The Look Around…

A client called me into their home upon the recommendation of someone else I had worked with. When I arrived at their home I greeted them and then stood in the front hallway and began to ask questions about the homeowner and their home. The bewildered homeowner kept trying to lead me to the furnace room so I could see the system in question and did not understand why I was not following.

She finally turned to me and said, “All the other contractors I have had in here have gone straight to the furnace, looked around, gone out to the air conditioner and looked around and then come back in and given me a price. Are you new to the industry?”

After shaking my head in frustration I tried to explain that I was not at her home to “look around”, I was here at her request to listen and discuss the problem at hand so I could create a list of possible solutions. The guys that “look around” already have a price in mind and a standard solution in mind; they are just taking their time before a price is given.

Asking questions and coming to reasonable solutions to a comfort issue is the only way to get the problem solved. To think that one box should just be replaced with another box and that will improve the comfort is not really a solution at all…but then again; “It’s the furnace and it has always worked this way!”

Shouldn’t we be looking for a better way?