to feel very vulnerable when we are working with them (understandably). Here’s a look at some of the things we encountered last week:
- One of our interior designers covered an appointment, and the woman’s husband answered the door with no pants on. After he decided to put some pants on, they ended up having a great meeting, albeit a little awkward.
- A woman came into our showroom to see what we could do about creating an ADA-compliant bathroom to accommodate her husband’s needs after having a stroke. Luckily, we offer ADA remodeling services and we are definitely able to remodel her bathroom to accommodate her husband and any special needs he may have. Stay tuned to the blog to see more about this project when it starts!
- Our downtown bathroom remodel customers had a marble counter top installed on top of their vanity, but after some inspection, realized it had divets in it, which can sometimes happen with natural stone materials (not all are created equal). So, we took the clients to pick out a new one, which ended up being even more beautiful than the one they originally had. The Mrs. was worried about the “trouble” she was putting us through to go and pick out a new top– our response was “it’s your bathroom and you have to live with it! Let’s make sure you absolutely love it and we do it right the first time.” We are also cutting a new marble top for a side table that she accidentally broke.
- Our other interior designer/interior sales representative went out to a customer who wanted a full bathroom remodel for $7,000. It was easily a $17,000 job minimum. The guy now says he can “do it himself.” We wish him the best!
- Our lead exterior remodeling representative went on an appointment where the homeowner wanted to replace a roof that was 4 stories tall – this was way too high up to perform work on because it cannot be warrantied for safety reasons. The safety and satisfaction of our crew and homeowners it our number one priority here.
- There were a few appointments that ended up being “1 leggers,” which is an industry term for only having one of the homeowners present at the time of the appointment and presentation. When this happens, it is nearly impossible to make a sale because not all decision makers are present. As a rule, we try to only set appointments where we have a commitment from all homeowners/decision makers to be there.
- Several other appointments ended up with prices being presented that were out of the customer’s range. We see this a lot because many homeowners have no idea all of the costs involved with full renovation projects.
- We received a bunch of new samples for bathroom and kitchen tiles from our awesome tile rep at DalTile – shout out Michael T.! (see featured image for a look at some of the new tiles)
Overall, we had some great moments and some not-so-great, but it’s all a part of our business. It’s a messy job, but someone’s got to do it!